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Student Spotlight – Frank Godinez

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Meet UCLA undergraduate researcher Frank Godinez!

Frank majors in Sociology and Political Science and is a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow. The title of his project is “Police, Nonprofits and the Carceral Web.” Frank studies critical theory, Marxist theory, carceral capitalism, and the police state, and is using his research to employ a critical approach in advocating for/creating epistemologies that dignify and assert the agency of those harmed by—and who’ve resisted—systems of oppression. His best piece of advice is to read about a topic that interests you and don’t be so strict about the research process.

How did you first get interested in your research project?

I took a methods course that came really easy to me, and one day, I came across a section on ethnography. I remember thinking, “Wow, this is research?” Over the break, I read a book mentioned in our textbook, Sudhir Venkatesh’s Gang Leader for a Day. Being from South Central and system-impacted, I remember having so many critiques of the project. So, when I took Dr. Jason Sexton’s Sociology of Crime course, and the final project was a research project, I knew what I was going to do. I conducted a small ‘ethnography’ documenting the oral histories of (former) gang members, reconciling their narratives with larger sociohistorical and political-economic trends. At the same time, I connected with Dr. David Turner and joined his Abolition and Youth Organizing lab on campus, where we have been researching the Police Free Schools Campaign throughout LA County. Dr. Turner recommended that I apply to an SR-EIP program, and so I did. I got into UChicago’s Summer program and spent nine weeks in Chicago working with Dr. Robert Vargas on an independent project that looked at police philanthropy (private funding of police departments). After the summer, I decided I wanted to turn my project into a senior thesis and was encouraged by Dr. Vargas to work with Dr. Chris Herring at UCLA on my project. Since then, I’ve been admitted into the Mellon Mays Program while also working as a Bunche Research Fellow for Dr. Turner. I’ll continue multiple projects over my next quarters at UCLA.

What has been the most exciting aspect of your research so far?

I love falling into rabbit holes. And I love it when I find a source that is right on the money of the question/topic I’m interested in exploring. Specifically, I study critical theory, Marxist theory, carceral capitalism, and the police state. I also view my interest in the politics of abolition as a large, interconnected struggle, and seeing how there are so many different angles people have taken or that I can take in interrogating social life and institutions gives me hope. I also really enjoy that my research is grounded in a commitment to my community, and I would never want my research to be divorced from topics that are informed by my own personal experiences and identities.

What has surprised you about your research or the research process?

Probably just how iterative and creative you can be with it. I think there are specific recipes for what ‘traditional’ (social) science research looks like, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good. It doesn’t have to be a step-by-step process like a controlled life sciences study. So, I try to be as creative as possible when I piece together what different authors have said about topics like carceral capitalism or what it even means. You’ll find that people trained differently (e.g., geographers/sociologists/public health) will offer different, interdisciplinary perspectives. This produces really complex and complicated pictures/answers to a lot of the social problems pressing us today. So, I try to unlearn a lot of strictly binary ways of thinking and or understanding things, especially social life.

What is one piece of advice you have for other UCLA students thinking about doing research?

Just read. Read about a topic that interests you and try to develop a question. It doesn’t have to be precise. Not unless you’re committing to a research program or something. Also, don’t be so strict with the process. Research is so iterative that you can approach it from so many different angles. Be it qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods – the choice is yours. That’s also why reading what other people have read can be a good starting point.

What effect do you hope your research has in your field, at UCLA, in your community, or in the world?

I am optimistic that I can someday become a leading scholar in urban sociological research with expertise in various specialized topics (policing, youth organizing, gangs, law, and policy) supplemented by my own lived experience to influence policy and the critical analysis of social and political institutions. I recognize that as a system-impacted male of color, I offer a lens that is highly underrepresented in the academy. My lived experience inspires me to employ a critical approach in advocating for/creating epistemologies that dignify and assert the agency of those harmed by—and who’ve resisted—systems of oppression.

Student Spotlight – Milagro Jones

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Meet UCLA undergraduate researcher Milagro Jones!

Milagro majors in English and is in the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship. The title of his project is “Defining Drill: Multiple Meanings, Metaphors, and Memes.” Milagro’s work honors the legacy of authors and poets from Dro City and other parts of Chicago by treating their contributions to literature with empathy and respect. His best piece of advice is that research is for everyone and you can find a meaningful way to participate in research as a UCLA student.

How did you first get interested in your research project?

I first got interested in researching Drill Music in the Transfer Summer Program. Students like myself were told by professors like Dr. Huehls and Dr. San Juan to research something that we cared about. Part of the process of finding a topic was “me-search,” or looking within to research me and what I am passionate about. I care a lot about my brothers in the streets, and many of the authors and poets of Drill Music have passed on and will never get the opportunity to attend a University like UCLA. I want to honor the legacy of artists from Dro City and other parts of Chicago by treating their contributions to literature with empathy and respect.

What has been the most exciting aspect of your research so far?

The most exciting part of research has been presenting through opportunities provided by the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship. My research has evolved since I began, and receiving feedback from those who attended my presentations, including my faculty mentor, has helped me shape the direction in which I want my research to go. When I began researching Drill Music, I strongly felt like I had to keep it in conversation with an Epic from the traditional English Canon such as Beowulf for example. Feedback from my faculty mentor, Dr. Adam Bradley, and others has helped me to realize that classic works of Drill Music can stand on their own as works of literature worthy to be studied.

What has surprised you about your research or the research process?

The major thing that surprised me is the way in which acclimating to a university environment impacts the way in which I relate to the material I am studying. I am from an environment similar to the one in which the subjects of my research describe in the literature they’ve produced. In layman’s terms, I’m from the ghetto, and it feels disorienting to research literature produced in the ghetto from the vantage point of a university. Spending time in the privileged environment of academia has created a distance between me and the literature I am studying that forces me to question how to approach my subject in an ethical and authentic way.

What is one piece of advice you have for other UCLA students thinking about doing research?

I was cautioned that research isn’t for everybody and told that I didn’t have to pursue research if I didn’t want to. I would express to students the opposite. Research is for everybody, and traditionally, students like myself, a formerly incarcerated single father who got his GED in a correctional facility, are not included in the research process as independent scholars. UCLA, the Undergraduate Research Center – Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, and the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship program are doing something radically transformative by providing an opportunity for independent research to students of all backgrounds. Whatever your story and your passion, you can find a meaningful way to express yourself and contribute to the wealth of knowledge as a student here at UCLA.

What effect do you hope your research has in your field, at UCLA, in your community, or in the world?

I hope to continue researching Drill Music through the humanities lens of English Literature. In my field, I hope to contribute to the first Norton Anthology of Gang Literature. At UCLA, I hope that my work will influence others to consider that gang literature is literature and Drill Music, specifically a subgenre of Hip Hop created by gang members who are as talented as any of the celebrated poets of the traditional English Canon. I want to see Pacman and King Louie’s names in the English Reading Room next to Emily Dickinson, William Blake, William Wordsworth, and John Keats. In the community, I want the kids growing up in the housing projects and hoods to know that UCLA is a University for them. I want the world to know that Drill Music started in Dro City.

Student Spotlight – Diego Mesa

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Meet UCLA undergraduate researcher Diego Mesa!

Diego Mesa majors in Gender Studies, minors in Environmental Systems and Society, and is in our Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program (MMUF)! The title of his project is “Magic and Futurity: Uncovering the Queer in the Hated Homosexual in Giovanni’s Room.” They hope that their research sheds light on the problem that is homonormativity. His best piece of advice for students thinking about doing research is to absolutely do it!

How did you first get interested in your research project?

I read this novel when I was in community college in my LGBTQ literature class. The whole time I felt a deep identification with the character of Giovanni, whom the main character David falls in love with. Throughout the novel, David’s reflections on his identity are projected in a manner that romanticizes the validity to be normative in his society. This factor deeply affects his relationship with Giovanni, whose tragic end is evident in a society that could not cope with his queer magnificence. This story was maddening to read, as I felt that even in a world far more accepting than the one in the novel, the narrative of David is played over and over. Queer characters whose ability to blend into heteronormative society may at times give them permission to traumatize those who can not in the process.

What has been the most exciting aspect of your research so far?

I think the most exciting part has been the process that occurs besides my research. I have loved the mentorship far more because it makes my project a collaborative project. I deeply believe that creation is a concert of multiple folks, and to see my project develop with the feedback, support, and ideas of others add layers to my project I could have never come up with on my own.

What has surprised you about your research or the research process?

How easy and how hard it is. It is a queer paradox in my opinion. I say easy because the skill set that you develop through mentorship makes gargantuan stressors manageable. The hard part is doing the research at the same time as life, and student life at that, is happening. It is a constant agreement of time management between your classes and your project, but fortunately the things that make it easier are those skills you learn with your peers.

What is one piece of advice you have for other UCLA students thinking about doing research?

Absolutely do it. Research functions very differently than the regular academic years in undergrad. I feel like I have a much clearer vision for my future thanks to pursuing this path, and in many ways feel better prepared to take on big projects.

What effect do you hope your research has in your field, at UCLA, in your community, or in the world?

I hope my research sheds light on the problem that is homonormativity. That is, in the process of being inclusive of queer identities society erases the very aspects that make us special, different, and resilient. It is a project of unearthing the internalized hate that exists in many of us, and I’m hoping that my project adds to the same narrative contemporary authors are proposing. This means giving importance to our emotions, feelings, and other affective archives that are just as formative and productive for society as is reason.

Student Spotlight – Herman Luis Chavez

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Meet UCLA undergraduate researcher Herman Luis Chavez!

Herman Luis Chavez majors in Ethnomusicology and Comparative Literature and is in our Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program (MMUF)! The title of his project is “Composing Bolivia: The Politics and Perspectives of Mestizaje and Indigenismo in Atiliano Auza León’s Historia de la Música Boliviana.” Their focus is to bring a fundamentally interdisciplinary lens to studying Bolivian music and its accompanying politics. Their best piece of advice is to explore your interests with UCLA’s immense resources and faculty support!

How did you first get interested in your research project?

I discovered my project on a visit our family’s home country of Bolivia. We had decided to visit my tía one afternoon—I immediately noticed the piano that sat next to the door, to the right after walking through the entrance. It was evident that the piano hadn’t been tuned in years—what was meant to sound like a major triad was as an ethnically ambiguous child, simultaneously major and minor and augmented all at once. Regardless, I was delighted. I had begun developing my piano chops after a year of college coursework and was eager to see if I could sight-read despite the unwarranted atonality of a supposedly equally-tuned instrument. Burrowed in my tía’s piano bench amidst an unkempt collection of sheet music, I found Atiliano Auza León. At the very bottom of the pile, beneath the Hungarian Marches and Eine Kleine Nachtmusiks and other reductive arrangements, was the piano score for 6 Danzas Bolivianas del ciclo ‘Runas’ por violín y piano, with the violin part gently tucked into the first spread. To see a piece by a Bolivian composer among the expected scores of the German canon surprised me. I was even more shocked that, upon closer inspection, 6 Danzas was based on the popular folkloric tunes that I had grown up listening to in my Bolivian and Bolivian-American households. My research began here: locating an art music composer among Bolivian urban modernity and beneath a European musical canon.

What has been the most exciting aspect of your research so far?

Although there have been many thrilling aspects of my research, from connecting the dots of disparate secondary material to using UCLA Library resources, the most exciting part of my research so far has been the opportunity to interview Atiliano Auza León, the composer who is the subject of my thesis. I never thought I’d get the chance to speak directly to him, but by chance we were able to do a remote interview. This has not only given me ethnographic experience, but also the ability to place his written works and compositions into the context of his personal experience.

What has surprised you about your research or the research process?

Learning more about myself has been an unintended consequence of my research. Although I knew I would learn more about my Bolivian heritage the more I engaged in this research, I didn’t know that my worldview—in relation to institutional cultural power, thinking about sound and music, and the processes of (re)producing knowledge—would be so affected to the point in which I would also be able to reflect on some of the fundamental truths of my personal experience. It has been so exciting to see how transformative the research process has been in terms of my own perspectives as I have interrogated my own Bolivian diasporic identity while engaging in my research.

What is one piece of advice you have for other UCLA students thinking about doing research?

Your research questions are worth exploring, and there are so many avenues with which to do so! From the URC programs to departmental honors to individual studies, you can and should explore your interests with UCLA’s immense resources and faculty support. Many of us undergraduate students—particularly students of minoritarian communities and subjectivities—may not see the knowledge which we have experienced or have interest in represented in our coursework or in faculty research. That is certainly the case for me, as there are probably a handful of scholars in the entire country who study Bolivian sound and music. I found a faculty member who would support me and simply plunged in, and I’ve been able to explore the works of a Bolivian composer who has likely never been performed or studied in the United States. I encourage all undergrads (and especially minoritarian students) to take that plunge with their own ideas and interests, no matter how small or niche they might think they are, especially while they have the resources of UCLA. You can do it!

What effect do you hope your research has in your field, at UCLA, in your community, or in the world?

I see my thesis as one step in my scholarly journey, and therefore one that starts off on an explorative, if devout, foot: I hope to bring a fundamentally interdisciplinary lens to studying Bolivian music and its accompanying politics. I hope that as I continue writing in this manner, I will encourage the academy to see studies of sound and music as necessarily holistic. When I insert certain critiques about how Auza León constructs a discourse or presents research in my thesis, I provide my own application of my studies in comparative literature, ethnomusicology, musicology, and ethnic studies to exploring Auza León’s work. Thus, in part, this thesis is practice for my interdisciplinary praxis. I am also hoping to bring the work by a Bolivian music historian to the fore in a country where such history and historiography may not be considered or even valued. Yet, this motive does not preclude scholarly seriousness: I approach Auza León with a critical lens that first and foremost seeks to analyze his publication with an eye for discursive moves, exploring how he may contribute to certain epistemological notes around Bolivian music. Overall, I seek to contribute to the historical ethnomusicology of Bolivia and its paradigms, and thus thinking through how this history is presented in tomes such as Auza León’s is important not only for the field to learn about Bolivian music, but also for us to understand the epistemologies that surround such historiography and how they might shape our contemporary understanding. As I work on translating my thesis, I hope my work will be accessible to a Bolivian audience as well, and that this is the start of many projects about Bolivian music and culture on an international stage. Just as it is important for me to push the academic disciplines in an interdisciplinary manner, it is also important for me to represent my country, which has not been studied or taught internationally to the degree to which it might be. I am committed to continuing my work in interdisciplinary sound studies and Bolivian cultural studies—this thesis is just one piece of this expanding puzzle.