Research Homecoming: Josefina Bañales Earns National Fellowship to Advance Racial Justice for Latinx Teens
LAS psychologist Josefina Bañales returns to her Chicago roots with a prestigious National Academy of Education Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship, bringing resources and opportunities to the communities that shaped her.
Interview with Josefina Bañales
What does being selected as a 2025 National Academy of Education (NAEd)Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow mean to you?
It’s truly a dream come true. This fellowship gives me a year of dedicated time to focus on my research — the kind of work I’ve been envisioning since I was in college. It allows me to continue collaborating with Chicago Public Schools, Chicago communities, and other communities across the country that are committed to supporting the racial justice development of Latinx teens. In many ways, this fellowship lets me live my research dreams.
How does receiving this fellowship impact your work investigating Latinx youth, anti-racist identity, and anti-racist action?
Tangibly, it allows me to pay teens and community partners for their time. Research should be collaborative, but too often there aren’t enough resources to fairly compensate people, especially in today’s political climate. With this fellowship, we can honor their contributions. For example, in the coming weeks, we’ll be working with a partner high school on the South Side of Chicago to survey students about what being Latino means to them and how prepared they feel to challenge social issues in their lives. These resources not only help us collect data but also allow us to develop programs and practices that support teens’ engagement in activism.
So, the research will translate into action?
Exactly. We’re not doing research for the sake of research. The findings will directly inform programs — like our initiative Roots y Resistencia —designed to serve Latino teens in Chicago and beyond.
How long will this project take?
We’ve worked on it for four years and throughout multiple phases. First, surveys; then interviews; then we’ll hire another group of teens to join our research team. They’ll help us interpret the data and ensure our findings are culturally and developmentally relevant. I was a Latina teen who grew up in Chicago, but I’m not anymore, so their voices are essential in shaping what comes next.
Will the teens be hands-on members of your research team?
Yes. In fact, we hired three teens two years ago. They’ve since matriculated to UIC as undergraduates and are still on the team. It’s an incredible way to give them experience while strengthening the research.
Can you describe your research methodology and what you hope it will provide to the community?
We’re using mixed methods — surveys and interviews — and youth participatory action research. Surveys give us measurable quantitative data about racial identity, civic engagement, and academic achievement, while interviews let us dig deeper into how teens make sense of their experiences. Youth participatory action research centers teens as co-researchers. We acknowledge that while adult researchers bring expertise, community members — especially teens — bring their own essential knowledge. Their voices guide the research and help us create programs that matter.
What is it like working at UIC and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences? How has the institution supported your mission?
For me, working at UIC is a homecoming. I grew up in Chicago, near the high school that’s now my partner school. I used to commute four hours a day from Brighton Park to Lincoln Park High School, passing UIC daily, but never thinking this was a place for someone like me — a first-generation high school graduate, college student, and now PhD. Being back here allows me to share institutional resources with my communities and amplify the work they are already doing, bring students to campus so they can see higher education as a possibility for them, and bring UIC to their community. I even get my niece and nephew to campus regularly, so they see themselves in this space. Being here as a Latina faculty member from Chicago is deeply meaningful.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
I’d emphasize our power to do social good and contribute to disrupting systems of oppression as an institution. Higher education gives us resources— but those shouldn’t stay confined to campus. We are responsible for extending them into and collaborating with our local communities, like Douglas Park and Brighton Park, for example, to uplift the strengths and work already present in these communities, so that young people passing by UIC don’t see it as out of reach, but as a place where they belong.