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W&L Politics Professor Receives Research Grant Zoila Ponce de León will utilize the grant to study immigration and deportation in the U.S. and Brazil.

zponcedeleon-456x400 W&L Politics Professor Receives Research GrantProfessor Zoila Ponce de León

Zoila Ponce de León, assistant professor of politics at Washington and Lee University, has received the American Political Science Association’s Summer Centennial Center Research Grant.

Ponce de León and Gabriele Magni of Loyola Marymount University were given $2,500 from the Marguerite Ross Barnett Fund to conduct a study on immigration and deportation. Their research focuses on the attitudes toward deportation of immigrants who are illegally in a country, focusing primarily on the United States and Brazil.

Ponce de León and Magni will explore what role economic, cultural, security and health concerns play in driving attitudes toward deportation. They will also analyze how immigrant characteristics influence attitudes on deportation, focusing on three attributes: country of origin, religious denomination and sexual orientation.

Surveys will be conducted in both the U.S. and Brazil with samples mirroring census quotas on key socio-demographics. Ponce de León and Magni plan to use both observational and experimental items to measure attitudes toward deportation.

Ponce de León has been teaching at W&L since 2018. In addition to serving as assistant professor of politics, she is a core faculty member for the university’s Latin American and Caribbean Studies program.

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