The APSA Diversity Fellowship Program, formerly the Minority Fellowship Program, was established in 1969 as a fellowship competition to diversify the political science profession. DFP provides support to students from underrepresented backgrounds applying to, or in the early stages of, a PhD program in political science. The goal of the program is to increase the number of scholars from minoritized backgrounds in the discipline and ultimately the professoriate. APSA has once again awarded a new cycle to provide support for PhD students currently in their first or second year as of Spring 2023. Please join us in congratulating the 2023-2024 class of fellows!
Alesha Lewis is a first-year PhD student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She received her B.A. in psychology and political science from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. As an undergraduate, she worked with Dr. Emily Sydnor and later became a fellow for the Ralph Bunche Summer Institute. She presented her work at the American Political Science Association’s Annual Meeting in 2020. She was also a recipient of the Society for Political Methodology’s Undergraduate Expansions Initiative and worked as a research assistant for Dr. Daniel Hopkins at the University of Pennsylvania. Currently, she works under the direction of Dr. Cara Wong and Dr. Jeffery Mondak. Her research focuses on the effects of racial trauma on political behavior for those in marginalized communities. Specifically, she uses both quantitative and qualitative methodology to determine how the emotions that stem from racial trauma can drive changes in political participation. In the future, Alesha hopes to pursue a career in academia, splitting her time between research and teaching classes on political psychology and race in the U.S.