Rosa Calosso

      

Rosa Calosso is a PhD student in the Department of Urban Education at The Graduate Center, CUNY. She is also a research assistant within The CUNY Initiative on Immigration & Education, conducting data analysis at a local Bronx public school to determine areas of improvement to better serve the local immigrant community. As a 2022 CUNY DSI Research Fellow, Calosso will expand upon the 1998 writings of Ramona Hernández and Silvio Torres-Saillant—which determined that public school boards in Washington Heights were the first point of political entry for Dominicans in the U.S.—by examining Dominican political participation in Corona, Queens. She intends to specifically examine Dominican involvement in community boards and school boards. This research will provide new insight into the processes of political incorporation and maturation of New York City’s Dominican population, emphasizing the role of social class, a missing link in most analyses on the subject. Contrary to Dominicans in Washington Heights who are majority working-class renters, Dominicans in Corona are often working middle-class home owners.