Meet the Cluster Community: Ingrid Espinoza

1. Why are you interested in studying Inequality?

Equality of opportunity is one of my most important values. I want everyone to be able to participate in our society - regardless of skin color, education level, economic resources, sexual orientation, gender or descent. That's why I'm interested in social inequality. I want to understand it better, especially what impact it has on our personal development and on the development of our society, in order to better deal with it.

2. What are you working on? 

I study encounters between public officials and citizens. Based on their conversations, I want to better understand power dynamics in these encounters. My focus here is on the racist and discriminatory unequal treatment of citizens. I am also currently researching the relationship between mental health and the integration of people with refugee histories.

3. How did you end up here?

I am very curious. In social science research, I found a way to pursue my thirst for knowledge. I find it amazing that I can turn my curiosity into a profession, even if the working conditions for scientists in Germany are suboptimal. #IchbinHanna

4. Recent highlight? 

The start of my PhD. I'm embedded in a super cool team, I'm encouraged and challenged, which allows me to grow as a person and expand my boundaries. I feel like I'm in good hands.

5. Dream research project?

I would love to do research on the consequences of the exploitation of the global south by countries of the global north has on health and life chances of the population of the global south.

Ingrid Espinoza is a Doctoral Researcher in the cluster project "Inequality in Street-Level Bureaucracy: Linguistic Analysis of Public Service Encounter". Her research interests include computational social science, discrimination and racial inequality and post-colonial approaches in research.