The New Scholar Award recognizes a member of the DPCC who is in the early stages of their career and has made significant recent contributions to the literature and scholarship, including public scholarship and media, on race/ethnicity, crime, and justice.
Purpose: Acknowledges significant recent contributions to the literature on race, ethnicity, crime, and justice by early-career scholars.
Eligibility: Must have earned a Ph.D. within the past 5 years and be an active DPCC member in good standing for at least 2 consecutive years.
Nomination Materials: Letter of nomination and nominee’s CV. Self-nominations are welcome.
Deadline: By September 5, 2025, submit nominations to Dr. LaDonna Long, Chair of the DPCC Awards Committee, at llong@roosevelt.edu.
Chris Guerra, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Security Studies at The University of Texas at El Paso. He received his Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from Sam Houston State University in 2022. His primary research focuses on immigrant populations. More specifically, Dr. Guerra seeks to understand the conceptual and empirical relationship between immigrant experiences and a host of adverse outcomes like criminal offending and victimization, particularly among Latina/o immigrants and diaspora. His work leverages criminological and interdisciplinary incorporations of theory and advanced research statistical methodologies at the individual-level. His recent work has appeared in journals such as Ethnic and Racial Studies, Deviant Behavior, Journal of Crime and Justice, and Prevention Science.
Previous Awardees | 2008 – Present
2023 – Toniqua Mikell
2022 – Janet Garica-Hallett
2021 – Shytierra Gaston
2020 – Janice Iwama
2019 – Jose Torres
2018 – Nishaun Battle
2017 – Jason Williams
2016 – Robert Vargas & Kishonna Gray
2015 – Stephanie DiPietro & Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve
2014 – Kevin Drakulich
2013 – Jennifer Cobbina and Xia Wang
2012 – Andres Rengifo
2011 – Robert J. Durán
2010 – Victor Rios
2009 – Nikki Jones
2008 – Rod Brunson