Graduate student Jessala Grijalva has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship (GRF). Nationwide, just 11 political science graduate students were awarded these highly-competitive fellowships in 2020. The NSF-GRF provides a generous stipend and tuition support over a three year period, permitting Grijalva to focus intently on her research and writing.
Grijalva is a rising third year graduate student in political science with interests in political behavior, political psychology, race and ethnicity, and the politics of immigration. Her NSF project, titled "Measuring Prejudice Towards Latinos," proposes to develop a survey instrument to measure racial resentment towards Latinos, something missing from previous research into Latinx politics. Grijalva seeks to answer two broad questions:(1) What predispositions drive resentment towards Latinos? and, (2) to what extent does demographic transformation and increasing racial diversity affect attitudes towards Latinos and influence other political behaviors? Her goal is to “contribute to our understanding of the political consequences of prejudice towards Latinos.”
Grijalva is an active participant in Rooney Center activities and programming, and works closely with a number of Rooney Center faculty.