Dr Jesica S. Fernández

Profile

Jesica Siham Fernández is an Assistant Professor in the Ethnic Studies Department at Santa Clara University, and the author of the book "Growing Up Latinx: Coming of Age in a Time of Contested Citizenship" (NYU Press, 2021). She received her PhD in Social Psychology and Latin American & Latinx Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Grounded in a decolonial feminist praxis, she is a community-engaged researcher and practitioner of critical PAR paradigms and approaches to support youth, Latinx, student activists, and communities of color in their process toward sociopolitical wellbeing, and collective action. As a teacher-scholar-activist, Jesica is rooted in a commitment to supporting and cultivating spaces for young people to thrive, as well as actualizing intergenerational healing, transformative justice, and decolonial liberation.

Research

Publications

Selected Relevant Publications:

Fernández, J. S. (2021). Growing Up Latinx. In Growing Up Latinx. New York University Press.

Fernández, J. S., & Watts, R. J. (2022). Sociopolitical Development as Emotional Work: How Young Organizers Engage Emotions to Support Community Organizing for Transformative Racial Justice. Journal of Adolescent Research, 07435584221091497.

Fernández, J. S., Nguyen, A., & Langhout, R. D. (2015). " It's a puzzle!". Elementary school-aged youth concept-mapping the intersections of community narratives. International Journal for Research on Extended Education: IJREE, 3(1), 24-38.

Fernández, J. S., Kirshner, B., & Lewis, D. G. (2016). Strategies for systemic change: Youth community organizing to disrupt the school-to-prison nexus. Contemporary youth activism: Advancing social justice in the United States, 93-112.

Govan, R. H., Fernandez, J. S., Lewis, D. G., & Kirshner, B. (2015). International Perspectives on Youth Leadership Development through Community Organizing. New Directions for Student Leadership, 148, 87-99.

Solís, J., Fernández, J. S., & Alcalá, L. (2013). Mexican Immigrant Children and Youth's Contributions to a Community Centro: Exploring Civic Engagement and Citizen Constructions. In Youth engagement: The Civic-Political Lives of Children and Youth. Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Fernández, J. S. (2018). Toward an ethical reflective practice of a theory in the flesh: Embodied subjectivities in a youth participatory action research mural project. American Journal of Community Psychology, 62(1-2), 221-232.

Expertise