Title: Assistant Professor

Office: Coffey Hall 242

 

Ph.D.: University of California, Los Angeles

MA: University of California, Los Angeles

BA: Northern Illinois University

 

 

PSYC 273 Developmental Psychology

 

My research agenda intends to understand and address issues related to the social belonging of Latinx immigrant-origin adolescents in the context of families, schools, and communities. My current scholarship qualitatively explores how threats to belonging (e.g., xenophobia) impact Latinx immigrant-origin adolescents’ social-emotional development and inclusion in suburban contexts. Core questions that motivate my research plan include:

 

1. How do immigration experiences (e.g., being in an undocumented household) shape adolescents’ social-emotional development and social belonging?
2. How do oppressive immigration policies, laws, and toxic rhetoric impact immigrant-origin adolescents’ social belonging (or exclusion) in communities with recent demographic changes?
3. What factors predict resilience in the context of racial injustice, racism, and xenophobia for immigrant-origin children and adolescents?

 

López Hernández, G. (2022) “We Understand You Hate Us”: Latinx Immigrant‐Origin Adolescents’ Coping with Social Exclusion. Journal of Research on Adolescence. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12748

Karras-Jean Gilles, J., López Hernández, G, Cabral, P., Nguyen, S., & Suárez-Orozco, C. (2021). Taking a “Whole” Classroom Perspective: Theorizing Classroom Typologies Using Qualitative Exemplars. Urban Education. https://doi.org/10.1177/00420859211051378

Suárez-Orozco, C., López Hernández, G., & Cabral, P. (2021). The Rippling Effects of Unauthorized Status: Stress, Family Separations, & Deportation and their Implications for Belonging & Development. In Tummala-Narra, P. (Ed.), Trauma and Racial Minority Immigrants: Turmoil, Uncertainty, and Resistance (pp. 185-204). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Maker Castro, E., López Hernández, G., Karras-Jean Gilles, J., Novoa, A., The New Generation Class, & Suárez-Orozco, C. (2021). “Everyone collaborated and came together”: The civic promise (and pitfalls) of yPAR for immigrant-origin students in an era of deportation. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology. Advance online publication. 

Suárez-Orozco, C., López Hernández, G. (2020). “Waking up Every Day with the Worry”: A Mixed-Methods Study of Anxiety in Undocumented Latinx College Students. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 11, 1204.

Osei-Twumasi, O., & López Hernández, G. (2019). Resilience in the Face of Adversity: Undocumented Students in Community Colleges. In Suárez-Orozco, C., Osei-Twumasi, O. (Ed.), Immigrant-Origin Students in Community College. Navigating Risk and Reward in Higher Education (pp. 46-62). Teachers College Press.