In a series of research projects, she examines how institutions and organizational settings shape the construction of racial, ethnic, and political identities. She is currently working on a book manuscript based on a comparative ethnography of six Latino student organizations at three different institutions of higher education—a private liberal arts college, a public research university, and a public teaching university—where she interrogates how institutional contexts influence Latino students’ identities, outlooks on opportunity and inequality in America, and participation in collective action. She has also conducted sexuality research examining the ways Mexican-origin mothers convey sexual messages to their U.S. born daughters.