Daniel Rodriguez Ramirez
Daniel Rodriguez Ramirez
Assistant Professor
Pronouns: he/they
Contact Information
Office: 47-21R
Phone: 805-756-1603
Social-Community Psychology
Education
- Ph.D., Social Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz
- Designated Emphasis in Latino & Latin American Studies
- Secondary Concentration in Quantitative Social Sciences
- M.Ed., Counseling Psychology, Springfield College
Courses Taught
- PSY 360 Applied Social Psychology
- PSY 470 Community Psychology: Transforming Communities
- Qualitative Research Methods in Psychology (Future course)
- Community-Based Student-Engaged Interventions & Research (Future course)
Research Interests
My research explores the psychology of social change, aiming to understand it and promote it. My team examines how care workers, organizers, and minoritized people drive transformative change in their communities. We focus on how organizations and collectives address systemic oppression and cultivate equitable practices, like a culture of care, consensus decision-making, and accountability as healing, to support sustainable community growth.
A second interconnected line of research explored how minorities scholars —students and faculty— navigate university structures and the hidden curriculum to enact transformative change within the institution and beyond, as a matter of epistemic justice.
By learning from change-makers, I aim to understand how care-centered approaches and mutual support, especially in minoritized communities, promote fairer conditions of co-existence. For example, I have engaged in participatory action research (PAR) with immigrant youth, tackling problems like ICE arrests and post-pandemic recovery. My work highlights immigrant voices and social justice advocates, aiming to learn from minoritized groups’ efforts in shaping equitable organizational practices and community-based actions.
My scholarly efforts have been funded by nationals organizations like the Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA, APA Div. 27), the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI, APA Div. 9), the AK Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems, and the Dolores Huerta Research Center for the Americas.
Selected Publications/Professional Activities
Rodriguez Ramirez, D. & Langhout, R. D. (2023). Seeking utopia: Psychology’s waves toward decoloniality. American Journal of Community Psychology, 71, (1-2), 230-246. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12695
Rodriguez Ramirez, D., Martinez, J. A., 1Hernandez, L., 1Acevedo, M., 1Gonzales, C., 1Paz-Flores, M., 1Gill, K., Langhout, R. D., & McKay, S. (2023). “You gotta keep pushing”: Immigrant people regaining ontological security and withstanding coloniality. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 29(2), 113–125. https://doi.org/10.1037/pac0000658
Langhout, R. D., Rodriguez Ramirez, D., Vaccarino-Ruiz, S., Blanco, V. A., Quinteros, K., Copulsky D., & Lopezzi, M. A. (2021). Teaching and learning during a pandemic: How one graduate Community Psychology class quickly incorporated healing justice into our practices. American Journal of Community Psychology, 68 (1-2), 249-265. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12524
Vaccarino-Ruiz, S., Quinteros, K., Blanco, V. A., Rodriguez Ramirez, D., Langhout, R. D., Copulsky D., & Lopezzi, M. A. (2021). Yes, they were suffering, but we brought the music: Social toxicity and possibility during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US. Community Psychology in Global Perspective, 7(1), 106-126. https://doi.org/10.1285/i24212113v7i1p106
Grabe, S., Rodriguez Ramirez, D., & Dutt, A. (2020). Community intervention in reproductive justice: The role of self-esteem and powerlessness in reproductive decision-making and educational aspiration. Journal of Social Issues, 76 (2), 391-415. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12377
1Students under my mentorship for the research project