Research Symposium

BIO

I'm a full time student at Florida State who values hard-work, organization and discipline. I look at everyday as a new opportunity to better myself and my environment. I started working in in 2022 as a Seasonal Lifeguard at the Venetian Pool in Coral Gables. Since then, I have worked at Graham Legal as a Client Intake Supervisor and at the Department of State, Division of Elections at a Clerk.

Political Discourse and Identity

Abstract

Society is evolving to break gender, racial, and sexual stereotypes, yet this does not dismiss the minorities that have lived their entire lives with these stereotypes being placed on them. Research has demonstrated that people from minorities have faced discrimination from the institutions that are meant to support our country such as schools and places of work. Schools have been flawed in shaping malleable students' mindsets on minorities from the elementary level to the college level. Previous research has neglected to take the nuances of intersectionality into account when conducting research. Our research team has conducted interviews with sociology graduate students to get their perspective on the discrimination towards themselves. We also look at how instructors have navigated conversations within the classroom to make them more conducive to recent political regulations. Gaining an in-depth look at these graduate students' perspectives has allowed us to understand how institutions push for information to be either concealed or exploited to benefit a certain political narrative. Given that the sample is made up of Florida residents, we also gain insight into the consequences of these learning restrictions and how they translate to a classroom setting.

Keywords: Stereotypes, Discrimination, Academia, Politics