The APSA Diversity and Inclusion Advancing Research Grants provide support for the advancement of scholars from historically underrepresented groups and for research that examines political science phenomena affecting underserved communities and underrepresented groups. In July 2023, APSA awarded six projects for the APSA Diversity and Inclusion Advancing Research Grant for Early Career Scholars for a combined total award amount of $12,000. Read more about the funded projects here: https://www.apsanet.org/DIVERSITY/APSA-Diversity-Advancing-Research-Grants/Advancing-Research-Grants-Early-Career-Scholars/2023-Advancing-Research-Grants-for-Early-Career-Scholars-Recipients

ESTEFANÍA CASTAÑEDA PÉREZ

University of Pennsylvania

Project Title: Embodied Borders: Transborder Mobility and Mental Health at Mexico-US Ports of Entry

Estefanía Castañeda Pérez is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Penn Migration Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania. Trained as an interdisciplinary scholar in political science, her research interests include border policing, mental health among transborder populations, the conceptualization and consequences of violence, and border politics. Her dissertation examined how the lives of transborder commuters are impacted by their border crossing experiences and interactions with US Customs and Border Protection officers. Her research has been supported by the APSA Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant, the National Science Foundation and the Ford Foundation. Her work has been published in Politics, Groups, and Identities, and in academic blogs such as NACLA and the NYU Latinx Project Intervenxions Blog. Castañeda Pérez has a master’s degree in political science from UCLA, and a bachelor’s degree in political science with an honors minor in interdisciplinary studies from San State University.

JEFF FENG

Northwestern University

Project Title: Toward Queer Climate Justice

Jeff Feng is a STRONG Manoomin Collective Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University. Their research and teaching focus on the intersections of climate justice and queer liberation, environmental justice, and social movements. They examine the contributions of queer, trans, and Two-Spirit activists to fighting climate injustices and analyze how power, privilege, and marginalization shape climate justice policies and movements. As a scholar-activist, they advance climate justice by researching alongside organizers, such as those in the Central Coast Climate Justice Network, and by teaching courses that pair students with environmental justice partners to complete collaborative projects. They have published in Energy Research & Social Science and AAPI Nexus and contributed to Edward Elgar’s A Research Agenda for Human Rights edited volume. They received their MA and PhD in political science, with a doctoral emphasis in feminist studies, from the University of California, Santa Barbara and their AB in environmental sciences and policy from Duke University.

LUZMARINA GARCIA

Florida Atlantic University

Project Title: Under Pressure: Case Allocation in Immigration Courts

Luzmarina Garcia is an assistant professor in the department of political science at Florida Atlantic University. She investigates the health of American courts with an eye to public opinion, representation, and inter-branch relations. Her research focuses on judicial politics, political behavior, and identity politics. She is particularly interested in gender and judicial decision-making and the study of these topics in administrative courts, such as immigration courts. She earned her PhD in political science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

GEORGE AGUSTIN MARKARIAN

Loyola University Chicago

Project Title: Racial Boundaries of Protection: How Victims’ Race and Ethnicity Shape Political Responses to Mass Shootings

G. Agustin Markarian is an assistant professor at Loyola University Chicago. His research lies at the intersections of political representation and public policy, focusing on racial, ethnic, and class-based inequalities. Two questions motivate his research: how can we better protect marginalized communities from violence and incarceration? And, how can we improve marginalized communities’ political representation? His research is published in American Political Science Review, Legislative Studies Quarterly, and the American Politics Research.

ANDREA VILÁN

American University

Project Title: Resisting the Prohibition of Child Marriage in Latin America

Andrea Vilán is an Assistant Professor at American University. Her research focuses on international law, human rights, transnational activism, and the impact of domestic politics on international cooperation. Her book manuscript explores the politics of treaty incorporation, illuminating how the distributive and moral conflicts that human rights treaties activate within civil society hinder the incorporation of international treaty provisions into domestic law. The manuscript is based on her dissertation, which won the American Political Science Association’s award for the best dissertation in the field of human rights. Her other work has been published in Journal of Human Rights and Politics & Gender. Andrea’s research has been funded by American University’s Public Affairs & Policy Lab and Helfat Faculty Development Fund, Princeton’s Program in Latin American Studies, APSA’s William A. Steiger Fund for Legislative Studies, and the International and Latin American Institutes at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She holds a PhD in political science from UCLA and degrees in international relations from Universidad de San Andrés and Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Argentina.

KENICIA WRIGHT

Arizona State University

Project Title: No Money, No Problem? A Study of Money, Social Capital, and Electoral Success of Women State Legislative Candidates Across Racial/Ethnic Groups

Kenicia Wright is an assistant professor in the School of Politics and Global Studies at Arizona State University. Dr. Wright studies how representation and policy outcomes are influenced by social identities, such as race/ethnicity, gender, and class. She regularly applies intersectionality in her work, which centers on power and the effects of being comprised of multiple marginalized identities. She explores questions related to social identities, (bureaucratic and political) representation, and public policy in the US. Her recent research examines the factors that reduce health disparities in the health outcomes of Black women, Latinas, and White Women, factors that shape the disciplinary outcomes of K-12 students, and determinants of the political representation of marginalized groups. ■