The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, located at Cornell University, has named the recipients of its 2025 summer student fellowships, honoring outstanding emerging scholars committed to advancing the field of public opinion research. Roper Center has selected one W.E.B. Du Bois Fellow and three Andrew Kohut Fellows, each of whom will contribute to public opinion scholarship through original research and educational initiatives using data from the Roper iPoll archive. Both fellowship types are offered on an annual basis.
The W.E.B. Du Bois Fellowship in Support of Diversity and Inclusion was launched in 2023 as a joint project of the Roper Center and the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) in honor of W.E.B. Du Bois, who was one of the first to attempt to measure the attitudes and experiences of Black Americans. This program supports graduate students in developing inclusive, accessible instructional materials in public opinion survey research for use by educators.
2025 Du Bois Fellow
Jullanar Zakiyyah Williams, M.A., is a Ph.D. student entering candidacy in sociology at the University of California, Merced. A scholar-activist and committed advocate for justice, she brings her full self to both academic and community-engaged work. Grounded in lived experience and guided by deep intellectual inquiry, her research explores the intersections of mental health, racial justice and community well-being through the lenses of health equity, intersectionality, sociolegal studies and critical race theory. Williams previously served as a graduate researcher on the NSF-funded Du Bois S.E.R.V.E. project and collaborated across institutions to integrate W.E.B. Du Bois’s legacy into data science curricula. As a Du Bois Fellow, she is passionate about developing inclusive, culturally-relevant educational resources in public opinion research and honoring Du Bois’s legacy as a community-engaged scholar and methodological innovator.
2025 Kohut Fellows
The Andrew Kohut Fellowship, named in memory of Andrew Kohut, a leading pioneer in the American polling industry, supports students conducting original research using Roper’s archival data. Fellows also gain hands-on experience with the methods and practices of survey research through projects at the Center.
Ariela Asllani is a rising senior in the Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy at Cornell. She has held internships at the White House and in the U.S. Senate, and her Kohut Fellowship project will examine how federal investments in border enforcement have shaped national sentiment on immigration since the early 2000s. She aims to produce research that informs media, policymakers and the public with high-quality public opinion data.
Nikta Khalilkhani is a Ph.D. student in social and personality psychology at Cornell. Her research explores how perceived shifts in social hierarchies — particularly by dominant groups — influence intergroup attitudes and behaviors, with a focus on gender dynamics. As a Kohut Fellow, she will analyze archival survey data to trace how attitudes toward workplace sexual harassment have evolved over time.
Thomas Gareau‑Paquette is a Ph.D. student in the Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy at Cornell. His research investigates how today’s knowledge-driven economy reshapes public attitudes on redistribution and welfare policy. As a Kohut Fellow, he will use the Fannie Mae National Housing Survey and labor market data to examine how economic booms affect renter-homeowner divisions in housing-policy preferences across U.S. metro areas.
“The Roper Summer Fellows not only delve deeply into the rich resources of the archive to conduct independent research, they also engage in conversations with major figures in public opinion research,” said Kathleen Weldon, director of data operations and communications at the Roper Center. “The Roper Center is proud to facilitate the scholarship and cultivate the relationships that will foster a new generation of public opinion leaders.”
Learn more about the Roper Center and its fellowships.