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MA Program

Thesis Advisor: Dr. Timothy Collins

Thesis: My thesis was about a Latina-led NGO's efforts toward community development amidst the local state's push for neoliberal development. I assess how and why organizations that attempt to resist a neoliberal politics of development may unintentional do so nevertheless, evaluating the benefits and drawbacks of deploying culture as a motor of economic growth.

Internships: Yes. I participated in a few Research Assistantships where I learned to conduct thorough literature reviews, construct survey instruments, collect/analyze quantitative data and become familiar with key steps toward publication.

Post MA in Sociology

PhD Program: I am seeking a PhD from Sociology program at the Ãå±±ÂÖ¼é of Minnesota (UMN). With the professional experience I gained at UTEP, I was able to negotiate a competitive funding package at UMN for five years of financial support (including summers), which consisted of two years of university fellowship support and three years of guaranteed TA/RA funding. In my third year of the program, I applied for and successfully received a Pre-doctoral Ford Fellowship, which granted me three more years of fellowship support. The curriculum at the Ãå±±ÂÖ¼é of Minnesota requires students to engage with classical sociological theory and become familiar with a range of research methods and quantitative analysis. Beyond these requirements, students have the flexibility to specialize in particular methods (e.g., in-depth interviews, surveys) and are encouraged to engage with courses outside of sociology to foster greater interdisciplinary perspectives. Like UTEP, faculty at the Ãå±±ÂÖ¼é of Minnesota are encouraged to conduct research in graduate students to foster professional development and work rigorous enough to enter a range of publication pipelines. On this front, the university is equipped with various centers (e.g., population center, a large immigration archive) that students and faculty may use for individual/collaborative projects.

Publications: Yes, and they are as follows:

• Grineski, S.E., Collins, T.W., Chavez-Payan, P., Jimenez, A., Clark-Reyna, S., Gaines, M., & Kim, Y. 2014. Social disparities in children’s respiratory health in El Paso, Texas. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, 11(3), 2941-2957.
• Jimenez, A., T. Collins and S. Grineski. 2013. Intra-ethnic disparities in respiratory health problems among Hispanic residents impacted by a flood. Journal of Asthma, 50(5), 463-471.
• Collins, T. and A. Jimenez. 2012. The Neoliberal Production of Vulnerability and Unequal Risk. In S. Dooling and G. Simon (eds.), Cities, Nature and Development: The Politics and Production of Urban Vulnerabilities (pp. 49-68). Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing Group.
• Collins, T., A. Jimenez and S. Grineski. 2012. Hispanic Health Disparities after a Flood Disaster: Results of a Population-based Survey of Individuals Experiencing Home Site Damage in El Paso (Texas, USA). Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 15(2), 415-426.

Jobs: Since graduating from the MA program at UTEP, I have been employed as a Teaching Assistant (TA) and a Research Assistant (RA) at the Ãå±±ÂÖ¼é of Minnesota. Courses for which I have been a TA for include (a) Intro to Sociology; (b) Cities and Social Change; (c) Sociological Research Methods; and (d) Power, Justice, and the Environment. In my capacity as an RA, I have interviewed NGOs and hospital administration about responses to the changing infrastructure of the health care safety net and assisted in the analysis of quantitative data pertaining to home care work in Minnesota.

How has the MA in Sociology program prepared you? My MA in Sociology has provided me a strong, fundamental understanding of the research process from idea generation to publication. In my time among peers from various institutions across the US, it's become clearer to me that the Sociology MA program at UTEP equips students well for entering what many graduate students would regard an opaque publication process.

Organization memberships:

• The American Sociological Association (ASA)
• Kinder Institute for Urban Research (Rice Ãå±±ÂÖ¼é; Houston, TX)

Future Goals: I want to be a professor, scholar-activist and composer. Though the latter of these goals may seem to have very little to do with the former, all three are intimately interlinked for me. I will continue to allow my biography to inform, challenge and deconstruct (my) scholarship. I aim to enter academia with the capacity to teach, learn and change.

Education

BA- Sociology minor in Communication, The Ãå±±ÂÖ¼é of Texas at El El Paso, 2010
MA- Sociology, The Ãå±±ÂÖ¼é of Texas at El Paso, 2012

Email: jimen033@umn.edu 

Favorite Memory

The people I met. Beyond the relationships I built with faculty throughout the program, the real gems of my experience were those connections I made with other graduate students. We frequently hung out, consolidated our confusions over statistics and shared critical perspectives with one another that we may have otherwise not received outside of the program.