Psychology Graduate Students

Research Interests

Immigrant Justice, Ontological Security, Communality, Reproductive Justice, Decolonial Psychologies, and Psychologies of Utopia.

Community-engaged and Participatory Action Research.

Biography, Education and Training

I am a Ph.D. candidate in Social Psychology at UC Santa Cruz (UCSC), trained in Community Psychology by Prof. Regina Langhout. I study the psychological processes of social transformation, particularly with immigrant people, activists, and women-led service providers. My research focuses on how minoritized people build trust and a sense of safety in the community to enact transformative change. Through my research, I aim to serve minoritized communities, often with community-initiated, student-engaged, and participatory research approaches. I have training and experience in teaching qualitative and quantitative research with a social justice mission, centering inclusivity and service-learning in my curriculum. As an immigrant scholar, my teaching and research focus on co-creating settings where students learn tools and strategies from participants in my studies to embrace being active contributors to a multicultural society. 

Education

M.Ed. in Counseling Psychology, Springfield College, Massachusetts.

Bachelors and Professional Licensure in Psychology, Universidad Católica de Santa María, Arequipa, Perú.

Honors, Awards and Grants

Koret scholarship Mentor (2019)

UCSC-CITL Graduate Teaching Fellowship (2018)

Selected Publications

o   Vaccarino-Ruiz, S., Quinteros, K., Blanco, V. A., Rodriguez Ramirez, D., Langhout, R. D., Copulsky D., & Lopezzi, M. A. (2020). Yes, they were suffering, but we brought the music: Social toxicity and possibility during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US. Community Psychology in Global Perspective (Accepted).

o  Langhout, R. D., Rodriguez Ramirez, D., Vaccarino-Ruiz, S., Blanco, V. A., Quinteros, K., Copulsky D., & Lopezzi, M. A. (2020). Teaching and learning during a pandemic: How one graduate Community Psychology class quickly incorporated healing justice into our practices. American Journal of Community Psychology (Accepted).  

a  Grabe, S., Rodriguez Ramirez, D., & Dutt, A. (accepted). Reproductive justice: The role of community-based organizational participation in reproductive decision-making and educational aspiration among women in Nicaragua. Journal of Social Issues, 76 (2), 391-415. https://doi-org.oca.ucsc.edu/10.1111/josi.12377     

   Li, P. & Rodriguez Ramirez, D. (2015). Zen and Psychotherapy. In A. Masuda & W. T. O’Donohue (Eds.), Handbook of Zen, Mindfulness, and Behavioral Health (in press). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Teaching Interests

Decolonial Psychologies

Social Psychology of Liberation 

Community Psychology and Theories of Change 

Participatory Action Research 

History of Psychology

My interest in teaching highlights community-making, collaboration, and inclusivity. I have certification and experience in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) in universities in Peru. I also coordinated and redesigned the curriculum of the Graduate Division’s Graduate Student Leadership Certification Program by incorporating inclusive, participatory, collaborative, and counter-hegemonic leadership styles. I was a CITL Graduate Pedagogy Fellow, where I worked with other Fellows and CITL facilitators on how to inform Teaching Assistant (TA) trainings across campus with inclusive teaching and active learning frameworks. I have also been a CITL Mentor for Graduate Student Instructors. I was a Koret scholarship mentor, working with a student to conduct a research project. I have been an instructor for Reading and Research Skills for the Global Preparation Program directed toward incoming international graduate students. I am currently a P2R Mentor and a TA in the Psychology Department.