Roper Center announces 2026 student scholars advancing public opinion research

The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research has announced its 2026 cohort of student scholars, supporting emerging researchers whose work advances the study of public opinion and its role in shaping policy and society.

The center appointed three Kohut Research Scholars and one W.E.B. Du Bois Research Scholar. The program supports student research that uses public opinion data, drawing on the Roper Center's extensive archive of survey data to examine political behavior, social attitudes and inequality.

Named for former Pew Research Center director Andrew Kohut, the Kohut Scholar program supports undergraduate and graduate students at Cornell University conducting research on public opinion. The Du Bois Scholars program, named for scholar and civil rights leader W.E.B. Du Bois, supports the development of pedagogical resources for educators teaching about the social science of polling.

"At a time when understanding public opinion is increasingly important, this year's scholars will engage in thoughtful, data-driven work across a wide range of issues," said Brett Powell, associate director of the Roper Center. "We're excited to support their research and to see how it contributes to broader conversations about policy, institutions and society."

W.E.B. Du Bois scholar

Nancy Toure is a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at the University of Illinois Chicago. Her research examines how structural mechanisms within institutions perpetuate racial inequality, particularly in workplace settings and in institutions often considered objective.

As a first-generation college student, her work is grounded in a commitment to understanding and challenging systems of inequality, with particular attention to the multilevel nature of inequality across institutions and social contexts.

In addition to her academic work, she has worked as a social science research analyst with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and as a survey methodologist and data analyst with Grenzebach Glier & Associates. She is a member of the American Sociological Association.

As a Du Bois Scholar, she will investigate inequality within the U.S. federal workforce, with a focus on how systems of measurement and evaluation shape disparities.

Kohut scholars

Dayra Lascano is a Ph.D. candidate in government at Cornell, specializing in international relations and comparative politics. She holds a Master of Public Policy from University of California, San Diego and a Master of International Relations from the University of Essex. Her research examines how geoeconomic shifts reshape regional organizations in the global south, with a particular focus on Latin America, external influence, and the politics of institutional change. As a Kohut Scholar, she will study how citizens in Latin America respond to competing external influences and domestic crises, and when those conditions generate support for regional cooperation, greater autonomy from outside powers, or alternative patterns of alignment.

Boyang Liu is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Government at Cornell, specializing in comparative politics with a regional focus on the former Soviet states. His research interests include public opinion, political behavior, and state legitimacy. His current projects examine the factors that shape individual political behavior and the expression of political attitudes in non-democratic contexts. As a 2026 Kohut Scholar, he will investigate the mechanisms behind changes in dissent expression in Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. This project draws on monthly survey data collected by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) and archived at the Roper Center. He holds an M.A. in Regional Studies-Russia, Eurasia, and Eastern Europe from Columbia University's Harriman Institute and a B.A. in International Relations and Russian & East European Studies from Claremont McKenna College.

Shree Manivel is a rising senior in the Industrial and labor Relations School at Cornell University. Her research interests span health services research and clinical research, with a focus on how innovation through policies and technologies can advance both working conditions for healthcare workers and quality of care for patients. Through a cross-campus collaboration between the ILR School and Weill Cornell Medicine, she is co-leading the development of a national survey instrument for a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded study examining workforce health and employment conditions among direct care workers. She has also conducted clinical research on outcomes after minimally invasive cardiac and colorectal surgeries. As a Kohut Scholar, she will investigate how public trust in medical institutions and attitudes toward artificial intelligence in healthcare are evolving across the United States, advancing research that ensures public beliefs and lived experiences inform the policies and systems that shape health and well-being.

Learn more about the Roper Center and its scholars.

Stephen D'Angelo is the communications manager for biological systems at Cornell Research and Innovation.