Research Expertise and Interest

civic participation, community based research, visual methods, aging, immigration, Latinx older adults, Black older adults, intersectional life course perspective, systems of oppression, access to healthcare

Research Description

Laurent Reyes is an assistant professor in the School of Social Welfare, a scholar in the Latinx and Democracy Cluster at UC Berkeley, and a member of UCSF Emancipatory Sciences Lab. She comes to UC Berkeley from Rutgers University, where she received her MSW and PhD in Social Work with a focus on Aging and Latinx communities.  

Dr. Reyes utilizes qualitative and visual methods to elevate the ongoing resistance and solidarity among Latinx and Black elders as they struggle to access community and health services and develop opportunities and solutions to meet community needs and improve conditions. The goal of this research is to re-imagine civic participation and shift socio-political focus and resources to support the solutions and innovations that Black and Latinx communities have developed to survive and thrive in the context of systemic oppression and ethnoracial persecution. To do this, Dr. Reyes works with community members, artists, and non-profit organizations to weave these stories and support the ongoing movement towards liberation.