Graduate Student Spotlight: Jose Contreras
PRIME is excited to welcome first-year mathematics education doctoral student José Contreras to the program. Contreras was born and raised in southeast Los Angeles, California, in a Latinx community.
Despite growing up in a Latinx community and having parents who are from the Mexican
states of Nayarit and Sinaloa, it was not a major part of his identity until he began his university
studies, and especially now in Michigan.
While living in Los Angeles, Contreras was connected to many local indie, rock, and punk bands. José stated, “When I wasn’t in large venues watching bands on their national tour, I was in a dive bar in Hollywood or East LA supporting my friends.”
Contreras remarked that he began to take up digital art to help create a brand for
the bands, noting that two of the bands he worked with in the past still use his designs
to this day. José says he loves not only music, but the arts in general, and that
he loves to go to the movies and the local performing arts theatres.
Most of his time spent outside of Los Angeles was in Mexico visiting his parents’ hometowns. Other trips have been to math conferences. Contreras has visited the states of Hawaii, Colorado, Missouri, Massachusetts, and Louisiana with friends for conferences. José commented that “it was amazing to be able to travel to amazing places,” and the conferences embedded him further into academia. “I don’t know if I would be in a doctoral program if I didn’t attend these conferences,” Contreras mused.
Before PRIME, José earned a bachelor's degree in Mathematics with a focus on teaching
and a minor in Political Science from California State University, Los Angeles, CSULA,
and earned his master's degree in Pure Mathematics from California State Polytechnic
University, Pomona, for short, Cal Poly Pomona.
Contreras applied to PRIME while completing his master's degree. During this time, he finished his pure math courses and was completing both mathematics education classes and his thesis. He was also working as the instructor of record for Trigonometry and Statistics classes in the math department. He had five years of tutoring experience in high school and college math, which helped prepare him for his two years as an instructor at Cal Poly Pomona.
While at PRIME, José hopes to delve deeper into his interests in undergraduate mathematics education surrounding Latinx experiences and the role of tutoring in supporting marginalized students. Having a strong interest in political science and through conversations with family members with degrees in the fields of sociology and Chicano studies, Contreras says he has “adopted an institutional lens to identify issues faced by marginalized communities.” He said through deeper investigation, he has seen colonization as “the root of many evils in education” and seeks to research how the use of the decolonial epistemologies, ethnomathematics, and educational policy can reform institutions to better serve communities that have been underserved.
After graduating from PRIME, Contreras hopes to earn a full-time position in a mathematics department at a university in California where he can continue his research interests close to communities where he has lived and worked.
PRIME wishes José the best of luck and a wonderful rest of the year!
Written by
Ansley Duke
