Carolina Hernandez

Carolina Hernandez (she/her) is a Chicana PhD Candidate in Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh. She broadly studies Latinx racial construction, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) social justice movements, and intersectional resistance to white supremacy and colonialism. Her research uses multi-method qualitative analysis to examine how BIPOC migrant social movements in the border state of Arizona resist white supremacy and advance racial justice. Carolina explores questions of resistance to oppression through examining the role of nation-states and symbolic violence in maintaining gendered and colonial white supremacies, particularly against migrant people of color. She also looks at the impact of institutionalization on social movements and emphasizes the need for cultural and praxis-driven models of social change for the advancement of justice. Other themes explored in her scholarly work include: environmental justice and Indigenous land stewardship practices; queer and LGBT anticolonialism; community autonomy and governance systems; coalition building; and multi-racial solidarity efforts.