Mirena A. Munich is a first-year PhD student in political science at the University of California, Riverside. Her research explores institutional trust among Latino immigrant communities in the United States, particularly emphasizing healthcare access, political behavior, and the intergenerational transmission of institutional skepticism. As a first-generation college graduate and minority scholar, Mirena is committed to addressing racial and ethnic inequities in public policy and political engagement. She is developing a research agenda that bridges political behavior, racial and ethnic politics, and institutional analysis, using mixed-methods approaches to investigate how immigrant experiences with public institutions shape broader attitudes toward government legitimacy. Her early projects examine the impact of systemic exclusion, such as language barriers and healthcare discrimination, on institutional trust across generations. Mirena’s broader areas of research and teaching interest include comparative politics and mass political behavior, focusing on race, ethnicity, and identity politics. Through her scholarship, she seeks to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in political science, while contributing to research that informs policy change. As an APSA Diversity Fellow, she looks forward to engaging with scholars across subfields and mentoring future generations of underrepresented students in the discipline.
The APSA Diversity Fellowship Program, formerly the Minority Fellowship Program, was established in 1969 as a fellowship competition to diversify the political science profession. The DFP provides support to students applying to, or in the early stages of, a PhD program in political science. APSA has once again awarded a new cycle to provide support for students currently in their first or second year as of Spring 2025. Please join us in congratulating the 2025-2026 class of fellows.
- Learn more about DFP at https://apsanet.org/dfp
- Meet the 2025-2026 class of DFP Fellows