Homegirls in Higher Ed: Education, Liberation, and Transformation

• In Event: 21052 - Targeting Schools, Policing Students, and Protecting Insurgent Knowledges

Abstract

This paper examines how higher education offers a critical pathway for criminalized Chicanas to escape incarceration and criminalization. By focusing on the narratives of college-educated formerly incarcerated and system-impacted Mexican American women, this study sheds light on the motivations driving these women to pursue higher education, the barriers they encounter along the way, and the liberating potential that such education affords. Key to this transformation are specialized college programs designed to support system-involved students, such as Project Rebound in the California State University (CSU) system, Underground Scholars in the University of California (UC) system, and Rising Scholars in the California Community College (CCC) system. These organizations provided respondents a rare space of refuge, where their criminalized identities were not only accepted but celebrated, enabling them to reject the shame and stigma associated with their multiple marginalized identities. Within these nurturing environments, Chicanas are provided the tools and community support to harness their criminalized experiences as sources of empowerment, cultivating a critical political consciousness that challenged the carceral state in the process.

Author

• Veronica M. Lerma, University of California-Davis