At the SNF Agora Institute, research doesn’t sit still; it moves. For Maya Jenkins, a predoctoral fellow in the Agora Academy, it moves from the campus to the community and back again. She sees her scholarship as not something to be published and shelved, but rather as a living tool designed to serve—and remain accountable to—the community leaders who shaped her.
“I’m not doing this for political science,” she said. “I’m doing this for marginalized communities.” That clarity reflects SNF Agora’s mission to strengthen democracy through community, scholarship, and civic participation.
As an undergraduate, Maya studied how Black women navigate predominantly white institutions. She scrolled through timelines and sifted through archives, tracking how identity forms at the edge of belonging. At SNF Agora, TikTok became her focus. The platform relies on humor, video, and algorithms. It can offer connection, but it can also exclude.
“Even when the algorithm works against them, Black women find ways to create joy and solidarity. They use the system, flip it, reclaim it.”
That discovery shifted Maya’s understanding of democracy.
“I used to think democracy was about people coming together on equal footing to make decisions,” she said. “Now I see that democracy has to happen before people even enter the room. If you can’t access the room or feel safe there, the process is already broken.”
At SNF Agora, Maya learned to ask better questions. In the P3 Lab, led by Hahrie Han, she worked alongside researchers and community organizers in California. The lab’s mission is to make civic participation possible, probable, and powerful. That mission aligned with her drive to make scholarship useful rather than extractive.
The team studied how organizers spend their time. They wanted their research to support the effectiveness of movements, not just document their outcomes. “That’s what community-engaged research should do. It should serve,” Maya said. She remembers hearing Hahrie say, “We don’t want to be parasitic to movements.” Maya thought, “Yes. That’s it.”
Throughout her fellowship, Maya found strength in her peers at the institute. Her cohort of predoctoral scholars became her sounding board and support system. Together, they helped one another navigate the challenges of elite academic spaces.
One of the hardest lessons involved learning what she calls the “hidden curriculum.” That meant figuring out how to write a cold email to faculty, how to request a letter of recommendation, and how to project scholarly neutrality.
“Institutions often expect scholars of color to separate personal experience from academic inquiry,” she said. “But for people like me, our questions tie to who we are. Learning to frame that in a way that’s considered rigorous is its own discipline.”
She also learned to recognize the emotional toll that academic life can take. “I am always very close to burnout,” she admitted. “So, if I can name that and learn how to build against it, I’m going to be okay.”
Maya doesn’t romanticize her path, but she values what it taught her.
“These universities won’t save you,” she said. “You have to decide what kind of researcher you want to be, and who your work serves.” She credits SNF Agora with helping her find her footing.
She wants her work to support organizers, students, and anyone carrying the weight of similar expectations. “We think change only comes from big, dramatic moments,” she said. “But it also shows up in the small stuff. Union meetings, neighborhood organizing, conversations in barbershops, and online discussions. That’s where democracy lives, too.”
As she prepares to begin a PhD at Brown University, Maya brings both experience and conviction. She often recalls a phrase from the Black Lives Matter protests: Voting is just a hammer, and one tool will not build the house we need.
“There’s no justice work without many kinds of labor,” she said. “Research is one of them. And I want mine to be useful. I am responsible for approaching it with intention and being honest about its political nature.”
Maya’s story reflects SNF Agora’s mission in motion. She practices research with purpose, stays rooted in her community, and bridges the academic and civic spheres. Through Maya, we see how the skills of engaged democracy develop. They take shape in the spaces where people connect, question, and commit to something larger than themselves.