Raised in the Inland Empire, Celeste Navas is a Ph.D. student in Cultural Studies. She earned her B.A.  in History at UC Riverside and her M.A. in U.S. History at UC Davis in 2021. Her research interrogates Latina/o/x/e placemaking and community building in the Inland Empire. Her research explores how residents of the Inland Empire create place and a sense of belonging within their communities to understand the historical development of culture, race, labor, and urban development in the region. Research interests are race, space, power, belonging, racial capitalism, California’s political economy, geography, labor, and public history.