Bio
Giovanni was born and raised in Miami, Florida. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and Anthropology from Florida International University (FIU). Giovanni has a background in working as an undergraduate writing tutor for FIU’s Center for Excellence in Writing, a Learning Assistant for FIU’s STEM Transformation Institute, and as a student editor for FIU’s Undergraduate Research Journal. Since graduating he has worked in the private tech consulting field as a Sociocultural Data Analyst and at Miami Dade Public Schools as an instructor. Throughout his time in university and beyond, Giovanni has cultivated a skillset in expanding educational outcomes and a passion for supporting disadvantaged youth in receiving access to much needed social services. Now as a MALACS/GSS PhD student, Giovanni aims to implement a multidisciplinary approach to investigate the long-term psychosocial and socio-cultural ramifications of migration on undocumented youth and their complex kinship dynamics. He plans to conduct research on migrant children crossing the Mexico-USA borderlands who are placed into the US foster care system. Giovanni is interested in understanding how adoptive and birth parents navigate kinship systems differently given their unique sociopolitical needs.
Areas of Interest
Immigration Policy, Adoption/Foster Care Reform, Migrant Adoption, Transracial Adoption, Kinship Dynamics in Mixed Families, Urban Youth Development, Decolonizing Body Politics, Youth Labor Rights