Leann McLaren

Leann is a senior majoring in political science and history and is enrolled in the honors program. She was born and raised in Manchester, CT. She is a member of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Leadership Board, and a past executive member of the UConn chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) . She has served as a research assistant under faculty projects facilitated by Dr. Evelyn Simien, Dr. Jeremy Pressman, and Dr. Fiona Vernal. She has also participated in internships in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Children’s Law Center, and Right2Know, a political rights organization as apart of her study abroad trip to Capetown, South Africa. This past summer she conducted research under the American Political Science Association’s (APSA) Ralph Bunche Summer Institute at Duke University and is currently writing here thesis project regarding West Indian Immigrant incorporation in Hartford, CT funded through the UConn IDEA Grant Program. Leann is interested in the intersectionality of poverty, racial issues, human rights, and the environment. She hopes to learn how environmental policy is both debated and enforced at the international level and wants to incorporate lessons into her career goals of attaining a PhD in political science.