We are proud to announce that Mirena A. Munich, a first-year Ph.D. student in Political Science at the University of California, Riverside, has been awarded the prestigious Spring APSA Diversity Fellowship.

Offered each spring by the American Political Science Association (APSA), the Diversity Fellowship Program (DFP) supports graduate students from underrepresented backgrounds who are in the early stages of their doctoral training. The Spring DFP is a one-time award of $2,000 (pending funding availability) intended to advance the work of students committed to increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the discipline.

Mirena’s research examines institutional trust among Latino immigrant communities in the United States, with a particular focus on healthcare access, political behavior, and the intergenerational transmission of institutional skepticism. Her work bridges political behavior, racial and ethnic politics, and institutional analysis, using mixed-methods approaches to explore how immigrant experiences with public institutions shape broader attitudes toward government legitimacy.

As a first-generation college graduate and minority scholar, Mirena is deeply committed to addressing racial and ethnic inequities in public policy and political engagement. Her early projects explore how systemic exclusion—such as language barriers and healthcare discrimination—affects institutional trust across generations. In addition to her focus on American politics, Mirena’s broader interests include comparative politics and mass political behavior, especially as they relate to race, ethnicity, and identity. Through her scholarship, she aims to inform meaningful policy change while advancing the representation of underrepresented voices in political science.

As an APSA Diversity Fellow, Mirena looks forward to building community with scholars across subfields and mentoring the next generation of underrepresented students in the discipline.

Please join us in congratulating Mirena on this incredible achievement!