Matt Barreto Receives Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship For Minorities
Date: 6/4/2004
Contact: CSD csd@uci.edu 949.824.2904
Matt Barreto of UC Irvine has received a prestigeous Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship for Minorities for 2004-05.
This fellowship is open to Ph.D. candidates in the natural sciences, social science and humanities. Only 35 dissertation fellowships are awarded nationally in a competition administered by the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academies on behalf of the Ford Foundation. The awards are offered to those individuals who have demonstrated superior scholarship and show the greatest promise for future achievement as scholars, researchers, and teachers in institutions of higher education.
Barreto will use the fellowship to support his Ph.D. thesis research on the electoral behavior of Latinos and the impact of ethnicity on their opinions. As a fellow, Barreto will receive a stipend of $21,000 and participate in the national Conference of Ford Fellows.
Louis DeSipio, co-chair of Matt's thesis committee, says "Matt is one of the brightest young scholars on minority electoral politics ... his research has the potential to make major contributions to our understanding of how ethnicity shapes electoral choices."
In addition to his excellent student teaching, Barreto has amassed a very impressive publication record, having authored and co-authored book chapters and articles that have appeared in the American Political Science Review (2004) and Urban Affairs Review (2004). "Matt has been an exemplary graduate student," said Katherine Tate, chair of Political Science, "his research publication record and conference presentations already make him one of our department's most prolific graduate researchers. His teaching and service activities are equally distinguished."
Matt is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science and a William F. Podlich Fellow in the Center for the Study of Democracy . Since 1999 he also worked as a Political Research Associate at the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute in Los Angeles, CA and collaborates on research projects with the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University. Matt was awarded a Regents' Fellowship in 2004. In 2002, Matt and his coauthor received the award for best paper on Race, Ethnicity and Politics at the American Political Science Association conference.