Joanna Beltrán Girón

Finalist!

Education

University of California, Santa Cruz, B.A. 2017
Major: Psychology

UT Austin, M.A., 2019
Master’s: Latin American Studies

The Graduate Center, CUNY, Ph.D., 2023 (estimate)
Doctorate: Critical Social-Personality Psychology

The biggest impact I have had within my family and community is sharing knowledge (as a resource). Specifically, I have been learning about the psychosomatic impacts that historical/state violence has on racialized bodies. But most importantly, I have learned that we are more than our traumas: we are thriving and making our ancestors proud. During my undergraduate years, I became interested in doing research for social justice, and while I was getting my master’s degree, I had the honor to interview racialized immigrants who have been rendered undocumented as part of an epidemiological study on the impacts of detention and deportation. Sharing knowledge about our ability to resist and heal from state violence has been affirming at the personal, inter-relational, and collective levels. I have always had a deep commitment migrant justice others, which is a personal-political commitment.