About
Dr. Stephen Santa-Ramirez (he/him) is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education at the University at Buffalo (UB), which operates on the unceded ancestral territory of the Seneca Nation of the Haudenosaunee Six Nations Confederacy. His vast experiences in U.S. higher education and student affairs include work in Multicultural and LGBT+ Affairs, Residential Life and Housing Services, and Migrant Student Services. In addition to teaching at UB, he has taught for the Philadelphia Freedom Schools, Michigan State University, The University of Texas at Arlington, and Arizona State University.
Dr. Santa Ramirez's research agenda broadly investigates the historical, ideological, and structural inequities that impact Black, Latinx, Indigenous, migrant, and other marginalized communities. Particularly, by employing critical and asset-based frameworks, he investigates campus racial climate, transitions and belongingness of first-generation students of Color, college student activism and resistance, and the various ways race, ethnicity, im/migration status and policy inform the educational experiences of collegians who are undocu/DACAmented.
In addition to authoring a host of book chapters, some of his published peer-reviewed articles can be located in The Review of Higher Education, Journal of First-generation Student Success, Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, Journal of Negro Education, Education Sciences, and New Directions for Higher Education.
Dr. Santa-Ramirez is an Associate Editor for the College Student Affairs Journal, and the 2023 invited special issue editor for New Directions for Higher Education (journal) centering on the experiences of undocumented college students.
Dr. Santa-Ramirez is a 2022 National Academy of Education (NAEd)/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow and a 2022 Diamond Honoree via ACPA - College Student Educators International.
Current Work
Currently (as of early 2023), Dr. Santa-Ramirez is working on research projects and articles centering on the policy effects and everyday realities of undocumented collegians in the United States, including their post-graduation experiences, their assets, and what brings them joy. Further, he is working on projects highlighting mentoring experiences with Latinx faculty and doctoral students, and the lived realities of Latinx graduate students from a bioecological lens.
Research Area Keyword(s)
policy, race, sense of belonging, first-generation college students, Undocumented, Latina/o/x, minoritized college students