Sofia Dueñas

Cohort

2021

Subfields

Race and Ethnicity, Sociology of Education, Stratification and Inequality

Profile

Sofia Dueñas is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame. Her research examines how education policies and schools reinforce and disrupt inequalities in K–12 schools. Using quantitative methods and interviews, she studies how state, district, and school-level policies shape the experiences of teachers, students, and families. Her dissertation investigates how school and neighborhood violence shapes teacher mobility and teachers' experiences in their classrooms. Additionally, her dissertation examines the ways exclusionary school discipline impacts students' educational achievement and trajectories. Other areas of her work examine the consequences of school choice policies, parent engagement, and the effects of weapons incidents on students' academic achievement.

Sofia is an affiliate of the Institute for Race and Resilience and a Burns Fellow in the Program for Interdisciplinary Education Research. She received her B.A. in Sociology & Education from Whittier College and her M.A. in Urban Education from Loyola Marymount University. Before beginning her doctoral studies at the University of Notre Dame, she taught first and second grade in Los Angeles.