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I am a Postdoctoral Scholar affiliated with the Department of Political Science and the GenForward Survey at the University of Chicago. I received my Ph.D. in political science from Northwestern University in June of 2020.
My work is featured in Political Behavior, the Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics, the Washington Post, and GenForward’s Race and Place: Young Adults and the Future of Chicago.
My book project explores the ways in which civic education courses shape the political attitudes and behaviors of high schoolers along the lines of race and ethnicity. More specifically, I find that content and teaching practices that center the local knowledge and grassroots political action of marginalized groups have the ability to forge more empowering civic learning experiences for young people. This work utilizes a mixed-methods approach that includes the following:
- Archival research
- Statistical analyses of a nationally representative survey of 15-25-year-olds
- A survey experiment distributed to nearly 700 high schoolers within Chicago area classrooms
- Observations of 24 Chicago high school classrooms
- Statistical analyses of an original survey of 300 Chicago high school social studies teachers
- In-depth qualitative interviews with 30 high school social studies teachers
- Focus groups with Chicago high school students
This research is informed by a diverse set of academic literatures including race and ethnicity, political behavior, socialization, urban politics, and education policy.
I believe that research is most powerful when it is placed into the hands of individuals who are entrusted to institute policy change. As a public scholar, I have contributed to research at a number of organizations including the Obama Foundation, iCivics, GenForward, and the American Bar Foundation.
In addition to research, I am deeply committed to teaching. As a former public school teacher and a first generation college student, I am committed to ensuring that students can leverage the knowledge and skills they acquire in the classroom to play an active role in shaping their communities and the decision-making processes of elected officials.
During the 2020-2021 academic year, I taught American Politics at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and developed a new Social Studies Content for Teachers course for both graduate and undergraduate teaching candidates within Northwestern’s School of Education and Social Policy.
Previously, I served as a teaching assistant for a number of political science courses, including Intro to American Politics and Government, Environmental Politics, and Political Parties and Elections. I have also advised dozens of undergraduate research projects as a teaching assistant for the department’s Undergraduate Honors Thesis Seminar and Jamie Druckman’s Studying Public Opinion course. During the 2019-2020 academic year, I chaired the Graduate Teaching Committee within the Department of Political Science at Northwestern University and served as a Graduate Teaching Fellow through the Searle Center for Advancing Learning and Teaching.
Prior to beginning graduate school, I worked as a 5th grade teacher within the San Antonio Independent School District. In 2014, I received the district’s Rising Star Award, given to exceptional first-year teachers within the district. I am an alumnus of Teach For America and have tutored dozens of students through Nurturing Wisdom Chicago.
I received bachelor’s degrees in political science and Asian Studies from St. Olaf College in 2012 and a master’s degree in social science from the University of Chicago in 2015.