Writing for Healing and Joy

Resisting the Traumatic Experience of the Dissertation Process with Dr. Cynthia D. Villarreal

In this presentation, participants will learn about embedding healing, joy, and wellness into the dissertation writing process. Through Dr. Villarreal’s experience as a mami-scholar dealing with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and depression in the middle of a global pandemic, she developed coping skills influenced by a combination of Chicana feminist teachings, occupational therapy, and consejos from her community. Determined to not allow the dissertation process to be yet another traumatic experience in academia for her, she instead cultivated one that brought her healing and joy. In this presentation, she will share her experience and give guidance on how graduate students can cultivate wellness, joy, and healing along their research journeys.

Cynthia D. Villarreal holds a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California in Urban Education Policy. Her research brings Chicana feminisms, racial equity, and borderland subjectivity to the study of organizational culture in higher education, particularly at Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs). Through the lens of culture, her research evaluates what serving Latina/o/x students at HSIs entails in policy, practice, and pedagogy. Through her dissertation research, she interviewed faculty search chairs to determine how their “HSI Consciousness” was embedded and embodied in the decision-making process of hiring faculty at HSIs. As a scholar of higher education on/in the borderlands, she is also interested in the transnational experience of students and staff at HSIs and the role faculty and administrators play in supporting transfronteriza/o/xs. Currently, she is a postdoctoral research associate at the Pullias Center for Higher Education at USC.

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