Zoraya Berlanga Aguilar
Criminal Justice Instructor
Texas Southmost College
Email:
zoraya.berlangaaguil@tsc.edu
Ms. Zoraya Berlanga Aguilar earned her bachelor’s and master’s degree in criminal justice at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Her master’s thesis research was Intimate Partner Femicide of the Rio Grande Valley: An Exploratory Study, and she received the Center for Mexican American Studies- Mexican American/Latinx Graduate Scholars Initiative Fellowship which provided a paid stipend and covered her conference presentation costs.
She has presented at local and regional conferences, Southwestern Social Science Association, at From Margin to Center: Voices from the Tejas/Mexico Borderlands – CMAS Graduate Scholars Initiative 2022, and ” 1ª Jornada Científica Estudiantil de la Facultad de Ciencias de la Conducta y de la Educación – Universidad Tamaulipeca, Reynosa, to present her intimate partner femicide research. She has written several articles for Trucha RGV (an independent multimedia platform dedicated to the people, culture, and social movements of the Rio Grande Valley.) on the killing of Latinas in the RGV by intimate partners, Let’s talk about it: Latino men suicides, and Silent struggle: domestic violence in Cameron County. She also has been accepted to Texas A&M University for their doctoral program in sociology where she also was awarded the university wide fellowship named Dr. Dionel E. Avilés '53 and Dr. James E. Johnson '67 Graduate Fellowship Program which provides her full funding to complete her program studies starting fall 2024.
She is currently working for Texas Southmost College as a Criminal Justice Instructor and is a Fellow with Allies Against Slavery. Previously she worked with Evident Change as a Research Analyst II where she conducted qualitative research on girls and women’s experiences in gangs in the Rio Grande Valley.
Her research focuses on Latinx women, intimate partner violence, intimate partner femicide, and social justice issues among Latinas of the Rio Grande Valley. Her goal is to advocate for her community and represent Latinx people in research and academia.
