Research/Research Interests

Overview

My research thus far has mainly focused on political communication and democratic backsliding. Some other research interests I have are immigration policy, Mexican politics, and American politics.

Research Projects

“Disinformation as a Pipeline for Radicalization” (Political Communication)

In this project, I conducted a literature review focusing on the main types of false information (e.g., disinformation, misinformation, and fake news) and their presence within online spheres. It synthesizes academic journal articles that detail how the algorithms of social media platforms and video-sharing websites tend to promote false information, such as anti-vaccine rhetoric. My project also reviews articles that examine how disinformation can serve as a gateway for young males to adopt far-right ideologies, with a focus on the manosphere and redpilling. These ideologies revolve around the demonization of marginalized communities, the deprecation of women, while also inciting violence towards others and even oneself.

Conference Presentations:

Mellon Mays Undergraduate Summer Conference (CSU Long Beach, Aug 2024)

Mellon Mays Western Regional Conference (Whittier College, Nov 2024)

Meeting of the Minds Student Research Symposium (CSU San Bernardino, Apr 2025)

Research Experience

Research Assistant to Dr. Meredith Conroy, Political Science professor at CSU San Bernardino (Dec 2024- May 2025)

Under this role, I collected relevant data from scholarly articles into an annotated bibliography about social media influencers and the political influence that they hold.

Other Undergraduate Research

“Auditing Democratic Backsliding: A Case Study of Bolivia” (Democratic Backsliding)

For this project, I performed an audit on the state of democracy in Bolivia. I provided an overview of Bolivia’s recent electoral history, which included a judicial election and the three most recent presidential elections, of which two presented irregularities. From there, I audit their government and assign a score out of 10 based on the following factors: electoral decision, participation, policy responsiveness, accountability, and sovereignty. My analysis suggests that the state of democracy in Bolivia is relatively poor, with it being particularly weak in accountability structures and policy responsiveness. Lastly, I propose policies to help restore its democracy, mainly focusing on restoring the independence of Bolivia’s judicial branch by granting the power of judicial appointments to an independent commission instead of the legislature as a whole.

Potential for future research:

I see potential for this research to be extended to Mexican politics. I would extend this framework further to analyze the democratic backsliding that may have been occurring under the sexenios of Claudia Sheinbaum and Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

“Lessons in Strategy for China and Russia: First World War, Second World War, Cold War.”- Collaborative endeavor (International Relations)

Here, I helped provide an overview of the events that unfolded in World War I, World War II, and the Cold War. Our research team examined how historical patterns continue to shape modern Russian geopolitics, particularly through the lens of the Russkiy Mir (“Russian World”) doctrine - a dual concept serving as both cultural identity and justification for expansionist policies. We reveal the shortcomings in Soviet Strategic behavior across the three wars, along with how some of those mistakes still manifest themselves in present-day Russian society, such as Russia’s hybrid warfare tactics and the pursuit of alternative alliances through BRICS.