Four New Faculty Members Join The Graduate Center

Professors Ariana Mangual Figueroa, Brett Stoudt, Van C. Tran, and Wei Wang

The Graduate Center has appointed four new faculty members for the academic year beginning this fall in the areas of psychology, sociology, and urban education.
 
“We are delighted to welcome these four widely respected and highly creative scholars to The Graduate Center faculty,” said Julia Wrigley, interim provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. “I am confident that they will inspire our students through their teaching and their thoughtful research in areas that are of deep public interest, from immigration to criminal justice to big data analytics.”
 
Meet the new faculty: 
 
Ariana Mangual Figueroa
Associate Professor, Urban Education
Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley

Mangual Figueroa draws from the fields of language socialization and linguistic anthropology to examine language use and learning in Latinx communities living in the United States. Her ethnographic research documents the ways in which linguistic and cultural development is shaped by citizenship status and schooling practices during everyday, routine interactions. Her work has appeared in Anthropology & Education Quarterly, Language Policy American, and the Educational Research Journal. Prior to obtaining her Ph.D., she taught English as a Second Language and Spanish in public schools in the Bronx and Brooklyn.
 
Brett Stoudt
Associate Professor, Psychology
Ph.D., The Graduate Center
 
Stoudt is joining The Graduate Center as a core faculty member. Previously his primary appointment was at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, where he was an associate professor with a joint appointment in the Psychology Department and the Gender Studies Program. He has worked on numerous participatory action research projects with community groups, lawyers, and policymakers nationally and internationally. His interests include the social psychology of privilege and oppression as well as the human impact of the criminal justice system, and his work has been published in volumes such as Geographies of Privilege as well as in publications such as The Journal of Social Issues. 
 
Van C. Tran
Associate Professor, Sociology
Ph.D., Harvard University

Tran’s research focuses on the integration of immigrants and their children, ethnic and racial categories, diversity and intergroup relations, and neighborhood gentrification, as well as urban poverty and social inequality. As an immigration scholar and urban sociologist, his research and teaching are deeply connected to the diversity, history, and vibrancy of New York City. Tran joins The Graduate Center from Columbia University, where he received the 2018 Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching and the 2017 Faculty Mentoring Award. His research has been published in journals including Social Forces and International Migration Review, among many others.
 
Wei Wang
Associate Professor, Psychology
Ph.D., University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

In addition to joining The Graduate Center as an associate professor of psychology and of educational psychology, Wang is a faculty member in the Industrial/Organizational Psychology program at Baruch College. His research interests primarily lie in quantitative methods and computational modeling, and in their broad applications in various psychological, managerial, and educational areas. Currently he is conducting research around three themes: social networks, applied psychometrics, and big data analytics and technology. Wang has received funding from the National Science Foundation and he won the Best Convention Paper Award from the Academy of Management.