Political Science

Luciana Lopez-Aita (she/her) is a second-year Ph.D. student from Fresno, CA studying International Relations. Her current research interests include status, international norms, and political psychology, with an emphasis on nuclear politics and proliferation strategies. She obtained her B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2023, double majoring in Political Science and Sociology and minoring in Poverty, Inequality, and Social Justice. During her time at UCSB, she served as a research assistant in the Sociology department and interned for the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE). Her undergraduate political science thesis explored the influence of regime type on the prestige allocation of states following nuclear weapons acquisition.