Daisy Paredes

My dissertation examines how first-generation college students and the staff who support them make “being and doing well” possible within a public Hispanic-Serving Institution in South Texas during a time of rising political scrutiny against equity-oriented programs. Drawing on 13 months of ethnographic and Chicana-feminist qualitative fieldwork (participant observation, shadowing, interviews, pláticas, testimonios, and analysis of institutional and policy texts), I trace how first-generation identity and “servingness” are produced in everyday practice through mentoring, resource coordination, and place-making I argue that educational “support” is carework: it addresses the material and emotional conditions that enable learning, including financial stability, safety, and belonging. At the same time, dominant institutional narratives of success emphasize neoliberal ideals such as individual merit, career-building, and economic independence. Students and staff negotiate these pressures through culturally-grounded moral commitments and relational obligations. In response to Texas anti-DEI legislation and related developments, I theorize “fugitive care” as adaptive continuations of support under conditions of surveillance and legal ambiguity. Finally, I develop “rasquache care,” or resourceful, improvisational practices that transform scarcity into dignity and use it to rethink “servingness” in public higher education. The project offers insights for student programs, higher education policy, and anthropologies of care, value, and education.