Laurent Reyes

Assistant Professor Laurent Reyesis committed to developing research that challenges current systems of inequality that directly affect older Black and Latinx adults. As an activist scholar and storyteller, Dr. Reyes leans on qualitative and visual methods to listen and elevate lifetime stories of resistance and solidarity among Latinx and Black elders to re-imagine a new framework of civic participation emerging from their lived experience. The goal of this research is to shift socio-political focus and resources towards the work and solutions that historically oppressed communities have developed to survive and thrive in the context of systemic oppression and ethnoracial persecution. To do this, Dr. Reyes works with community members, artists, and non-profit organizations to weave these stories and support the ongoing movement towards liberation.

Dr. Reyes earned her BSW, MSW, and PhD in Social Work from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Her recent empirical research has been published in The Gerontologist, Ageing & Society, Research on Aging, Innovation in Aging, and Journal of Social Distress and Homelessness. Prior to embarking in her academic career, Dr. Reyes worked with various research organizations conducting evaluation research on access to health and community services among indigenous, Black, Latinx, and immigrant communities in Mexico and the United States.

To learn more about her project with Black and Latinx older adults, please visit the Our Way of Life Archive.