Alyssa B. Cahoy (she/hers)
Doctoral student in sociology
Let us take a knife
And cut the world in two –
And see what worms are eating
At the rind.
– Langston Hughes, “Tired” (1931)
Hello, and welcome! I am a Ph.D. student in Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. I hold a B.A. in Health Sciences (social/behavioral sciences) and English literature from Rice University, where I graduated with honors.
My substantive areas of interest include Political Sociology; Collective Behavior and Social Movements; Sociology of Education; Asia and Asia America; and Digital Sociology. My research agenda is motivated by three broad theoretical questions:
- Under what conditions do social identities, such as race, ethnicity, and gender, become politically salient?
- How does mass media shape how people learn and do politics?
- What is the role of universities and students in social movements?
For leisure, I enjoy watching psychological thrillers and K-dramas; doing landscape photography; and visiting secondhand bookstores. I currently live in West Philly with my fiancé and our two dogs. I am originally from Cagayan de Oro, Philippines and grew up in both rural and urban areas in the U.S. South.
