The gym space has historically functioned as an element within the fitness industry that simultaneously reflects current gender-based stereotypes while perpetuating others that can seem relatively antiquated. Performance plays a large role in this process. The pressure of being perceived positively or negatively is largely determined by one’s interaction with their socially-assigned gender. An ethnographic research style was used to analyze the impact of gendered social norms on people's differing levels of access and comfort with the gym according to their gender. This fieldwork allowed for the observation of gym goers’ behavior at the John Wooden Center over six weeks. In addition, literary research analysis was conducted with ten scholarly research articles that delved into different studies of the roles of sexism and ableism within the gym space. Some articles include research conducted in gym spaces outside the United States, highlighting the trans-national impact of gender hierarchies within fitness and beauty expectations. By combining these research methods, it became possible to build an analysis upon the framework of intersectionality within these varying cultures. It was found that women of certain socioeconomic identities face additional pressures along their health journey. Ultimately, by highlighting these gendered differences, it can become possible to work against them so that everyone, especially those who stray from the heteronormative ends on the contiuum, have equal access to their health goals.

Street vending was legalized in 2018 in Los Angeles following years of advocacy by the LA Street Vendor Campaign against its criminalization. Previous literature studying street vending was conducted within the legal framework of its criminalization and examined the impact on individuals and their social networks. These studies focused on Mexican or Latino/a groups, overlooking the unique histories and legal statuses of Central Americans, which significantly influence their experiences. For this reason, I have developed the research questions: What challenges do Central American women street vendors face with the legalization of street vending? How do these women utilize social networks or other resources to cope with these challenges? This study employs the framework of legal violence to understand the long-term impacts of laws criminalizing immigrants. It reveals that the legalization of street vending has not eradicated the harassment vendors face. Utilizing semi-structured interviews, it investigates the influence of social networks and nonprofits on the lives of Central American women street vendors as they navigate ongoing and emerging issues. Studying Central American women street vendors is crucial because their experiences can enhance our understanding of the impacts that immigration laws have on communities, how gender shapes experiences in public spaces, and how these women tackle challenges provides insights into the previous two areas.

Through my project, I intend to explore the connection between processes of inclusion and exclusion within Latinx-identified social groups as it connects to Spanish language proficiency. I ultimately wish to answer how Latinx people’s Spanish abilities affect their connection, inclusion, and sense of belonging within larger Latinx social networks, more specifically through their friends, family, and involvement in Latinx groups such as campus or community organizations. All participants were latinx-identifying people, but vary based on their self-reported Spanish language proficiency. A preliminary survey was used to collect their self-reported proficiency in Spanish as well as other sociodemographic information such as age, gender idenity, and national identity. A following more in-depth survey was conducted to gauge participants' language habits. It is hypothesized that people with higher proficiency tend to be much more integrated in latinx social groups. Therefore, participants were organized into three groups based on Spanish language proficiency. Other factors such as their language use at home, work, etc were also be considered. After conducting the two surveys, a series of semi-structured focus groups interviews were conducted to further learn about participants' connections to the Spanish Language their experiences. Preliminary results have pointed to the bilingual nature of most groups, while emphasizing instances of judgement and inclusion, ability to connect beyond lingusitic factors, and the importance of accent

Recently declared the most diverse city in human history, Los Angeles faces significant inequalities among socioeconomic and ethnic groups, many of which are manifested in the city’s social institutions and built environment. Existing literature typically attributes these inequalities to institutions’ respective qualities or their spatial and/or temporal distribution. Comparatively less scholarship has considered causal relationships between these two phenomena: what we term institutions' “spatiotemporal inequality.” Foregrounded against the literature, we collect data from the Google Maps and Radar APIs and examine the spatiotemporal distributions of key social and economic institutions—such as primary-schools, grocery stores, and hospitals—across the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area’s ~5000 census tracts for three transit modes: walking, driving, and public transportation. We visualize these distributions through novel polar-coordinate graphs that map the “lived space-time” of different socioeconomic and ethnic groups and evaluate them against corresponding social and economic indicators from the American Community Survey. We find that institutions’ “spatiotemporal inequalities” are broadly associated with corresponding social inequalities among respective socioeconomic and ethnic groups in LA. We discuss potential causal relationships between institutions' spatiotemporal distribution and their exogenous qualities. Urban policy implications and areas of future inquiry are considered.