Lab Director

Efrén Pérez, Ph.D.
Lab email: uclarepslab@gmail.com

Political Science Affiliates

Ramona Alhambra | CV
Ramona is a fourth year PhD candidate at UCLA specializing in Race and Ethnicity Politics and American Politics. She earned a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Washington – Seattle, as well as a MA degree in Political Science from UCLA. Her research interests generally include Political Psychology, Race and Ethnicity politics, Experiments, and Intergroup Relations. 

Emily Ortiz | CV
Emily is a third year PhD student at UCLA, specializing in Race and Ethnic Politics and American Politics. Emily holds a B.S. in Political Science from Florida State University, with a minor in Sociology. Her research focuses on the development of conservative political behavior among Latinx populations in the U.S., utilizing methodologies like surveys and lab experiments to explore the psychological motivations behind these ideologies. She has presented her work at the University of Michigan’s Emerging Scholars Conference and is currently involved in several research projects at UCLA, including studies on conservative Latinx political socialization and the influence of right-wing media. In addition to her research, Emily has served as a teaching assistant for various courses on Latinx politics as well as experimental methodologies. 

Jessica Cobian | CV

Allison Sauer | CV

Rodolfo Solis | CV

Josearmando Torres | CV

Ayleen Trejo | CV

psychology affiliates

Gustavo A. Mártir Luna | CV
Gustavo is a fourth year PhD student at UCLA. He is a California native, who was born In LA, raised in Sacramento, and earned his BA and MA in psychology from Cal State University, Chico. His research explores the psychological mechanisms driving political decision-making among bilingual individuals. Specifically, he investigates the complex interplay between language, cognition, and social identities and their impact on political behavior. When not engaged in research and teaching, Gustavo likes line-dancing, to comedy shows, and listening to live music while eating tacos. 

Kasheena G. Rogbeer | CV
Kasheena earned dual BAs in Psychology and Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies from Colgate University. Following her undergraduate studies, she managed the GABBA Lab at the University of Georgia for two years. Now in her third year as a PhD student at UCLA, her research focuses on the intersections of identity and politics and aims to uncover the factors that foster political solidarity between racial and ethnic groups. Specifically, she examines how early life socialization, immigration-related experiences, and acculturation processes shape identity and contribute to collective political action.

Sydney Tran | CV
Sydney is a second year PhD student at UCLA. She received her bachelor’s degree at Arizona State University and is a social psychology PhD student in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is interested in applying interdisciplinary research methods to understand the downstream consequences of unequal power dynamics, particularly in the context of racial groups. Her research interests broadly focus on the moderating effects of contextual variables such as identity and environment on interpersonal relations.

LAB ALUMNI

Former Graduate students

• Bianca Vicuña, Ph.D. | Assistant Professor of Political Science, UC Davis
• Chase A. Privett, Ph.D. | Assistant Professor of Political Science, Morningside U.
• Crystal Robertson, Ph.D. | UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow, UC Irvine
• Kristen Brock-Petroshius, Ph.D. | Assistant Professor of Social Welfare, Stonybrook U.
• Jason Chin, Ph.D.
• Pete Fisher, Ph.D.
• Angie Gutierrez, Ph.D. | Assistant Professor of Mexican American Studies, UT Austin
• Vivien Leung, Ph.D. | Assistant Professor of Political Science, Santa Clara U.
• Ana Oaxaca, Ph.D. | Postdoctoral Fellow, UT Austin
• Marcel F. Roman, Ph.D. | Assistant Professor of Government, Harvard U.
• Christine M. Slaughter, Ph.D. | Assistant Professor of Political Science, Boston U.