Paloma Villegas
Contact
Bio
Paloma E. Villegas was born in Mexico and migrated to California as a child. She is a first-generation college student and immigrant. In addition to researching and teaching at the intersection of Migration, Citizenship, Borders, Race, and Gender, she also engages in artistic practices including painting, sculpture, and poetry.
Education
PhD, Sociology in Education, University of Toronto, 2012
M.A. Women Studies, San Francisco State University, 2006
Features
A look back: Radically reimaging the now toward a better future https://www.csusb.edu/inside/article/540624/look-back-radically-reimaging-now-toward-better-future
Faculty video showcase https://www.csusb.edu/faculty-development-program/faculty-video-showcase/article/544376
Courses/Teaching
Qualitative Analysis and Field Research
Borders, Knowledges, and Identities
Citizenship, Status, and Inequality
Sociology of Migration
Sociology of Race and Ethnicity
Sociology of Sex and Gender
Specialization
Migration, Citizenship, and Borders
Social Inequality and Intersectionality
Qualitative Research, Interpretive Methods, and Multi-scalar Analysis
Research and Teaching Interests
Recent Publications
Books
Villegas, P.E. (2020) North of El Norte: Illegalized Mexican Migrants in Canada. University of British Columbia Press.
Journal Articles
Villegas, P.E., Villegas, F.V., Zepeda, R. (2024) Access to Higher Education for Migration-Impacted Students in the US, Canada and Mexico: A Comparative Analysis. International Journal of Migration and Border Studies. 8(3-4), 301-322, first published online April 1, 2025.
Villegas, P.E. and Villegas F.V. (2023). Navigating Borders during the Pandemic: A Collaborative Multi-Sited Approach. Radical Teacher. 127, 12-19.
Villegas, P. E., McGrath, C., Enriquez-Johnson, A., Hudgens, R., Flores, N., & Felix, R. (2022). Food insecurity stigma, neoliberalization, and college students in California’s Inland Empire. Food, Culture & Society, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/15528014.2022.2130658 (published with Sociology students at CSUSB)
Villegas, P.E. (2021) Temporalizing barriers: Postsecondary Schooling access among Precarious Status Students in Toronto. Population, Space, and Place. 27(5) e2477 http://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2477
Villegas, P.E. Landolt, P. Basu, R., Freeman, V., Hermer, J. and Videkanic, B. (2020) Contesting Settler Colonial Accounts: Temporality, Migration and Place-Making in Scarborough, Ontario. Studies in Social Justice 14(2) 321-351. https://journals.library.brocku.ca/index.php/SSJ/article/view/2211
Villegas P.E (2020) Flexible and Assembled Bordering Practices for Mexicans travelling to Canada. International Migration. 58(5) 69-86. https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12688
Villegas, P.E, Barrie, B., Pena, S., Alphonso, J., and Mamoon, A. (2020) Integration, Settler Colonialism, and Precarious Legal Status Migrants in Canada. Journal of International Migration and Integration. 21(4), 1131-1147. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-019-00670-3 (published with undergraduate students at the University of Toronto)
Book Chapters
Basok, T., Goldring, L., Landolt, P., Mata, F., & Villegas, P. E. (2023). Latin American Migration to Canada: Understanding Socially Differentiated Inclusions. In The Routledge History of Modern Latin American Migration (pp. 261-274). Routledge.
Villegas F.J. and Villegas, P.E. (2021) Los Niños Florero: Internal Borders, Migrant Illegalization, and our Undocumented Migrant Experience. In Montse Feu and Amanda Venta (Eds.) Serving Refugee Children: Listening to Stories of Detention in the US. Peter Lang. 153-162
Villegas, P.E. and Aberman, T. (2020) Now I constantly challenge society by bringing my existence forward’: Creating Counterspaces and Counterstories with Sanctuary Students in Post-Secondary Education in Toronto. In Bhabha, J. Giles, W and Mahomed, F. (Eds.) A Better Future: The Role of Higher Education for Displaced and Marginalized People. Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press, 317-338.
Villegas, P.E. (2020) Beds, Masks and Prayers: Mexican Migrants and the Immigration Regime in Canada. Asylum for Sale: Profit and Protest in the Asylum Industry. Edited by Adrienne Pine and Siobhan McGuirk., Oakland: PM Press, 287-296.