My research interests are primarily related to health equity, and the ways in which people from different demographics have differing access to healthcare. I have previously done research regarding the effectiveness of healthcare interventions in Ghana.

Sophia’s studies are located at the intersection of cultural theory, security studies, and international law. Her interdisciplinary research explores the history of enemies, power politics, and war in international relations, with a special focus on the Cold War and post-Cold War-order theatre between Eastern and Central Europe and the West. 

In the humanities, her methodologies employ media analysis, sociology, and investigative journalism to understand how contemporary national identities in Eurasia negotiate their socialist past. At conferences like REEES-Northeast and Slavic Bazaar, she has presented on the 1990-era absurdist cartoons of Russian animator Ivan Maximov as well as on the material object in Sergei Eisenstein’s genealogy of cinema. With the help of University Scholars funding, she travelled in June 2023 to Czechia, Slovakia, and Estonia for ethnographic research on how streetskateboarding subcultures interact with surrounding socialist architecture and their local urban planning politics.

In political science and law, Sophia’s research merge geoeconomics and great-power politics. She is particularly interested in IR theory, the legal implications of economic warfare, and what political risk management can look like in a highly interdependent world. With support from UScholars, she spent the summer of 2024 as an intern at Centre Thucydide, a research centre between the Sorbonne-Panthéon Assas Universities in Paris, researching the geoeconomic implications of a seizure of Russian assets and copy-editing a collection in French on the laws of war in Ukraine and Gaza. Her senior thesis focuses on the logics of wartime trade between enemies during the Great War. 

Her extracurricular interests involve rock climbing, biking, theatre arts, and rare books.

• Eurasia Intern at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft
• Marcellus Policy Fellow at the John Quincy Adams Society
• Research Assistant at the Wharton School Political Risk & Identity Lab
• PMG Group Lead

My research interest lies at the intersection of commercial real estate and the construction industry, specifically in the labor relations process that governs how construction workers engage with contractors, developers, and unions. With the support of the University Scholars program and Dr. Peter Cappelli of the Wharton Management Department, I am currently pursuing independent research on the division of labor and employee relations within Philadelphia's construction industry and their effects on real estate projects. Beyond my research, I am actively involved with the Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO and the Wharton Management Club.

My research interests include the fields of anthropology, sociology, neuroscience, psychology, and legal studies. Generally, I am interested in exploring why humans act the way that we do, on both the macro and micro levels. Anthropology and sociology allow me to look at the big picture, at cultural and societal forces that shape our thinking and behavior, while neuroscience and psychology allow me to do the same at an individual, biological basis. I am interested in conducting research that blends all of these areas, in addition to separately exploring the rule of law. In the past, I have worked on research papers centered on the neuroscience of addiction, developmental psychology, cross-cultural emotion expression, and literary theory. Outside of UScholars, I am a part of the Daily Pennsylvanian, Penn Moot Court, the Penn Review, and the Penn Undergraduate Law Journal.

I'm interested in behavioral economics and public policy, especially when pertaining to poverty alleviation and microfinance programs. In high school, I held a research assistant position studying the effects of Vietnam War student protests on military funding of universities. Outside of research, I'm involved with the Assembly of International Students and Penn Policy Consulting.

My tentative research interest currently lies in the distribution of political power within democratic, authoritarian, and hybrid regimes throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. I am currently studying Mandarin Chinese with the hopes of conducting political and historical research in East Asia one day. I am looking forward to refining my research interests and identifying more specific topics of interest to me. Outside of my research, I currently serve as a Secretary Senior Deputy for Penn Democrats, a Newsletter Development intern for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and an Alumni Representative for the U.S. Department of State's National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y).

My research interests are centered on the intersection of policy and development economics, with a focus on how legislation has impacted people in rural areas. Specifically, I am interested in how it has affected income inequality and access to essential services. Currently, I am a member of the Nominations and Elections Committee (a branch of Penn Student Government) and The Forum (a branch of Penn Government & Politics Association).

Previously researched inter-religious marriages in India and their legal implications, how music affects plants, and the decolonization of Chagos Islands. Interested in international security and peacekeeping.