Heidy Sarabia, Associate Professor
Dr. Heidy Sarabia
Contact Information

Heidy Sarabia
Associate Professor
Teaching
I will be teaching these courses:
- Summer 2025: Soc 129: Social Change and Migration in Latin America
- Fall 2025: Soc 2: You, Sociology, and the University
Student Programming Spotlight
As a teacher-scholar, and a first-generation college student and academic, I am committed to making sure our students find a sense of belonging in the Sociology Department through events, programming, and mentoring. Here is some of the programming/mentoring I have supported:Research Interests
My research focuses on globalization processes such as global stratification, borders, systemic and normalized violence, local and transnational social change/movements, immigrant adaptation and incorporation in the United States; educational experiences among Latinx, undocumented/DACAmented, and first-generation college students in higher education, with a focus on experiences among Chicanx/Latinx Students and Faculty at Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs); and alumni trajectories and engagement post-graduation.
Sarabia, Heidy, Laura Zaragoza, and Jesus Limon. 2021. “(Re) Framing Legal Vulnerability: Identity, abjection, and resistance among DACAmented immigrants in the era of Trumpism.” The Howard Journal of Communications. 32(2):180-96.
Sarabia, Heidy, Laura E. Enriquez, Victoria E. Rodriguez, Laura Zaragoza, and Sonia Tinoco. 2021 “What Helps Students Get Help?: An Exploratory Analysis of Factors that Shape Undocumented College Students’ Use of Academic Resources.” Journal of Latinos and Education. 20(3):290-303.
Enriquez, Laura E., Karina Chavarria, Victoria E. Rodriguez, Cecilia Ayón, Basia D. Ellis, Melissa J. Hagan, Julián Jefferies, Jannet Lara, Martha Morales Hernandez, Enrique G. Murillo, Jr., Jennifer R. Najera, Carly Offidani-Bertrand, Maria Oropeza Fujimoto, Annie Ro, William E. Rosales, Heidy Sarabia, Ana K. Soltero López, Mercedes Valadez, Zulema Valdez, Sharon Velarde Pierce. 2021. “Toward a Nuanced and Contextualized Understanding of Undocumented College Students: Lessons from a California Survey.” Journal of Latinos and Education. 20 (3):215-231.
Sarabia, Heidy.2020. “Migrants, Activists, and the Mexican State: Framing Violence, Rights, and Solidarity Along the U.S.-Mexico Border.” Citizenship Studies. 24(4):512-529.
Armenta, Amada and Heidy Sarabia. 2020. “Receptionists, Doctors, and Social Workers: Examining Undocumented Immigrant Women's Perceptions of Health Services.” Social Science & Medicine. (246): 112788.
Sarabia, Heidy. 2019. “Citizenship in the Global South: Policing Irregular Migrants and Eroding Citizenship Rights in Mexico.” Latin American Perspectives. 46(6):42-55.
Sarabia, Heidy. 2018. “‘Felons, not Families’: criminalized illegality, stigma, and membership among deported criminal aliens in Mexico.” Migration Letters. 15(2):45-61.
Sarabia, Heidy. 2017. “Uprooted: identity and illegality among return migrants in Mexico.” Carta Económica Regional. 29 (120):83-104.
Sarabia, Heidy. 2016. “Borderland Attachments: Citizenship and Belonging Along the U.S.-Mexico Border.” Citizenship Studies. 20 (3-4):342-58.
Bloemraad, Irene, Heidy Sarabia, and Angela Fillingim. 2016. “‘Staying out of Trouble’ and Doing what is ‘Right:’ Citizenship Acts, Citizenship Ideals and the Effects of Legal Status on Second-Generation Youth.” American Behavioral Scientist. 60(13) :1534-1552.
Sarabia, Heidy. 2015. “Global South Cosmopolitans from Mexico: Privilege, Mobility and the Reinforcement of Difference in the Global South and the Global North.” Ethnic and Racial Studies. 38 (2): 227-242.
Sarabia, Heidy. 2012. “Perpetual Illegality: Results of Border Enforcement and Policies for Mexican Undocumented Migrants in the U.S.” Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy. 12(1):49-67.
Sarabia, Heidy. 2011. “Organizing ‘Below and to the Left’: Differences in the Citizenship and Transnational Practices of Two Groups in the San Francisco Bay Area.” Sociological Forum. 26(2): 356-380.
Vargas, Maria and Heidy Sarabia. 2024. “The Dehumanizing Framing of Central American and Mexican Children and Youth Seeking Refuge in the United States.” Arturo J. Aldama, Jessica Ordaz, Leo R. Chavez, and Karma R. Chavez (Eds.). Resistance and Abolition in the Borderlands: Confronting Trump’s Reign of Terror. University of Arizona Press.
Gonzalez, Henry, Heidy Sarabia, and Fiorella L. Carlos Chavez. 2023 “State-Sponsored Forceful Separation of Latinx Families and Communities: Policies, Consequences, and Interventions.” National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) Report: Marginalized Families. Summer.
Sarabia, Heidy, Laura Zaragoza, and Jannet Esparza. 2023. “Intersectional Vulnerability: Fragmented, Racialized, and Criminalized Illegality Among Mexican Undocumented Women in the U.S.” Latinx Experiences: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Ed. Maria Villaseñor and Hortencia Jimenez. Sage.
HCC. 2023. “Sacramento Hispanic Chamber of Commerce: 2023 Hispanic Economic Report.” Available online.
Flores, Alma, Heidy Sarabia, Nancy Huante-Tzintzun, and Elizabeth Delgado. 2022. “A Community Cultural Wealth Study: Report Prepared for the Stockton Scholars Program.” Available online.
Sarabia, Heidy, Laura Zaragoza, and Alejandra Aguilar. 2022. “Navigating the Regime of Illegality: Experiences of migration and racialization among 1.5-generation Mexican migrant women.” Tamar Mayer and Trinh Tran (Ed.) Displacement, Belonging, and Migrant Agency in the Face of Power. Routledge.
Sarabia, Heidy. 2021. “Kevin Escudero’s Organizing While Undocumented Book Review” in Social Forces. 99(4):e5.
Enriquez, Laura E., Cecilia Ayón, Karina Chavarria, Basia Ellis, Melissa J. Hagan, Julián Jefferies, Jannet Lara, Martha Morales Hernandez, Enrique Murillo Jr., Jennifer Nájera, Carly Offidani-Bertrand, Maria Oropeza Fujimoto, Annie Ro, Victoria E. Rodriguez, William Rosales, Heidy Sarabia, Ana Soltero Lopez, Mercedes Valadez, Sharon Valarde Pierce, Zulema Valdez. 2020. “Persisting Inequalities and Paths Forward: A Report on the State of Undocumented Students in California’s Public Universities.” UC Collaborative to Promote Immigrant and Student Equity & Undocumented Student Equity Project. Irvine, CA. Available online.
Sarabia, Heidy (ed). 2020. Sociology Writing Manual: From Start to Finish. First edition. CSUS: Sacramento. Available online.
Sarabia, Heidy. 2020. “The importance of introductions” in Sociology Writing Manual: From Start to Finish. H. Sarabia, ed. First edition. CSUS: Sacramento. Available online.
Shigihara, Amanda and Heidy Sarabia. 2020. “Literature Reviews” in Sociology Writing Manual: From Start to Finish. H. Sarabia, ed. First edition. CSUS: Sacramento. Available online.
Brooks, Jacqueline, Heidy Sarabia and Aya K. Ida (editors). 2020. Race and Ethnicity in the U.S.: The Sociological Mindful Approach. First edition. Cognella Academic Publishing.
Sarabia, Heidy and Maria Perales. 2020. “Operation Streamline: producing legal violence, racialized illegality, and perpetual exclusion” in Race and Ethnicity in the U.S.: The Sociological Mindful Approach. Cognella Academic Publishing.
Brooks, Jacqueline, and Heidy Sarabia. 2020. “The Sandra Bland Case: Dissecting Intersectionality and Institutional Segregation in Post-racial America” in Race and Ethnicity in the U.S.: The Sociological Mindful Approach. First edition. Cognella Academic Publishing.
Sarabia, Heidy. 2019. “Duran’s Gang Paradox’s Book Review” in Social Forces.
Sarabia, Heidy. 2019. “Operation Wetback,” “Operation Gatekeeper,” “Operation Blockade/Hold the Line,” and “Operation Streamline” in Latinos in the American Political System: An Encyclopedia of Latinos as Voters, Candidates, and Office Holders. Ed. Jessica Lavariega Monforti.
Sarabia, Heidy, and Diana M. Gonzalez. 2018. “Capitulo 6: En las fronteras de la ilegalidad y la violencia: El caso de 26 mujeres deportadas de EEUU a México. (In the Borders of Illegality and Violence: The case of 26 women deported from the U.S. to Mexico).” Book chapter in Gobernanza, Sociedad Civil y Fronteras (Governmentality, Civil Society, and Borders). Ed. Kenia María Ramírez Meda. Universidad Autónoma de Baja California.
Sarabia, Heidy. 2018. “Sergio Chavez’ Border Lives: Fronterizos, Transnational Migrants, and Commuters in Tijuana Book Review” in Latino Studies.
Sarabia, Heidy. 2018. “Deborah Boehm’ Returned: Going and Coming in an Age of Deportation Book Review” in Contemporary Sociology. 47(3):304-306.
Sarabia, Heidy. 2017. “Caging Paloma: illegality and violence along the U.S.-Mexico border” in Forced Out and Fenced In: Immigration Tales from the Field, Tanya Golash-Boza, editor. Oxford University Press.
Bloemraad, Irene, Heidy Sarabia, and Angela Fillingim. 2017. “Citizenship Acts: Legality, Power and the Limits of Political Action” Solicited book chapter in Within and Beyond Citizenship: Lived Experiences of Political Membership, Nando Sigona and Roberto G. Gonzales, editors. Routledge, Chapman & Hall.
Sarabia, Heidy. 2016. "Detention, Incarceration, and Deportation" in Contemporary Issues for People of Color: Surviving and Thriving in the U.S. Today (5 of 5 volumes - Immigration/Migration), Eds. Alvaro Huerta, Norma Iglesias-Prieto and Donathan L. Brown. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO / Greenwood.
Sarabia, Heidy and Aida Rodriguez. 2016. "Unaccompanied Undocumented Minors" in Contemporary Issues for People of Color: Surviving and Thriving in the U.S. Today (5 of 5 volumes - Immigration/Migration), Eds. Alvaro Huerta, Norma Iglesias-Prieto and Donathan L. Brown. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO / Greenwood.
Sarabia, Heidy. 2012. “U.S.-Mexico Border.” The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Globalization. Edited by George Ritzer.
Sarabia, Heidy. 2025. “On Immigrant Rights Battles as Citizenship Rights Battles.” Featured Palabra. Chicanx/Latinx Faculty and Staff Association (CHLFSA) Noticias y Mas (Newsletter). 5(2):3-4. Available online here.
Sarabia, Heidy. 2025. “A picture worth mil palabras.” Chicanx/Latinx Faculty and Staff Association (CHLFSA) Noticias y Mas (Newsletter). 5(2):11. Available online here.
Sarabia, Heidy. 2025. “Book Review of Erendira (by Dr. Rose Borunda).” Chicanx/Latinx Faculty and Staff Association (CHLFSA) Noticias y Mas (Newsletter). 5(2):21. Available online here.
Sarabia, Heidy. 2024. "A picture worth mil palabras.” Chicanx/Latinx Faculty and Staff Association (CHLFSA) Noticias y Mas (Newsletter). 5(1):16. Available online here.
Sarabia, Heidy. 2024. “Advocacy for change.” Chicanx/Latinx Faculty and Staff Association (CHLFSA) Noticias y Mas (Newsletter). 5(1):20. Available online here.
Sarabia, Heidy. 2024. “Mis Tradiciones: Ofrendas en la Familia Roman.” Essay. Chicanx/Latinx Faculty and Staff Association (CHLFSA) Noticias y Mas (Newsletter). 5(1):48. Available online here.
Sarabia, Heidy and Maria Vargas. 2024. “Violencia,” with Maria Vargas. Chicanx/Latinx Faculty and Staff Association (CHLFSA) Noticias y Mas (Newsletter). 4(2):9-10. Available online here.
Sarabia, Heidy. 2024. “A picture worth mil palabras.” Chicanx/Latinx Faculty and Staff Association (CHLFSA) Noticias y Mas (Newsletter). 4(2):5. Available online here.
Sarabia, Heidy. 2024. “Some Quejas.” Chicanx/Latinx Faculty and Staff Association (CHLFSA) Noticias y Mas (Newsletter). 4(1):5. Available online here.
Sarabia, Heidy. 2023. “A picture worth mil palabras.” Chicanx/Latinx Faculty and Staff Association (CHLFSA) Noticias y Mas (Newsletter). 4(1):12. Available online here.
Sarabia, Heidy. 2023. “Open Letter to the Candidates Seeking to become Sac State’s Next President.” Featured Palabra. Chicanx/Latinx Faculty and Staff Association (CHLFSA) Noticias y Mas (Newsletter). 3(2):3-4. Available online here.
Sarabia, Heidy. 2023. “Reflection on the U.S.-Mexico Border,” with Maria Vargas. Featured En Corto. Chicanx/Latinx Faculty and Staff Association (CHLFSA) Noticias y Mas (Newsletter). 3(2):6. Available online here.
Service
California Sociological Association (CSA) - Website Designner
Chicanx/Latinx Faculty and Staff Associaiton (CHLFSA) - Communications Officer
Center on Race, Immigration, and Social Justice (CRISJ) - Faculty Research Coordinator
Education
- Ph.D. in Sociology, University of California, Berkeley (2014)
- M.A. in Sociology, University of California, Berkeley (2008)
- B.A. in Sociology and Chicana/o Studies, University of California, Los Angeles (2004)
- A.A., Sacramento City College (2001)