Alexander Agadjanian is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. His research interests include race and identity, political psychology, and political behavior, largely in the United States.
His core dissertation work centers on the intersection of politics and “racial fluidity,” which reconceptualizes racial identity as flexible and responsive to external factors. Focusing on rapidly growing groups with ambiguous positions in the racial hierarchy such as Hispanic and multiracial Americans, he explores...
Jacqueline Colao is a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research examines how electoral institutions shape congressional representation in the United States, the trade-offs involved in achieving representativeness, and the mechanisms through which these dynamics unfold.
Her dissertation investigates how voter knowledge, ideology, and party influence interact to shape vote choice in U.S. primary elections. She draws on original panel surveys that she designed and fielded in 45 congressional districts across the 2022 and 2024 election...
Karen Villegas is a doctoral candidate in the Berkeley School of Education at UC Berkeley. She received her B.A. in Political Science from UCLA. Karen’s overarching work explores issues of language, citizenship, and nation-building processes.
Karen’s dissertation, supported by the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues, is a study of the ideological conceptions of language and literacy practices in adult, English as a Second Language (ESL) citizenship classes. Adults enroll in these classes to prepare for the...
