about me
MARIA ABASCAL
I am an Associate Professor of Sociology at New York University. I received my PhD in Sociology and Social Policy from Princeton University, and I completed a postdoc in the Population Studies and Training Center at Brown University.
Broadly, I am interested in intergroup relations and boundary processes, especially as they pertain to race, ethnicity and nationalism. Most of my research explores the impact of demographic diversification––real and perceived––on intergroup relations in the United States. I draw on a range of quantitative methods and data sources, including original lab, survey, and field experiments.
Ongoing projects examine the relationship between racial/ethnic diversity and cooperation, boundary-drawing in the wake of diversification, and lay understandings of "diversity."
Are you thinking about doing research on racial/ethnic "diversity" and its consequences? Think twice. Chances are the theories you are going to test and the empirical measures you are going to use are about non-White or immigrant share, rather than diversity, i.e., heterogeneity. Check out my recent paper with Flavien Ganter and Delia Baldassarri through this link.