The APSA Lee Ann Fujii Diversity Fellowship Program (DFP) travel grant provides support for the professional development of APSA Diversity Fellows and alumni at the APSA Annual Meeting. The grant is named in honor of Dr. Lee Ann Fujii. Dr. Fujii was a professor at the University of Toronto who researched and published in the area of political violence, ethnicity and race, African politics (especially Rwanda and the Great Lakes), field methods, and research ethics. Support for this grant, which is in its sixth year, has been generously provided by the Fujii family and Dr. Fujii’s friends and colleagues. To learn more about Dr. Fujii, please visit “Remembering_Lee_Ann_Fujii.” Priority is given to fellows and alumni whose research, teaching, or mentoring focuses in one or more of the areas of political violence, ethnicity and race, African politics, racial violence in the US South, comparative politics, international relations, conflict processes, research ethics, or qualitative and interpretative methods. Learn more about the Lee Ann Fujii Travel Grant at https://apsanet.org/dfp/travelgrant.
RIKIO INOUYE
Rikio Inouye is a PhD candidate on the 2025-2026 job market specializing in race, religion, and international relations. His job market paper examines how racial and religious identities fundamentally alter public support for countries in conflict, revealing critical mechanisms through which identity-based biases shape foreign policy preferences and international solidarity. His research employs survey experiments to uncover how racial and religious identities influence public attitudes toward other people and countries, with profound implications for democratic solidarity, foreign policy formation, and international cooperation. His work stands at the frontier of understanding how identity-based biases operate in global politics. Rikio has two articles currently under revision and resubmission at International Studies Quarterly. His first article, which received the Best Paper in Foreign Policy Award from the American Political Science Association, provides a strategic analysis of US and Chinese vaccine diplomacy during the COVID-19 pandemic. His second article employs a conjoint experiment to examine how American sympathies toward Israelis and Palestinians shifted following the October 7th attack. Additional projects investigate how race and religion condition democratic solidarity during crises and how Americans perceive migrant allies from Afghanistan and Iraq. Rikio is deeply committed to active and engaged learning. He received Princeton University’s prestigious George Kateb Teaching Award and the McGraw Center Exemplar Mentor Award in 2024. He has organized pedagogy workshops for fellow graduate students and has been nominated twice for university-wide teaching awards.
LAURA URIBE
Laura Uribe is a PhD candidate of political science at the University of California San Diego. Laura is a scholar of Latine politics, and her dissertation project uses mixed-methods to understand how within-group status hierarchies shape Latine policy preferences, ideologies, political behaviors, and political attitudes. Her research has been cited by the Associated Press and she has co-authored publications in PNAS Nexus, Politics, Groups, and Identities, the Journal of Race, Ethnicity and Politics, Political Research Quarterly, the Journal of Election Administration Research & Practice, and Public Opinion Quarterly. She is an American Political Science Association Diversity Fellow. Laura graduated summa cum laude from the University of Florida, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
JUSTIN ZIMMERMAN
Justin Zimmerman is an assistant professor of American politics at UAlbany. His area of concentration is Black politics and urban politics. His research aims to understand how Black Chicagoans work with institutions and neighbors they traditionally distrust to pursue common policy goals–in this case, to remedy state and community violence. His research on situational trust and coalition building was recently published in Politics, Groups, and Identities, and his current book project will consider the coalitions, motivations, and compromises made by Black Chicagoans that cooperate with distrusted institutions. Justin received his PhD from Northwestern University in 2023. He also is a proud alumni of the University of Alabama where he received a bachelor of arts in political science and philosophy in 2009 and a master of public administration with a concentration in organizational management in 2011.
