St. Mary’s College student Jada Ward ’19 presented at the 13th Annual Virginia Commonwealth University Politics and Government Student Research Conference held in April.
Her paper, “Understanding Race & Ethnicity in America: The Census’ Role in Shaping Identity,” uses the Census Bureau’s census and the race and ethnicity categories formulated within to answer whether or not the categories play a role in shaping people’s identity.
Her goal for the research paper was to gain a greater understanding of how the race and ethnicity categories were formulated, how they have changed over time, the census’ role in determining identity, and implications on how to best go about categorization and systematic racism in the future.
Ward graduated this May as a political science and music double major.
