Maya Jenkins is a second-year SNF Agora Academy Predoctoral Fellow at Johns Hopkins University. Her research lies at the nexus of Black politics, gender, and social media. She is curious about the informal spaces where Black women and queer people practice politics.
At Hopkins, she serves as a research assistant in Professor Hahrie Han’s P3 Research Lab, as well as the labs run by Professors Meredith Greif and Andrew Perrin.
Jenkins graduated from the University of Mary Washington, receiving a BA in political science and completing a senior honors thesis entitled “The Creation of Political Survival Strategies by Black Collegiate Women on Virginia’s Predominantly White Campuses.” At Mary Washington, she was a leader in her college chapter of the NAACP, where she head-authored a research report on police violence and university neglect. This research led to an increase in mental health diversion programming and the creation of more transparency initiatives with university administration and police on campus.
After graduating from Mary Washington, she interned with the housing non-profit Housing Opportunities Made Equal in Virginia, Inc., to research evictions and its linkage to gentrification and displacement in Richmond.