Alfonzo Mendoza
Doctoral graduate Alfonzo Mendoza's (center) dissertation was titled "The Politics of Visibility: Illegality and Racialized Embodiment in Latinx Speculative Fiction". It was completed under the supervision of Dr. Marivel Danielson (left), Dr. Brendan O'Connor (right, Dr. Bernadette Calafell (not pictured) and Dr. Marlon M. Bailey (not pictured). After successfully defending his dissertation and graduating in Spring 2026 Dr. Alfonzo Mendoza will be starting a new position in the fall at the College of the Sequoias, in Visalia, California, as an Ethnic Studies Professor.
Salvador Macias
Salvador graduated in 2013 with concurrent degrees in Political Science and TCLS (U.S. and Mexican Regional Immigration Policy and Economy) as well as a minor in Spanish. After graduation, he served as program coordinator for the Aguila Youth Leadership Institute. In 2017, he graduated with his law degree from the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at ASU. During the Hispanic Convocation, he was the recipient of the Ed Pastor Outstanding Graduate Student Award, and delivered the convocation speech to all graduates. Salvador has also served as a Law Clerk at the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project and is currently starting a new venture opening his own law firm.
Oscar Mancinas
Oscar Mancinas's doctoral dissertation was titled "Crossing Out Lines in the Sand Twentieth-Century, Transborder Arizona Literature as Indigenous & Mexican-Origin 'Resistant Adaptation.'" It was completed through the supervision and support by Dr. Marivel Danielson, Dr. Vanessa Fonseca-Chavez, and Dr. Katerina Gonzalez Seligmann. Currently, Oscar works as Assistant Professor of English at Northern Arizona University, where he teaches courses on creative writing, literature, and publishing.
Jesús Villa
Doctoral graduate Jesús Villa’s dissertation is entitled “Healing Among the Dead: Behavioral Environments, Healing, and Spirituality in Borderlands Forensic Work”. His research specialties include applied activist socio-cultural anthropology, political ecology, and thanatology: the study of death, dying, memorialization, and bereavement in a cross-cultural perspective. After successfully defending his dissertation and graduating in Spring 2026, Dr. Jesús Villa was appointed as a Postdoctoral Research Scholar with the ASU School for the Future of Innovation in Society, where his research focuses on feminist science and technology studies; retooling innovative water reuse technologies at the hydro-frontier, and the political ecological and thanatological implications of circular water economies.
Susie Haslett
Susie graduated in 2011 with concurrent degrees in Political Science and in TCLS (U.S. & Mexican Regional Immigration Policy & Economy). She has worked for various political campaigns and community organizations throughout the years. She led a team that provided support to asylum seeking families released by ICE and in the aftermath of the zero-tolerance policy in 2018, she testified at a Congressional hearing hosted by Representatives Nanette Barragán and Judy Chu. Currently, she is the Policy Training Director at FWD.us, a bipartisan organization committed to immigration & criminal justice reform.
Tomas Robles
Tomas graduated in 2011 with a degree in TCLS (U.S. and Mexican Regional Immigration Policy and Economy). He is also a veteran of the United States Marine Corps and the current co-executive director of Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA). In 2016, he served as campaign manager for Arizonans' for Fair Wages and Healthy Families, in favor of Prop. 206 and most recently in 2017, he was named a Phoenix Biz Journal 40 under 40.
Reyna Montoya
Reyna graduated in 2012 with concurrent degrees in Political Science and TCLS (U.S. and Mexican Regional Immigration Policy and Economy) as well as a minor in Dance. After graduation she became a teacher through Teach for America and then served in a leadership position in the first Teach for America National DACA Advisory Board. She then received her master's degree in secondary education from Grand Canyon University in 2016. Also in 2016, she was the recipient of the Soros Justice Fellowship, which led to the creation of her organization, Aliento. Since then, Reyna has received multiple awards, including the 2017 Echoing Green Fellowship, the 2018 "15 Latinas que estan transformando al mundo" by Univision, and the 2018 Forbes 30 under 30. In 2019, she was inducted into The College Leaders, a program recognizing distinguished alumni in The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences since 1997.