Aaron Ponce
Aaron Ponce hails from the great state of Texas, yet calls many places home since his studies and work have taken him far and wide. Aaron graduated cum laude from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida with a double major in International Studies and Political Science, focusing on Latin American politics and culture as well as foreign languages. After working as an interpreter-translator for the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, Aaron traveled to Japan and lived two wonderful years in Hitachiota City, Ibaraki Prefecture while teaching English to kindergarteners, junior high students, and the best class of adult English students in the world. After returning Stateside, Aaron focused on his love for language and completed a Masters degree in Linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin with a focus on sociolinguistics. His thesis explored the use of language in indexing sexual, racial, and professional /mainstream social identities among gay African-American males in Dallas, Texas.
Aaron is also interested in questions concerning the rights of disenfranchised and minority groups and individuals, particularly immigrants and those who identify as LGBTQ. His focus on minority groups and human rights led him to the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he began studying international human rights, immigration, and asylum law. Aaron expects to receive his Juris Doctorate from the University of Wisconsin Law School as part of a dual JD/PhD degree. At IU, Aaron hopes to use his diverse academic experience to pursue interesting sociological questions that combine his interdisciplinary interests; questions concerning, for example, the sociology of law (particularly immigration/asylum law), the sociology of sexuality and the regulation of sexuality, and the sociology of language and language rights.
