The American Political Science Association is pleased to announce the Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (DDRIG) Awardees for 2020. The APSA DDRIG program provides support to enhance and improve the conduct of doctoral dissertation research in political science. Awards support basic research which is theoretically derived and empirically oriented.
Estefania Castañeda Pérez, University of California, Los Angeles
Estefania Castañeda Pérez is doctoral candidate at the UCLA Department of Political Science. Trained as an interdisciplinary scholar, her research primarily focuses on mental health, gender, race and ethnicity, the conceptualization and consequences of violence, and border politics. Castañeda Pérez’ educational aspirations and research projects have been motivated by her lifelong experiences commuting daily from Tijuana to San Diego as a transborder student for a borderless pursuit of education. Her research is supported by the National Science Foundation and the Ford Foundation. Castañeda Pérez has a master’s degree in political science from UCLA, and a bachelor’s degree in political science with an honors minor in interdisciplinary studies from San Diego State University. Currently, she serves as the Chief Development Editor at the UCLA Chicanx-Latinx Law Review and is a fellow at the Immigration Initiative at Harvard. In addition to her scholarly work, she has volunteered with immigrant rights organizations in Tijuana to support asylum seekers, advocated for transborder youth, and writes public pieces on state violence at the Mexico-U.S. border.