Dr. Christina García Torres

EWU McNair Scholar Madelyn Brown Accepted to Multiple PhD Programs

04/19/2022 by Liina Koivula Leave a Comment

Congratulations to EWU McNair Scholar Madelyn Brown! Madelyn has been accepted to two more PhD programs, including the University of Toronto, Canada’s leading postsecondary research institution, with a five-year funding package, and the University of Minnesota with the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship Six-Year Support Package.

Madelyn has accepted the offer from the University of Minnesota, where she will be advised by Jean O’Brien, an American historian of White Earth Band of Ojibwe ancestry who specializes in northeastern Woodlands American Indian history, and David Chang, a Native Hawaiian historian of indigenous people, colonialism, borders and migration.

Madelyn is a scholar of Indigenous History. In EWU’s McNair program, she worked on her 2019 summer research project with Lecturer SimHayKin S. Jack, a Clinical Cultural Specialist at Colville Confederated Tribes and PhD Candidate at University of California, Davis and Dr. Christina Torres Garcia, now Assistant Professor and Director of the Latino, Latin American Studies Program at Central Washington University. Madelyn’s research focused on the the historic Eurocentric discrimination against [Indigenous] Traditional Ecological Knowledge and its benefits in forest and wildfire management, proposing that that these care techniques, specifically the acceptance of fire as a viable influence in forest health, should be taken into consideration when utilizing preventative measures against human-caused events. While a student at EWU, Madelyn was the recipient of the 2018 Gingolyx Village Government scholarship for academic excellence and a member of both the Native American Student Association and Phi Alpha Theta. Madelyn is currently completing her Masters in History at the University of Oregon.

The EWU McNair staff are delighted to hear about Madelyn’s ongoing achievements and we know she will make an impact in her field. Click here to read more about Madelyn and her research.

EWU McNair Scholar Madelyn Brown Accepted to University of Georgia PhD Program

02/28/2022 by Liina Koivula Leave a Comment

Congratulations to EWU McNair Scholar Madelyn Brown! Madelyn has been accepted to the University of Georgia’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences doctoral program in the Department of History. Madelyn was awarded full funding in the form of a Teaching Assistantship, with the University committed to renewing this award for a maximum of six years in the doctoral program. Recipients are selected through a competitive process, and assistantships are awarded only to the most qualified individuals.

The EWU McNair staff are delighted to hear about Madelyn’s ongoing achievements and we know she will make an impact in her field. Click here to read more about Madelyn and her research.

EWU McNair Scholar Madelyn Brown Accepted to University of Oregon PhD Program

02/15/2022 by Liina Koivula Leave a Comment

Congratulations to EWU McNair Scholar Madelyn Brown! Madelyn has been accepted to the University of Oregon’s College of Arts and Sciences doctoral program in the Department of History. In this program, she would be advised by Marsha Weisiger, who serves as the Julie and Rocky Dixon Chair of U.S. Western History and the Co-Director, Center for Environmental Futures.

Madelyn was offered full funding for five years. Madelyn was also selected by the Division of Graduate Studies to become a 2022-23 Promising Scholar, a reflection of her accomplishments and the strength of her application. As a member of the Promising Scholars cohort, Madelyn would receive additional funding and have the opportunity to be involved in community building and professional development activities facilitated by the Division of Graduate Studies. This includes free access to the National Center on Faculty Development and Diversity’s workshops, mentoring network opportunities, and career center.

The EWU McNair staff are delighted to hear about Madelyn’s ongoing achievements and we know she will make an impact in her field. Click here to read more about Madelyn and her research.

EWU McNair Alumna Dra. Christina Torres García Invited to Write for Oxford Research Encyclopedias

06/18/2021 by Jaeger, Corinne Leave a Comment

Congratulations to EWU McNair Alumna and EWU McNair Director Dra. Christina Torres García who was invited to write an article about Chicana feminist epistemology in higher education for Oxford Research Encyclopedias to be included in their Race and Education issue. In addition, Dra. Torres García has been hard at work at research and writing in multiple other areas, including: DACAmented students’ Testimonios about their Educational Journey Against the Backdrop of Racist Nativist Discourse in Washington State, submitted to the Journal Race, Ethnicity, and Education; Being Brown in the time of Trump: The Tactics of Dehumanizing (Im)migrants which is now undergoing peer-review at the University of Arizona press; ongoing co-research with EWU McNair Alumna Dr. Laura Zamudio-Orozco examining how race, gender, and class shape STEM research mentor-mentee relationships; and in coordination with the Pell Institute and the Council for Opportunity in Education, is researching first-generation, low-income students' challenges and obstacles during the COVID-19 and how this affects their college aspirations.

Chicana feminist epistemology in higher education is an extensive manuscript that suggests democratizing and diversifying the Western Canon of thought in higher education research. Using the work of decolonial philosophers, Dra. Torres García illustrates how Westernized Universities’ epistemological foundations present a form of Eurocentric fundamentalism. She presents an evolution of the contributions of Chicanas from the 19th to the present and describes how their work has been excluded from the Western canon of thought in higher education. She shows how Chicana feminists have constructed their own epistemic foundations, methodologies, and how they are disrupting the boundaries of how knowledge is created. Because the Latinx population is increasing rapidly, giving rise to more Hispanic Serving Institutions around the nation, her research is critical. It ultimately recommends incorporating Chicana feminist epistemologies into educational research.

Dra. Torres García's current research with Dr. Zamudio-Orozco examining mentor-mentee relationships stems from gaps in the field.

Mentoring is a widely studied concept presented as a vital component for undergraduate students’ research and their graduate school journeys. However, little research examines the effectiveness of mentoring experiences from the perspective of first-generation, low-income students.”

They aim to bring students’ testimonios to the forefront to illustrate how they struggle to navigate the intersections of race, class, and gender and how this shapes the power dynamics within the mentor-mentee relationships.

Dra. Torres García's research with the Pell Institute and Council for Opportunity in Education to find out the short-term and potential future impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the decisions and life experiences of low-income and first-generation college students uses mixed methods involving national surveys to increase our empathetic understanding of student actions, and outcomes for this student population and higher education. Two of our graduating McNair Scholars, Alexandria Coronado and Lizeth Bañuelos, have also supported this research. Both completed their own McNair research projects during their EWU McNair Summer Research Internship and into the 2020-2021 school year on related topics. Alexandria, with the mentorship of Dr. Lindsey Upton, completed the research paper: Impacts of COVID-19 on Food and Housing Student Resources at Universities in the State of Washington. Lizeth, with the mentorship of Dr. Aryn Ziehnert, completed the research paper: First-Generation Students' Academic Experience: The Role of Institutional Supports during a Pandemic. Both students have been accepted to multiple graduate programs and will attend graduate school starting the fall of 2021!

EWU McNair is incredibly proud of all of Dra. Torres García's work. She not only exemplifies outstanding research, but also incorporates a social justice lens in all of her work with an eye to improve higher education and better meet the needs of all students. Like so many of our EWU McNair alumni, Dra. Torres García gives back to her community both in her everyday work and in her research. Recently EWU McNair had the chance to showcase similar approaches by other McNair alumni in our Social Justice in Research Panel. Click here to learn more about EWU McNair’s other alumni accomplishments! Our EWU McNair Scholars continue to show the power of McNair on students, higher education, and changing the world!

Congratulations again to Dra. Christina Torres García!

EWU McNair Alumna Marixza Torres Awarded National Science Foundation Fellowship

04/08/2021 by Jaeger, Corinne Leave a Comment

Congratulations to EWU McNair Alumna Marixza Torres! Marixza has been awarded a highly competitive and prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF GRF). The NSF GRF program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported STEM disciplines pursuing research-based masters and doctoral degrees at accredited US institutions. The five-year fellowship includes three years of significant financial support. Each year EWU McNair educates students on various scholarship and research opportunities and how to apply for them, including the NSF GRF. While it is rare that an undergraduate will receive one of these fellowships, it prepares our students for future applications, and they are provided feedback from NSF on how to strengthen the application submitted. Last year, Marixza was accorded an Honorable Mention in the 2020 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program competition for her research proposal's intellectual merit and potential broader impacts.

Marixza graduated from Eastern Washington University with a degree in Applied Developmental Psychology and a minor in Chicano studies. She completed two research internships as a McNair Scholar. For her 2018 EWU McNair Summer Research Internship, guided by her mentor Dr. Christina Torres Garcia, Marixza conducted research on the cultural obstacles faced by families of Latinx young adults with autism. In 2019, she was awarded and completed the Summer Research Opportunities Program at the University of Notre Dame under the mentorship of Dr. Dawn M. Gondoli. Through this internship, she examined the relationship between adolescent adjustment, dimensions of parenting, and work orientation. Marixza presented on her research at several conferences. In addition, during the 2019-20 academic year, Marixza worked with Dr. Theresa Martin analyzing the relationship between family communication in college and prosocial values exploring the influence of these on academic achievement. For her strong academic record and demonstration of outstanding leadership qualities at Eastern and in the community the College of Social Sciences awarded Marixza a Frances B Huston Medallion in 2020.

Last year, Marixza was accepted by the Master's of Social Work program at the University of Texas, Austin, the PhD program in Human Development and Family Services at the University of Missouri, and the Psychology PhD program at the University of California, Irvine, where she began attending in the Fall 2020 with full funding. In talking with EWU McNair in the fall, Marixza noted the impact of the program:

The program’s ability to empower marginalized students gave me the confidence to address my imposter syndrome and continue to build my skills to succeed. After developing research proposals and presenting my work to others, I saw how valuable my perspectives were to making significant contributions to the academic field in Latinx Psychology. With the support of TRiO’s McNair, I developed the expertise I needed to become a doctoral student at the University of California Irvine in the Department of Education and Human Development. This opportunity transformed my life and will allow me to address concerns impacting the Latinx community."

We are so proud of Marixza and all of our EWU McNair Scholars. Since Eastern’s TRIO McNair program was first funded in 1995, 39 EWU McNair Scholars have completed their PhD’s and over 117 have earned Master’s degrees. These amazing individuals are making history and valuable impacts on their communities including teaching future teachers, bringing to light hidden histories, improving health in rural areas, increasing equity and diversity in academia, strengthening mental health care for underserved communities, and supporting McNair programs at other institutions.

Faculty and staff, if you have students in your class who are interested in conducting research and attending graduate school, please send them to our website! Students, if you want to make a difference in your communities or learn more about the EWU McNair program, check out our website or check out this eligibility questionnaire!

EWU McNair Scholar Madelyn Brown Accepted into Additional Masters Program

03/17/2020 by Jaeger, Corinne Leave a Comment

Photo of Madelyn Brown next to red confetti background with text congratulating her.

Congratulations to EWU McNair Scholar Madelyn Brown! Madelyn has been accepted into the MA program in Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies at Trent University with funding. This is in addition to 6 prior acceptances! Madelyn is a senior at Eastern Washington University majoring in History with an emphasis in American Indian Studies. To prepare for graduate school Madelyn completed a summer research internship through the EWU McNair Scholars Program, with mentors Dr. Christina García Torres and PhD candidate and lecturer SimHayKin S. Jack, researching traditional ecological knowledge and wildfire prevention. She was also the recipient of the 2018 Gingolyx Village Government scholarship for academic excellence. To read more about Madelyn and her research, check out her page on the EWU McNair website.

We are so proud to see all of Madelyn's hard work paying off and excited for her next steps towards attaining her PhD!