MAYA CAMARGO-VEMURI

Maya Camargo-Vemuri is a PhD student at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. Her dissertation examines violence in genocide, attempting to establish patterns within and across contemporary cases. More broadly, Camargo-Vemuri looks at political violence, repression, and marginalization, usually within authoritarian regimes or identity-based conflicts. As such, her research usually looks at cases of genocide, ethnic cleansing, mass atrocity, or human rights violations, and the role nationalism and propaganda have in perpetuating, supporting, and furthering certain norms and behaviors in cases of violence and repression.

The Lee Ann Fujii Travel Grant was used to support Camargo-Vemuri’s engagement with other scholars of violence and conflict at APSA 2021, including her role in hosting this year’s Women in Conflict Studies (WICS) networking event.

OLIVIA COOK

Olivia J. Cook is a multi-passionate, innovative leader who thrives on helping institutions and organizations develop their human capital to gain greater efficiencies and productivity. As a higher educational professional and lifelong scholar, her work focuses on the authentic leadership style development process of African American women senior leaders, which has amassed over 3.5 million impressions. As a result, she has consulted for state agencies and academic departments on topics related to leadership, entrepreneurship, and diversity and inclusion. Cook, a 2017-2018 MFP recipient, utilized the Lee Ann Fujii Travel Grant to support efforts as she prepared to share her research at the 2021 APSA Annual Meeting. She presented her paper entitled "Beyond the Skin: Authentic Leadership and African American Women Senior Leaders."

A native of Auburn, AL and a tri-alumna of Auburn University, Cook holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Polymer and Fiber Engineering, and a minor in Spanish as well as a Masters and PhD in Public Administration and Public Policy.

GREGORY LESLIE

Gregory John Leslie, Jr., is a PhD candidate in the political science department at the University of California, Los Angeles where he also expects to earn a master’s degree in statistics. He graduated from the honors program at New York University with a BA in international relations. At NYU, he worked with human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Asia Initiatives, and the World Economic Forum.

Prior to graduate school, he worked as an organizer, campaign manager, and political consultant for candidates such as Barack Obama and Eric Garcetti. Currently, he is a Co-Principal at Blue Wave Strategies which provides data-analytic services to progressive campaigns. His published research examines race and politics broadly and his dissertation project examines the political psychology of mixed-race individuals, both in the United States and abroad.

AUSTIN NELSON

Austin Nelson is a PhD student in the department of government and a JD student in the school of law at the University of Texas at Austin. He holds an MPPA from Baylor University and a BA summa cum laude from Hendrix College. His primary field of research is public law. Nelson is a 2020–2021 Dan Searle Fellow of the Institute for Humane Studies and a 2018–2019 APSA Minority Fellow.

He previously served as co-chair of APSA’s Committee on the Status of Graduate Students in the Profession. Nelson’s work has appeared in the Texas Law Review and the Texas Review of Law & Politics. In 2023–2024, he will be a judicial law clerk for Chief Judge Lavenski Smith of the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Nelson utilized the Lee Ann Fujii Travel Grant to attend the 2021 APSA Annual Meeting. He presented his paper comparing different approaches to militant democracy (or defensive democracy) in the constitutions of developing countries.

TYE RUSH

Tye Rush is a doctoral candidate in the department of political science at the University of California, Los Angeles. Broadly, Tye specializes in issues of race, ethnicity, and politics but his research examines the Voting Rights Act, voting rights, and election administration. His dissertation takes a holistic approach, examining legislator intent behind voter ID laws, by using historical context around restrictive voting laws to establish the link between the restrictive voting laws of the past and those of today in the literature.

Born and raised in San Bernardino, CA, Tye holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and public service from the University of California, Riverside. Currently, Tye is a senior policy fellow at the UCLA Voting Rights Project, a Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellow, and a University of California President’s Pre-Professoriate fellow. Previously, Tye served as a research fellow at the UCLA Institute for Inequality and Democracy at Luskin and as the Voting and Redistricting Fellow at Common Cause. Tye utilized the Lee Ann Fujii Travel Grant to present his paper, “Are Voter Identification Laws an Electoral Strategy?” at the 2021 APSA Annual Meeting.

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