Luis’ Website
Welcome to my website!
🎓 I am an aspiring political science student who has recently started my first quarter of the Political Science Ph.D program at the University of California, Irvine (UCI).
📚 Recently, I have been working as a research assistant for a faculty member in my department from California State University, San Bernardino. The focused research topic involves political communication, specifically the effects of social media influencers. As the research is in its initial steps, my role has involved reading relevant scholarly articles and compiling pertinent information into an annotated bibliography.
📱 As part of a fellowship, I have also conducted independent research regarding political communication. My topic covers the kinds of false information that are present in online platforms and how specific types of false information can serve as a platform for people to shift their political beliefs to ones that do not fit the status quo. It examines the factors that contribute to people adopting these increasingly extreme views, along with the ways participants act once they subscribe to these beliefs, and how they may be particularly harmful to oneself and others.
🔬 My research interests include political communication, American politics, Mexican politics, Latino politics, immigration policy, U.S. interventionism, and democratic backsliding.
🎮 Outside of academia, I spend my time playing video games, working on cars, cooking, gardening, reading books, and playing with my cat.
📖 Books I am currently reading (for fun): Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here by Jonathan Blitzer, La noche de Tlatelolco (The night of Tlatelolco) by Elena Poniatowska, and Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism by Vladimir Lenin.