Dr. Alessandra Bazo Vienrich

Alessandra Bazo Vienrich, Ph.D., is a sociologist of migration and race. She holds a PhD. in Sociology from the University of Massachusetts Boston (with a graduate certificate in Survey Research), an MA in Sociology from Lehigh University, and a BA in Sociology and Non-Profit Management from Salem College. Her research focuses on how race and legal status shape the educational pathways of Latinx students. Her forthcoming book, Conditioned to DREAM: The Broken Promises of Higher Education for Undocumented Latinx Students (University of North Carolina Press), looks at how undocumented Latinx students are motivated to pursue higher education by three enduring American myths––the Education Gospel, the DREAM Act, and the American Dream. She explores the consequences of these students’ pursuit of higher education, showing how they came to realize that higher education was fraught and that even if they earned college degrees, the narrative that frames the undocumented Latinx population as ‘undeserving’ of citizenship, personhood, and belonging in the United States, could be weaponized against them. Professor Bazo Vienrich’s book goes beyond a one-dimensional analysis of legal status to consider how racialized ethnicity, stage in the life course, and the wider historical-political milieu––as they intersect with legal status and students’ personal biographies––shape their experiences and trajectories in higher education.

Professor Bazo Vienrich’s research agenda is rooted in exploring Latinx immigrant students’ experiences at various stages of the life course. To that end, and thanks to generous funding from the Spencer Foundation Racial Equity Research Grants Program, Professor Bazo Vienrich is the Principal Investigator of the Massachusetts High School Counselor Study. This mixed-methods study explores how high school counselors support the postsecondary pathways of high schoolers who are undocumented or recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Looking at high school counselors in Massachusetts, a state that in 2023 expanded its tuition equity laws to allow undocumented students to qualify for in-state tuition and state financial aid, Professor Bazo Vienrich is investigating the role of schools and districts in supporting counselors who advise undocumented and DACA students and counselors’ interactions with these students.

Prior to joining Rhode Island College, Professor Bazo Vienrich was a tenure-track Assistant Professor at Worcester State University (2020-2022) and a Visiting Assistant Professor at Davidson College (2019-2020). From 2021-2023 she was a Scholar at the Institute in Critical Quantitative, Computational and Mixed Methodologies (ICQCM)–– a William T. Grant Foundation program, and in 2023 she was a North Star Collective Faculty Fellow. Professor Bazo Vienrich’s research has been published in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Sociology Compass, the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, and Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World.

Professor Bazo Vienrich teaches courses on migration, race, justice, and research methods, and works on independent studies, honor’s theses, master’s theses, and McNair Scholar projects with students interested in conducting research in these areas. In 2024 she won the Rhode Island College Excellence in Faculty Advising Award.

To learn more about Professor Bazo Vienrich you can visit her website: www.bazovienrich.com