My name is Alexis M. Dennis and I am a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology and Community and Environmental Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I began my academic career as a nontraditional student at the City Colleges of Chicago and continued through Northeastern Illinois University, where I earned my undergraduate degree in Sociology with a minor in Women and Gender Studies. Broadly, my research areas of interest are in social mobility, higher education, race/ethnicity, social psychology/social interaction, and qualitative methodologies such as narrative analysis and life histories.
My dissertation research primarily focuses on the examination of graduate student communities and the unique experiences of racial minority and working-class graduates in academic settings. The aim of the work is to better understand how such experiences influence the career paths of these students, shedding light on the structural inequities present in graduate and professional environments.
I am currently serving as a research/project assistant at the Institute for Research on Poverty at UW-Madison. There, I contribute to studies that explore how families, especially those engaged with the child support program, perceive and navigate related policies, and how these perceptions shape their parenting beliefs and self-identity.
Please take a look at my curriculum vitae for more information.