Veronica Valencia Gonzalez recently won the Outstanding Social Justice Activist Award from UCI’s Womxn Center of Success and the Graduate Student Excellence Award from the campus Latinx Resource Center.
Ph.D. candidate preps for dissertation defense and South Carolina move
Veronica Valencia Gonzalez, who uses the pronouns they/them/their, is on track to finish writing their social ecology doctorate dissertation soon so they may defend the required essay at the end of the quarter and then participate in June’s commencement, which would cap a storied, decade-long academic career at UC Irvine that began as a transfer student.
“Finishing my dissertation is bittersweet,” Gonzalez says. “I am happy to share my dissertation findings with folks, but this will mark the end of my time at UCI. I’ve been at UCI since 2014 when I transferred from Allan Hancock Community College. UCI has been my home for so long, it’s where I found my passion for research and advocacy.”
This is where “Vero” received Bachelor of Arts degrees in criminology, law & society and psychology & social behavior—the latter having since been renamed psychological science. It’s where community-based research in partnership with the Orange County Family Justice Foundation led to intimate partner violence (IPV) becoming their research focus. Gonzalez explores the help-seeking behavior of Latine undocumented survivors of IPV in the current tumultuous anti-immigrant political climate.
This important work has led to a slew of awards, fellowships and other distinctions. Thanks to a grant from the UCI Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies, Gonzalez is scheduled to present a portion of their dissertation at the annual CGPCS Graduate Student Conference on April 30. They were also recently awarded the Outstanding Social Justice Activist Award from UCI’s Womxn Center of Success and the Graduate Student Excellence Award from the campus Latinx Resource Center.
During this academic year, Gonzalez received a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Law and Science Dissertation Grant from Arizona State University New College, a Justice Fellowship from theNorthwestern Prison Education Program and a Graduate Student Fellowship from the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education.
Oh, they were also elected student representative to the Latin American Studies Association’s Executive Council.
As previously reported in this space, Gonzalez’s paper “The Role of California’s Sanctuary Policies in the Formal Help-seeking of Latina Immigrant Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence” received awards from the American Society of Criminology, the Western Society of Criminology, the Latin American Studies Association and Mexico’s Secretariat of External Relations.
They are a 2023-24 UC President’s Pre-Professoriate Fellow and were a 2022-23 UCI Public Impact Fellow and 2019 NSF Graduate Research Fellow.
“UCI’s Social Ecology program and its people nurtured my academic interests allowing me to explore these passions which ultimately led to the recognitions I have received,” says Gonzalez, who in the fall is set to become an assistant professor in the University of South Carolina’s criminology department through the campus Bridge to Faculty program.
“I’m leaving to the University of South Carolina with some sadness, but the knowledge that I have the training and skills from UCI which will allow me to thrive in my new home,” says Gonzalez, who at least is not going alone.
“Of course, Luna will be by my side as we embark on this new journey together,” Gonzalez says of the black pooch who has been by their side at UCI, “and I even ordered Luna her own regalia since she’s been part of the dissertation process.”
— Matt Coker
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