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Fernando is a doctoral candidate in the Sociology Department at the University of Georgia. He is interested in how social inequalities are reproduced through institutional and governmental structures, policies, and practices. He engages with quantitative and qualitative methods, and his work and training are supported by ICPSR’s Diversity Scholarship, University of Arizona’s Scott R. Award, UGA Graduate School’s Innovative and Interdisciplinary Research Grant, and the Small Grant Award from the Sociology Department at UGA.
His dissertation tests racial invariances thesis by examining the role of racial segregation and immigration concentration on violent crime. In addition, he is also analyzing the effect of crime on residential mobility and the moderating effect of political factors. He uses multilevel and longitudinal methods to analyze data from the National Neighborhood Crime Study 2 (1999-2013). His other work involves examining how Latinxs are portrayed in mass media.
Fernando also works in several collaborative projects involving mental health and the stress process. He uses growth curve models to examine how parental incarceration affects youth into adulthood. They find that parental incarceration has a positive effect on depressive symptoms, but social support acts as a buffer throughout the life course. In a second project, he and his coauthor examine the effects of reflected appraisals and culture on comfortableness with mental health care providers for Latinx and Asians using survey data they collected. A third project includes examining the relationship between doctor-patient interactions with the patient’s mental and physical health among LGB people of color
Fernando’s pedagogical approach focuses on training sociologists. His courses involve a semester long research paper, where students build up a project over the semester to produce a final product. He has helped some of his students submit their final papers to UGA’s undergraduate journal. As writing is an important part of the learning process, he trains students how to write various pieces of a research paper and his students learn beyond the course material through writing. Fernando takes a holistic approach to teaching and continuously provides information about resources around campus that help with various personal and academic needs.
