Graduate Student Research Profile

Ivonne M. García
Ivonne M. García, from San Juan, Puerto Rico, is a Ph.D. student in the Department of English whose focus is on American and Postcolonial Studies. She did her undergraduate studies at Harvard in History and Literature of Latin America, and she earned a master’s degree in Education also at Harvard. She began a law degree at Georgetown, but decided law school was not for her. She returned to Puerto Rico and worked there as a journalist and teacher. Three years ago, Ivonne moved to Ohio and began the master’s program in English at OSU. She was later admitted to the Ph.D. program, and will finish coursework in autumn 2004.

This year, Ivonne was one of the 10 graduate students recognized with the Graduate School Leadership Award in recognition for her service. Ivonne was a mentor through the Office of Minority Affairs, an elected representative to the Council of Graduate Students, and served on the Dean of the Humanities search committee. Within her department, Ivonne is a Senior Writing Program Administrator, who serves as a trainer and mentor of first-year teachers of composition. She helped develop a seed grant proposal awarded to the department’s First-Year Writing Program for a multicultural enhanced training initiative.

Ivonne’s scholarship is primarily focused on applying postcolonial discourse theories to U.S. texts to explore the connection between American nation-formation and the constructions of colonial subjectivities.

Lisette Garcia
My name is Lisette Garcia, and I’m from NJ, but born of Cuban and Honduran descent. I completed a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and a Bachelor of Science in Labor and Industrial Relations at Penn State.  I earned my master’s in Sociology from Virginia Tech where I wrote my thesis on Variations in Educational Attainment Among Different Latino Sub-groups (which has just recently been accepted for publication). Currently, I am a Ph.D. student in the Department of Sociology. I also enjoy painting. 

My current research interests are inequality and stratification, as well as race and ethnicity, education and work.  I am currently working on a research project analyzing discrimination claims filed with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission from the late 1980s through 2000.  My main focus will be in claims filed alleging racial discrimination affecting promotions, but I will also look at wage inequality and dismissals and the impact that each type of discrimination has on mental well being. The purpose of this research is to present qualitative evidence that discrimination is still occurring, and that it is preventing some from obtaining an equal footing in society.

I hope to finish here at OSU within the next two years and ideally be offered a teaching position near the DC area.  I have also been interested in policy, so a position in DC would allow me to teach and to remain active in public policy.