Safety as a Basic Need: How Institutions Create Safety Insecurity for Latinx Graduate Students

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 7:45 am - Gold 3
  In Roundtable Session: Braiding Care and Cultural Wealth: Latinx Praxis, Mentorship, and Institutional Reckoning in Academia

Abstract

This study explores how institutional structures in graduate education create safety insecurity for Latinx graduate students. Using Latinx Critical Race Theory and Chicana/feminist testimonios, it centers the lived experiences of 16 Latinx doctoral students across disciplines. Findings reveal that low stipends, lack of employment protections, and unsupportive institutional responses to threats compromise students’ physical and psychological safety. These conditions disproportionately harm Latinx students navigating intersecting systems of oppression. This study highlights how basic needs insecurity extends beyond food and housing to include safety, calling on institutions to reform policies and funding practices to make graduate education more equitable.

Author

• Ariana Lucia Garcia, University of Nevada - Las Vegas