Biography:

Alex Koenig is a PhD candidate in the Department of Comparative Human Development (CHD). His research interests broadly include social and racial inequality in education, migrant and newcomer integration into schools, and the influence of participatory decision-making frameworks on public institutions. Alex uses a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate the ways in which institutions constrain or expand opportunities for young people at key moments of their emotional, social, and intellectual development. He is particularly interested in the ways in which borders and how communities define the collective ‘we’ influence school policies. Before UChicago, Alex served as a teacher and school administrator in Boston, Massachusetts and Tulsa, Oklahoma. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Social Studies from Harvard University. 

Project Title: Access or Exclusion? Administrative Barriers to School Enrollment for migrant children in Mexico

Abstract:

This project is a follow-up on field work conducted in Mexico City in the summer of 2023 and is part of my dissertation research. The funds will be used to conduct site visits to schools and interviews with school and community leaders in four cities in Mexico at the start of the 2024-25 school year. It will involve 1-2 weeks each in four cities – Mexico City, Puebla, Chihuahua, and Ciudad Juarez. My research is focused on identifying barriers to school access for migrant children in Mexico and is being done in collaboration with scholars at El Colegio Mexico (COLMEX) in Mexico City. The support of the CISSR Rudolph Field Research Award allows me to make in-person visits to my four research sites and collect baseline data for the start of the upcoming school year. Of primary interest to the study is the extent to which Mexican public schools have become accessible to migrant children and families following legislation in 2015 that guaranteed free education regardless of migration status.