Janelle Viera

Janelle Ashley Viera is a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology. Her research interests include race and ethnicity, migration, social mobility, and Latinxs in the United States. This summer, Janelle was awarded a research grant from the Center for the Study of the American South (CSAS) to fund the second phase of data collection for her dissertation, which takes a qualitative approach to examine racial formation among multigenerational Puerto Ricans living in New York City and Orlando. In particular, she seeks to understand how place-related factors influence how Puerto Ricans think about race, racial classification, and U.S. race relations. Born and raised in Queens, New York, Janelle earned a B.A. in Sociology and Anthropology from Swarthmore College and M.A. in Sociology from UNC-CH. She is a Mellon Mays Fellow (MMUF), an alumna of UNC-CH’s Moore Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program (MURAP), and a member of CSAS’s inaugural Critical Ethnic Studies Graduate Working Group. Currently, Janelle holds a Graduate Teaching Fellow position and has taught introductory courses on race and ethnicity and sociological perspectives.