Grad Student - ISSI

Christian Caballero

Political Science, UC Berkeley

Christian Caballero is a Political Science PhD student at the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on American politics and political behavior. In particular, he studies the ways in which social networks influence processes of political persuasion and democratic deliberation, as well as how political ideologies develop within subcultures. He holds a B.A. in Politics and Sociology from New York University and an M.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Joanna Cardenas

African American Studies Department, UC Berkeley

Joanna Cardenas is a doctoral student in the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies at UC Berkeley. Prior to graduate school, she received a dual B.A. in African American Studies and Legal Studies with honors from Cal. Her research interests are situated at the nexus of critical carceral studies, Disability Studies, and Black Feminist Thought, with an emphasis on the intersection of race, class, and gender. Through a close analysis of contemporary California prisons, Joanna’s work broadly focuses on how systems of confinement inform our understandings around gender,...

Juan Carlos Bordes

School of Public Health, UC Berkeley

Born in Ecuador, Juan Carlos Bordes has had a lengthy journey to become a doctoral candidate in Public Health at UC Berkeley. At age 16, he and his family immigrated from Ecuador to the US to start anew. This change included a new culture, language, and more. Although challenging, these experiences began a process of building resiliency in him.

Juan Carlos used resiliency to become the first in his family to obtain undergraduate and graduate education. Additionally, working in healthcare for the past ten years ignited his passion for creating inclusive workplace environments...

Ataya Cesspooch

Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, UC Berkeley

Lauren Chambers

School of Information, UC Berkeley

Lauren Chambers is a Ph.D. student at the UC Berkeley School of Information. Advised by technology law expert Prof. Deirdre Mulligan, she studies the intersection of data, technology, and sociopolitical advocacy. Her primary project is a mixed-methods qualitative study exploring the roles of 'public interest technologists' within civil society and advocacy organizations, as they are shaping policy, informing legal arguments, and transforming political campaigns.

Previously Lauren was the staff technologist at the ACLU of Massachusetts, where she explored government data in order to...

Tak-Huen Chau

Political Science, UC Berkeley

Tak-Huen Chau is a PhD candidate in political science and MA candidate in economics. He is interested in social identities and political behavior in general. Currently, he is working on projects that utilize formal theory and surveys to explain dominant group attitudes on national identity, assimilation, and bilingual education.

Lena Chen

Performance Studies, UC Berkeley

Lena Chen is an artist and Ph.D. student at the University of California, Berkeley in the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies. Her research examines the performance practices of Asian American/diasporic artists, sex workers, and community organizers in Los Angeles and New York City. A recipient of the Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship, she holds a B.A. in Sociology from Harvard University and a M.F.A. in Fine Art from Carnegie Mellon University.

Her work has appeared in Amerasia Journal, PUBLIC...

Xinyi Chen

Psychology, UC Berkeley

Xinyi is a PhD student in Developmental Psychology with six years of experience working with children and families from underrepresented backgrounds in psychological research. Her research focuses on how socio-ecological factors (neighborhood, school, and family) shape the cognitive and socioemotional development of children from low-income and immigrant backgrounds. Her goal is to provide insights for policy and community programs supporting ethnic minority children and families.

Joyce Cheng

School of Public Health, UC Berkeley

Joyce Cheng joined the Doctor of Public Health program in Fall 2024. Joyce aims to strengthen her training in community engagement partnership and research, equitable health information delivery as well as to explore cross-sectoral partnership and innovative systems thinking. Joyce started her career in the non-profit community health sector in 2006 and held a leadership role since 2020. Joyce serves as the Executive Director and Community Researcher at the Chinese Community Health Resource Center to lead a mission to build a healthy community through culturally and linguistically...

Bonnie Cherry

Jurisprudence and Social Policy, UC Berkeley

Bonnie Cherry is a PhD Candidate in Jurisprudence and Social Policy and Berkeley Law. Her work explores the martial origins (and persisting militaristic dimensions) of the administrative state, and how the management of Indian affairs shaped civilian administrative policies and enforcement mechanisms from the earliest days of the nation. Her current project focuses on how Tribal nations either facilitate or resist militarization of Tribal lands. She is a Berkeley Empirical Legal Scholars Fellow, a John L. Simpson Research Fellow in International and Area Studies, and an AAUW Dissertation...