ALEXIS CARRION
Sociology Doctoral Student
Hi, my name is Alexis and I am an aspiring Sociologist with an educational background in Applied Psychology and Sociology. I completed my undergraduate education at New York University in 2017 and have been working on a variety of qualitative and mixed-methods research projects in the realm of education, racial and gender identity, and social inequality, over the last few years. My research interests include how race-related and cultural factors may be associated with positive development for black youth, criminalization of black youth in schools, racial-ethnic socialization, parental socialization, black families, and ethnography. I am a New York native but I grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina up until the end of high school, then relocated again to New York City. After a decade in the concrete jungle, I returned to Raleigh where I am currently located. I have a huge love for dogs, and pretty much all other animals. Nice to meet you!
ABOUT
My sociological mindset was sparked during my early childhood. As a New York native who grew up in North Carolina, I made friends with a diverse group of children and their families from a young age. The diverse outcomes of the children in my own neighborhood and the friends I met from other communities through the specialized schools I attended captured my focus even as a child. I came to see how their life trajectories were shaped by the intersection of racial identity, class, and social structures. My childhood relationships, along with being raised by a single mother who juggled college coursework and full-time employment played a monumental role in my interest in wanting to study families. Initially, I went to college to become a psychotherapist. However, I later became more interested in studying social issues rather than focusing on the individual, and thus I began my research career by working with various faculty in my department. I would like to study how racial-ethnic dynamics influence outcomes for black adolescents across multiple settings including classrooms, neighborhoods, and families. I will study this by researching racial-ethnic and parental socialization, racial stratification in homeownership, how family structure and dynamics influence individual wellbeing across the life course, criminalization of blacks in schools, and ethnography. Pursuing these areas of research will allow me to expand the existing sociological literature on which factors are associated with positive development and outcomes for black youth and their families. I plan to continue with a career in research in addition to teaching and mentoring students after obtaining my PhD.
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
My preparedness for doctoral studies includes my coursework in research methods, theory, black studies, and various sociological topics. In addition to my coursework, I have worked as a research assistant on a variety of projects.
NEW YORK CITY ACADEMIC AND SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT STUDY (NYCASES); META-ANALYSIS OF THE IMMIGRANT PARADOX (MAP)
I served as a research assistant for Professor Selcuk Sirin, first working on the New York City Academic and Social Engagement Study (NYCASES): a longitudinal, mixed-methods study to understand how socio-cultural factors and contexts affect developmental outcomes of immigrant youth. The project fostered my understanding of the lives of immigrant youth in the context of acculturation-related factors and we were able to identify critical moderators to acculturation outcomes. I assisted with creating a thematic coding scale, grant writing, data entry, and assembled presentations for conferences. I presented this work at the Teacher’s College Winter Roundtable Conference in February of 2017. Then, I worked on a meta-analytic review of the existing literature on the immigrant paradox. Both projects fostered my interest in contributing to research on immigrant black youth and African American identifying peers.
RESISTANCE AMONG YOUTH (RAY); RACIAL SOCIALIZATION AMONG MOTHERS OF ADOLESCENTS
In order to explore identity development in culture and context, I joined Dr. Niobe Way’s research team. I worked as a research assistant for Professor Way on her Resistance Among Youth (RAY) project which drew from a five-year study funded by the National Science Foundation and comprised black, Latino, Asian and White U.S. families. I have explored how girls resist and adhere to gender norms and the impact of gender and racial stereotypes on adolescents’ social and emotional development. I served as a Manager for this project over a twelve-week period during which I was responsible for leading weekly lab meetings, reporting on lab assistant productivity, in addition to my duties of interview transcribing and coding. I also investigated how mothers of different ethnic groups socialize gender with their sons and daughters during my time working on the Racial Socialization Among Mothers of Adolescents project. The experiences at Dr.Way’s lab provided me with a unique lens to understand human development. Specifically, my experience has led me to want to further explore how schools, families, and peers, as well as cultural, economic, and political factors, influence socio-emotional development, and the role of parents in how adolescents make sense of their racial-ethnic identities. I am also interested in how the various relationships at the micro contextual level can foster the processes of resistance to negative stereotypes that are necessary to nurture resilience and positive coping for the youth of color.
EARLY ADOLESCENT COHORT (EAC) STUDY
I have also worked with Professor Diane Hughes on the Early Adolescent Cohort (EAC) study to understand how racial socialization practices take place among a cohort of NYC adolescents and their parents. Using qualitative analysis, this study revealed the ethnic and cultural variety in how parents socialize their children and how children receive those messages. In addition to my duties as a research assistant, I also recruited and trained a team of six students to work on the thematic coding of the interview data over twelve weeks. As a doctoral student, I intend to apply these skills to guide my research on racial-ethnic and parental socialization.
CURRENT PROJECTS
Personal and Academic
WORKSHOP COURSE
January 5 - June 13, 2026
INTRODUCTORY COURSE
January 5 - June 13, 2026
THIQUE VINTAGE
Est. Summer 2023
