RIC Opened Her Eyes to Human Rights, Politics and Race

APSA, the nation’s leading professional organization for the study of political science, established the Minority Fellowship Program to increase the number of underrepresented scholars in the political science discipline. Each year, fellowships are awarded to college seniors, to graduates and/or to master’s-level students who plan to apply to a Ph.D. program in political science. Spring fellows are first- and second-year Ph.D. students in political science.

“I’m in shock that I was chosen,’’ Heredia said of the fellowship. Heredia moved to Worcester, Massachusetts, from the Dominican Republic seven years ago and has applied to doctoral programs at 15 schools, including Brown, Boston University and Cornell.

Her goal is to study how racialized power persists over time and the relationship between race, international law and new forms of imperialism.

“I don’t believe there has been much research in these areas since World War II, when scholars stopped writing about race on the international level,’’ she said.

With a 3.93 grade point average, Heredia credited RIC with exposing her to global politics.

“In my freshman year, I took a human rights class and it opened my eyes to a world I didn’t know,’’ Heredia said. “I knew there were [human rights] violations, but I didn’t know to what degree countries were capable of doing such awful things. That sparked my desire to look into international studies.’’

While at RIC, Heredia has served as chapter president of Pi Sigma Alpha, the national honor society in political science. In 2015 she was awarded the Rhode Island College Student Honor Roll Scholarship and a scholarship by the World Affairs Councils of America to attend its national conference.

Last year she interned for R.I. Rep. Grace Diaz for five months and U.S. Rep. Jim Langevin for a month, researching legislation and drafting policy memos in both capacities.

Heredia has also worked as research assistant for RIC Associate Professor of Political Science Robyn Linde and RIC Assistant Professor of Anthropology Elijah Edelman, transcribing, coding and analyzing data.

Linde, whom Heredia views as a mentor, suggested she apply to APSA’s Ralph Bunche Summer Institute, a five-week program at Duke University that introduces the world of doctoral study in political science to undergraduate students. Heredia attended the institute last summer and said the experience was invaluable.

“This wonderful program reinforced my interest in applying to doctoral programs,’’ she said. “I gained greater insight into understanding the concept of race in American politics, which helped me better frame and understand my own racial and ethic identity.’’

Heredia, who aspires to become a professor, believes that we have not yet become a post-racial society. She said, “We’re living in a time where people are not very open to talking about race. I want my work in the future to contribute to the conversation.’’