Student Spotlights

I plan to study Black Student Unions (BSUs) at the high school level and their relationship with Black identity development and belonging; success in school; and skills, mindsets, and behaviors for my dissertation. I have recently completed qualitative research with BSU leaders at the school and school district levels and quantitative research with an adolescent data set of African American and Caribbean secondary students about risk and protective factors, experiences of discrimination and more and their relationship with student grades and stress levels. I currently work as the College and Career Counselor and Counseling Department Chair at an urban high school in addition to attending the University of New Mexico. I am also a BSU coordinator for my school. I will be presenting at ASA this year about collaborations between College and Career Counseling and BSU. 

I am a Ph.D. candidate in Higher Education at West Virginia University. My dissertation focuses on the career trajectories and retention of female professional staff in higher education. I have experience working in higher education in admissions, student success, and as an instructor. I am also a certified K-6 teacher in Pennsylvania and Florida, as well as a certified 5-9 social science teacher in Florida.

Leslie Patricia Luqueño is a 5th-year doctoral candidate at Stanford's Graduate School of Education, specializing in the Sociology of Education. She will be on the job market this fall, looking for postdoctoral and faculty positions in Education, Sociology, and/or Ethnic Studies! 

Leslie holds an M.A. in Sociology from Stanford University and a B.A. with honors in Anthropology and Educational Studies from Haverford College. Her research interests lie at the intersection of migration, higher education, and family studies, with a focus on the experiences of the children of immigrants within higher education. Particularly, she is interested in how the children of migrants develop unique pockets of familial and experiential knowledge that help them survive and thrive at college institutions. 

Leslie's dissertation is titled ""College is a Familia Occasion: How Latinx Immigrant Families Navigate the Transition toward Higher Education."" In her two-year qualitative, longitudinal study, she follows a group of Latinx parents and students as they go through the college application process and transition into the first year of college, learning deeply about how the transition shapes familial dynamics and relationships as well as how family affects educational change. Utilizing her novel conceptual framework, immigrant legacies, Leslie delves into how immigration familial histories manifest and the ways in which they inform how families support each other during this critical point of change. Using qualitative interviews, participant-observation, platicas, and autoethnographic vignettes, Leslie's book-length dissertation centers families as experts of their lived experiences and cultivates a community-engaged research methodology that contributes to the organizations and people Leslie works with alongside in this project. As a first-generation-to-college Latina student from a working-class, immigrant family herself, Leslie is dedicated to the expansion of justice and equity within higher education and engages in research projects that will have real-life impact on the communities she works with.

As a rising 4th-year doctoral student in sociology at Brown, I am excited to embark on the dissertation component of my academic journey. My project will examine spatial and temporal variations in child care access across the United States over a thirty year period, and then connect these variations with changes in inputs (e.g., policies, public investments) and outputs (e.g., market dynamics, child and family outcomes). I look forward to presenting an early draft of my first chapter at ASA in August. 

In addition to my research work, I am passionate about serving as a teacher and mentor for undergraduate students. This is my third summer working as a lab manager for Brown’s Undergraduate Research Fellows program, which introduces students in public policy and the social sciences to the world of research. In my role, I am responsible for helping students navigate the day-to-day of their research assistantships — how to code in Stata, interpret output, visualize data, write reports, and “manage up” with their faculty supervisors. My prior experience as a Research Assistant/Associate at the American Institutes for Research (2018-2022) has been invaluable in helping me prepare students for “real world” RA positions. 

I am thankful for my mentors, Emily Rauscher and Margot Jackson, for their continuous support of my research and teaching activities.

Many first-generation college students encounter the “hidden curriculum” of higher education – unspoken expectations and complicated administrative processes that can be daunting to navigate. These challenges are often intensified by the intersections of students’ gender-race-socioeconomic backgrounds. As a racially white, first-generation college student from a multi-racial, multi-cultural family, my experiences have shaped my understanding of these barriers and motivated my research focus on equity systems in higher education. My dissertation explores how advising systems at minority-serving institutions can reinforce or reduce social inequities. Using intersectionality, a framework that considers how overlapping identities shape experiences, I study how advising systems impact students differently based on their race-gender-first-generation college status. In this institutional ethnography, I use qualitative techniques including interviews, participant observations, and social network analysis, to highlight advising as a key site where educational equity and inequity intersect. Preliminary findings reveal experiences and challenges that reflect broader intersectional inequities and suggest that some advisors act as gatekeepers, while others choose to leverage their networks to minimize student referrals. These contexts highlight the importance of who you know and the impact that can have on one’s ability to find the answers they need to navigate the institution. 

Sukie Xiuqi Yang is a PhD candidate in Sociology and Demography with an MA in Statistics and Data Science from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research investigates sustainability challenges affecting children's development and education, focusing on three interconnected areas: migration and displacement, environmental hazard exposure and educational outcomes, and environmental education policy. Her work has been supported by the ASA Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (2025) and UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report Fellowship. She developed computational tools to track global climate education policy progress for a UNESCO-backed international initiative, and directly contributed to new monitoring efforts for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4.7 for greening curriculum worldwide. Her sole-authored papers have appeared in Demography, Chinese Sociological Review, among other outlets. She is currently working on her dissertation about environmental education across 170 countries, using PISA data and a unique national curriculum dataset. In particular, she analyzes how global pressures, domestic politics, and school characteristics influence environmental education institutionalization, while exploring how socialization processes shape pro-environmental identity formation among teenagers. 

Academic integrity is an issue which weighs heavily on faculty, who consider multiple motivators when deciding whether to report a student for academic misconduct to their employer institution. My dissertation research stemmed from decades of teaching Sociology in higher education. My colleagues and myself grappled with how to best guide students who present with dishonest submissions towards their best effort, while fulfilling role expectations and adhering to institutional policy. Social cognitive theory was the primary theoretical framework, fraud triangle theory supported survey instrument operationalization. A cross-sectional survey of higher education institution faculty (n=351) showed two of the 15 motivator independent variables were positively statistically significantly correlated to reporting likelihood, availability of confrontation guidelines and knowing students will be held accountable. The results of this study provided evidence which can improve faculty’s workplace psychological safety, the faculty-student relationship, the faculty-institution relationship, and clarifies performance expectations. My future research encompasses the adjunct faculty and higher education organization relationship as well as academic integrity equity. I am currently searching for a post doctoral position.

I am a rising fifth-year doctoral candidate for sociology at Notre Dame. My current work focuses on university students' understandings of race within institutions of higher education.  Using mixed-methods longitudinal data that I have collected, I aim to explore university students’ racial conceptualizations, attitudes, and sense of self, and to assess the extent to which universities, as White institutional spaces, moderate them. This ongoing original dataset includes survey responses and semi-structured interviews from over 500 university students across two years of their college experience.

Previously, my work focused on the ways in which high school students come to understand race and ethnicity through their parents and how race and Whiteness operate in schools.  For this, I was particularly interested in how parental racial socialization influences high school students’ attitudes and ideas about race and how these different understandings of race relate to high school students’ educational experiences and academic outcomes.  This work is published in Social Science Research and Sociology of Race and Ethnicity.

My research is largely quantitative.  To account for the multidimensional and dynamic nature of the social processes I study, I utilize survey data and principal factor analysis to holistically capture the underlying latent constructs.  Qualitative interview data is used to contextual my quantitative data and to add nuance and complexity throughout my research. Ultimately, through my work, I hope to cultivate a supportive academic community by promoting data accessibility, transparency, and stimulating creative research opportunities.

My work critically examines the intersections of education, technology, and social inequality. My research uses mixed-methods to explore how digital tools both enable and restrict learning opportunities, with a focus on India. Drawing on Bourdieu’s theory of capital and contemporary critiques of technological determinism, my dissertation investigates how class, gender, and institutional privilege shape students' engagement with educational technology. I bring this empirical rigor into the classroom through inclusive and interactive pedagogical strategies, emphasizing critical thinking, real-world applications, and reflective assignments. Previously, I worked in the not for profit and social development sector and I have experience in policy analysis, program management, and impact evaluation. 

My research examines how geographic patterns of socioeconomic stratification shape educational opportunity for working-class families in the United States. Drawing on spatial analysis my work identifies a the role of intra-elite competition, an underexplored form of inequality in areas of concentrated socioeconomic advantage among school districts. I show that these clusters of advantaged districts—driven less by segregation and more by housing markets and intra-elite competition—offer additional academic benefits to students beyond those found in standalone affluent districts. Broadly, my research agenda focuses on how place-based mechanisms—such as housing, zoning, and school district boundaries—interact with structural demography to restrict opportunity. This work aims to inform educational and housing policies to reduced structural inequality for working families by demonstrating how structural advantages become geographically entrenched.

My research interests are in sociology of education, social stratification, and early childhood education and care policy. My dissertation explores how the expansion of early childhood education and care programs affect inequality in children's, mothers', and educator outcomes in the United States. I am passionate about conducting policy-relevant research, collaborating with educators, and translating research to non-academic audiences. I am a fellow in the Interdisciplinary Training Program in Education Sciences (IES-funded fellowship) and collaborate with the Madison Education Partnership, a research-practice partnership with the Madison Metropolitan School District. My recent work explores how differences in peer groups within and across preschool classrooms matter for learning and is published in the American Educational Research Journal. 

I have completed research on the role of race in education and housing, as well as served as a research assistant on two separate projects, where I coded quantitative data and reviewed articles for research and a potential book. I hope to continue assisting researchers while pursuing my Master's Degree to gain more hands-on experience with data and continue researching while teaching Sociology. Currently, I am conducting research on narratives surrounding women before and during the Trump Administration.

I am a doctoral candidate at the Department of Sociology, UGA. My research aligns at the intersection of international education and immigration policy. My dissertation project studies the relationship between the federal government’s monitoring system and international education initiatives at universities nationwide, focusing on how workers who work with the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) navigate competing objectives, such as the advancement of research and academic achievement vs. national security. Theoretically, I move beyond a uniform practice of student visa implementation to better understand the role of street-level bureaucrats’ responsibilities and use of discretion. In my case, I also suggest that state power operates beyond the federal infrastructure and is embedded in other social entities, such as private sectors. My research also provides strategic advice on easing international students’ stress regarding student visa revocations and a highly restrictive immigration climate, which in turn contributes to the multi-level growth of international education at institutional, state, and national levels. 

My previous work examined academic, social, and political challenges facing international students. Additionally, I investigated racial and ethnic identities of this population through the theory of racial formation. I suggested that despite obtaining documentation and education, international students are subject to racial prejudice and discrimination in their everyday lives. On- and off-campus interactions and visa regulations were sources of racial formation processes.

Regarding teaching approach, I focus on the co-construction of knowledge among students and between students and myself through active learning activities, creative writing, and discussion. I believe that a comfortable classroom environment, collective class activities, technology-based activities, and low-stakes writing assignments help students build confidence in applying sociological imagination and generate ideas without being afraid of judgment and criticism. Finally, to acknowledge the role of technology in the learning process. Students utilize the technology for class assignments such as generating a podcast. 

Hi, my name is Samuel Ocasio Jr., and I am a proud first-generation Puerto Rican scholar currently entering my fourth year as a Ph.D. student in Sociology. As the first in my family to earn a B.A. and M.A., my academic journey is deeply personal and rooted in a commitment to equity and transformation. My research centers on the experiences of Latinos in the United States and across the diaspora, with a particular focus on educational access and attainment. I’ve worked extensively to demystify higher education for Latina/o communities, offering mentorship and resources to help others navigate and succeed in academic spaces. My teaching philosophy is grounded in the belief that sociology is best learned through active engagement—beyond textbooks and lectures, into the lived realities of our communities. I strive to create immersive, hands-on learning experiences that empower students to critically examine the social forces shaping their lives. For me, sociology is not just a discipline—it’s a tool for social change, a lens through which we understand and transform the world around us.

I am Blaire (Xiao) Yuan, a PhD candidate in the Department of Educational Administration & Policy at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. My research examines how parents’ economic and cultural resources shape children’s absolute achievement and competitive advantages in schooling. In the classroom, I aim to introduce sociology students to an interdisciplinary toolkit, like combining cultural-capital and human-capital perspectives and highlighting innovative methods to explore the link between family background and individuals' outcomes. As an ABD student, I am currently seeking post-doctoral opportunities worldwide and welcome collaborative research opportunities. I am a quantitative researcher with interests in family, education, life-course development, and social stratification, etc. My previous work also includes comparative educational studies of China and Germany. Please feel free to reach out—collaboration and conversation are always welcome!

The schools we attend and the neighborhoods in which we live have an indelible impact on our educational prospects. My research draws on quantitative methods to examine educational inequality, with a focus on the role of contexts in shaping stratification. In particular, my work is driven by a desire to understand how disparities in school and neighborhood environments impact educational opportunities and outcomes. Along these lines, in collaboration with others I have explored the relationship between school socioeconomic context and math achievement trajectories across racial/ethnic and socioeconomic groups and documented the extent to which individuals with different levels of educational attainment share neighborhoods.  

Contexts may be particularly influential early in the life course, a sensitive period in which children and their developing brains are uniquely vulnerable to environmental inputs. My dissertation investigates the consequences of neighborhood disadvantage for school readiness (i.e., early math and reading skills), which sets the stage for future educational experiences. With support from the American Sociological Association/National Science Foundation and the Russell Sage Foundation, I link nationally representative restricted-use ECLS-K and public-use American Community Survey data and use causal inference techniques to identify the effect of neighborhood disadvantage on children’s math and reading performance at school entry. These results provide insight into processes of stratification that unfold before children enter the classroom. Then, I assess how neighborhood effects on school readiness are stratified by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status, with an eye towards implications for policies to foster educational equity in early childhood and beyond.  

In future research, I plan to delve into the specific mechanisms through which contexts impact cognitive development and educational outcomes.