June 18, 2026
The Upjohn Institute has named six doctoral students to receive its 2026 Dissertation Research Grants. The grants provide up to $15,000 to support students at U.S. institutions who have completed all doctoral program requirements except for their dissertations.
This is the fourth year of the Dissertation Research Grants program. Consistent with the Upjohn Institute’s mission to find solutions to employment problems and its commitment to encouraging diversity in research, the awards support work on employment-related topics, with particular interest in policy-relevant research focused on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities.
Grants can help researchers pay for expenses such as fieldwork, interviews, research assistance, or gaining access to data. Grantees are invited to present their research at the Upjohn Institute. They may also submit a working paper to be considered for inclusion in the Institute’s working paper series and develop a policy brief to communicate research implications to a broader audience.
The Upjohn Institute presents the awards in partnership with the Russell Sage Foundation.
2026 Dissertation Research Grant winners:
Alelí Andrés:“From Sacrifice to Support: The Aging Experiences and Retirement Strategies of Older Mexican Immigrants”
Department of Sociology, University of California, San Diego
As the U.S. population ages Mexican immigrants face heightened vulnerability as they plan for retirement due to limited access to formal safety nets. Drawing on life history interviews with older Mexican immigrants and their adult children as well as ethnographic observations of family and community life, Andrés will examine how experiences vary across three groups—long-term legal residents, long-term undocumented immigrants, and those who become legal residents relatively late in life—to shed light on how the timing and duration of legal status shape access to support and later life decisions.
Teresita Cruz Vital: “Found in Translation? The Effects of Dual Language Immersion Programs”
Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley
Dual Language Immersion (DLI) programs have expanded rapidly across U.S. public schools, motivated by claims that they improve academic achievement, promote bilingualism, and enhance students’ economic prospects, but strong evidence on their impacts is limited. Using longitudinal student data from Texas, Cruz Vital uses the timing of new DLI programs to estimate their effects on short- and long-run outcomes, as well as examining whether DLI programs aid English learners—who are primarily immigrants or the children of immigrants—by improving their educational attainment and labor market outcomes.
Kassandra Hernandez: “CADAA Estudiante Cuenta: The Effects of the California Dream Act Application on Undocumented Student Success”
Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley
Undocumented students are barred from accessing federal financial aid, although some states offer their own aid programs to these students. Hernandez studies the California DREAM Act, which provided undocumented students with access to Cal Grant, the state’s primary form of financial aid. Drawing on data from the California Dream Act Application (CADAA), she and her coauthor examine how access to this form of financial aid affects the integration and success of undocumented students at higher education institutions.
Darien Kearney: “Beyond Direct Discrimination”
Department of Economics, Howard University
How do structural racism and racially mediated stress shape economic outcomes for Black Americans? Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to examine outcomes over time, Kearney explores how racialized stress—measured using the frequency of self-reported everyday discrimination that respondents attribute primarily to race—relates to financial trauma, which ultimately affects labor market attachment and earnings trajectories.
Bezankeng Njinju: “Truth in Sentencing and Its Potential Ripple Effects: Recidivism, Labor Force Re-entry and the Well-Being of Children and Families”
Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin, Madison
More than 30 states have “Truth in Sentencing” (TIS) laws, which aim to provide more certainty in sentencing by eliminating parole, setting fixed release dates, and lengthening sentences—but there is little evidence about how TIS affects long-term outcomes, both for individuals who are sentenced and for their families. Bezankeng examines the effects of Wisconsin’s TIS law, implemented in 1999, on sentencing lengths, recidivism rates, and labor force re-entry for formerly incarcerated people, as well as the effects on the well-being of their children and families.
Şeyma Özdemir: “Invisible Childhoods of Farmworkers’ Children: Child Labor and Educational Outcomes on California’s Central Coast”
Department of Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara
Children of farmworkers are exposed to laws that allow them to work in the fields while limiting their access to education. Agricultural work is exempt from key employment protections, allowing children as young as ten to work—a loophole that affects nearly half a million children across the nation. Using historical analysis and ethnographic fieldwork in California’s Central Coast, Özdemir examines how U.S. child labor law reproduces inequalities by class, race, and citizenship. This project contributes to debates on child labor reform and educational protection.