Lara Perez-Felkner
Dr. Lara Perez-Felkner is an Associate Professor of Higher Education and Sociology in the Higher Education Program within the College of Education at Florida State University. She is also an Affiliated Faculty member in the Department of Sociology, and Senior Research Associate with FSU’s Center for Postsecondary Success. Additional affiliations: the Center for Higher Education Research, Teaching, and Innovation (CHERTI); the HOPE center for College, Community, and Justice; Pathways to Adulthood, Network Gender and STEM, and the Joint Centers for Education Research and Population Research Center at NORC at the University of Chicago.
Her research uses developmental and sociological perspectives to examine how young people’s social contexts influence their college and career outcomes. She focuses on the mechanisms that shape entry into and persistence in institutions and fields in which they have traditionally been underrepresented. In particular, she investigates racial-ethnic, gender, and socioeconomic disparities in post-secondary educational attainment and entry to scientific career fields. Dr. Perez-Felkner edited and authored a New Directions in Institutional Research volume on undergraduate women in STEM and is co-editing another special issue in International Journal for Gender, Science, and Technology. Published work appears in journals including: Contemporary Sociology, Developmental Psychology, Frontiers in Psychology, Journal of Higher Education, Journal of Latinos and Education, Oxford Bibliographies in Sociology, Perspectives, and Teachers’ College Record, as well in several edited volumes. Her research has been covered in the U.S., Europe, and Asia in news outlets including ABC News and National Public Radio affiliates, Bustle, the Conversation, Hindustan Times, Motherboard (Vice News), Salon, the San Francisco Chronicle, Science News for Students, U.S. News and World Report, and USA Today.
Primary Interests:
- Attitudes and Beliefs
- Close Relationships
- Culture and Ethnicity
- Gender Psychology
- Prejudice and Stereotyping
- Self and Identity
- Sociology, Social Networks
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"Research in a Minute" Interview
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1:13 "Research in a Minute" Interview
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1:41 Difficulty Orientations, Gender, and Race/Ethnicity
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2:03:24 Collaborative Collision: Mental and Emotional Health 2021 Poster Presentation
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36:52 "No Jargon": Invisible Barriers to STEM Educatio
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Journal Articles:
- Milesi, C., Perez-Felkner, L., Brown, K, & Schneider, B. (2017). Engagement, Persistence, and Gender in Computer Science: Results of a Smartphone ESM Study. Frontiers in Psychology. 8:602. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00602 [link to preliminary online first version]
- Nix, S., & Perez-Felkner, L. (2019). Difficulty orientations, gender, and race/ethnicity: An intersectional analysis of pathways to STEM degrees. Social Sciences, 8(2), 1-29. doi: 10.3390/socsci8020043. See also video abstract: https://youtu.be/w-2QEoJjKDE
- Nix, S., Perez-Felkner, L. C., & Thomas, K. (2015). Perceived mathematical ability under challenge: A longitudinal perspective on sex segregation among STEM degree fields. Frontiers in Psychology, 6(530), 1-19. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00530. See related press.
- Orozco, R. & Perez-Felkner, L. (2017). Ni De Aquí, Ni De Allá: Conceptualizing the Self-Authorship Experience of Gay Latino College Men Using Conocimiento. Journal of Latinos and Education. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15348431.2017.1371018
- Perez-Felkner, L. (2019, online first). Affirmative Action Challenges Keep on Keeping On: Responding to Shifting Federal and State Policy. Perspectives: Policy and Practice in Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603108.2018.1529639
- Perez-Felkner, L. (2015). Perceptions and Resilience in Underrepresented Students’ Pathways to College. Teachers College Record, 117(8), 1-60.
- Perez-Felkner, L., McDonald, S.-K., Schneider, B., & Grogan, E. (2012). Female and male adolescents’ subjective orientations in mathematics and the influence of those orientations on postsecondary majors. Developmental Psychology.
- Perez-Felkner, L., Nix, S., & Thomas, K. (2017). Gendered Pathways: How Mathematics Ability Beliefs Shape Secondary and Postsecondary Course and Degree Field Choices. Frontiers in Psychology, 8(386). doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00386
- Perez-Felkner, L., Thomas, K., Nix, S., Hopkins, J., & D’Sa, M. (2019). Are 2-Year Colleges the Key? Institutional Variation and the Gender Gap in Undergraduate STEM Degrees. Journal of Higher Education. 90(2), 181-209. doi: 10.1080/00221546.2018.1486641
- Perez-Longobardo, L. (2005). Latino Crossings: Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and the politics of race and citizenship. Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews, 34(5), 490-491.
- Saras, E. & Perez-Felkner, L. (2018) “Sociological Perspectives on Socialization.” Oxford Bibliographies in Sociology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Schneider, B., Milesi, C., Perez-Felkner, L., Brown, K., & Gutin, I. (2015). Does the Gender Gap in STEM Majors Vary by Field and Institutional Selectivity? Teachers College Record. http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentID=18026
Other Publications:
- Perez-Felkner, L. (2018). Conceptualizing the field: Higher education research on the STEM gender gap. New Directions for Institutional Research, 2018(179): 11-26. doi: 10.1002/ir.20273
- Perez-Felkner, L. (2015). Perceptions Matter: How Schools Can Enhance Underrepresented Students’ Resilience on the Rocky Path to College. Retrieved from Center for Postsecondary Success, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL: http://centerforpostsecondarysuccess.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Perceptions-Matter-Policy-Brief.pdf
- Perez-Felkner, L. (2013). Socialization in Childhood and Adolescence. In J. DeLamater & A. Ward (Eds.), Handbook of Social Psychology, 2nd Edition (pp. 119-149). New York: Springer Publishing.
- Perez-Felkner, L. (2009). Cultivating college dreams: Social pathways to educational attainment. Ph.D. Dissertation, The University of Chicago, Chicago.
- Perez-Felkner, L., Hedberg, E. C., & Schneider, B. (2011). The changing landscape for educational opportunity: Enhancing the public option for black youth. In D. Slaughter-Defoe, H. Stevenson, E. Arrington & D. J. Johnson (Eds.), Black educational choice: Assessing the private and public alternatives to traditional K-12 public schools. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger Press.
- Perez-Felkner, L., McDonald, S.-K., & Schneider, B. L. (2014). What happens to high-achieving females after high school? Gender and persistence on the postsecondary STEM pipeline. In I. Schoon & J. S. Eccles (Eds.), Gender differences in aspirations and attainment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Schneider, B. L., Ford, T., & Perez-Felkner, L. (2010). Social networks and the education of children and youth. In P. Peterson, E. Baker & B. McGaw (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of Education (pp. 705-711). Oxford: Elsevier.
- Šaras, E., Perez-Felkner, L., & Nix, S. (2018). Warming the Chill: Insights for Institutions and Researchers to Keep Women in STEM. New Directions for Institutional Research, 2018(179): 115-137. doi:10.1002/ir.20278
Courses Taught:
- Applied Regression
- Outcomes of Undergraduate Education
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Sociology of Education
- Linked image: Photo of Lara Perez-Felkner
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Sociology of Higher Education
- Linked image: Photo of Lara Perez-Felkner
- Theoretical and Methodological Analysis of Youth in Society
Lara Perez-Felkner
1205H Stone Building
Florida State University
1114 W. Call Street
Tallahassee, Florida 32306
United States of America
- Phone: (850) 645-8450