Meet DFP Spring Fellow, Maya Khuzam, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

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 2022. Please join us in congratulating the 2022-2023 class of fellows!

Maya Khuzam is a first-year PhD student in the department of Political Science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her research interests are in the field of American Politics with a focus in political behavior, race and ethnic politics, and political psychology. Her current work examines the extent to which Arab American Christians can leverage their religious identity to distance themselves from the broader pan-ethnic group and how Islamophobia may forestall their ability to do so. In 2019, Maya graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a BA in Political Science. Prior to her graduate study, she worked as a Research Assistant at Pew Research Center focusing on Journalism and Media research. After completing her PhD, she hopes to pursue a career in academia and mentor future cohorts of first-generation scholars.