Welcome! Kimberly J. Cárdenas is a PhD Candidate in Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania, where she specializes in American and Comparative Politics and a student with the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Graduate Certificate Program. Kimberly has been recognized as a Fontaine Fellow, National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow, and American Political Science Association Minority Fellow.
Her research interests lie in political participation and intersectionality theory, and her dissertation examines why LGBTQ+ Latinxs and African-Americans are disproportionately represented in activism that is organized around racial and ethnic concerns such as Black Lives Matter and the Dreamer movement as well as the role of geographic variation in structuring individual choice to participate.
Kimberly has field qualifications in American and Comparative Politics and is prepared to teach courses in both of these areas. She earned a Certificate in College and University Teaching from Penn’s Center for Teaching and Learning in 2020.
Prior to joining the Political Science program at the University of Pennsylvania, she obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government with minors in Latinx and Latin American Studies from Cornell University in 2017. Kimberly is the first one in her family to receive a college degree, and was born and raised in La Puente, California to Mexican immigrants.
