Andrea Peña-Vasquez is an Assistant Professor of International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) with a focus on Immigration/Migration. Her research focuses on issues of legal status and identity documentation, race/ethnicity, and migration governance in multi-level states. Her work has been supported by the J. William Fulbright Foundation, the American Political Science Association, and the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame.
Professors Aala Abdelgadir (Political Science) and Andrea Peña-Vasquez (Graduate School of Public and International Affairs) and, in collaboration with Andrés Besserer Rayas (CUNY Graduate Center/El Colegio de México), have received a Global Academic Partnership (GAP) grant to launch the Migrant Regularization Archive and Data (MiRADa) project. MiRADa will create a global, publicly accessible database and digital repository documenting migrant regularization policies from 1950 to the present. By compiling source documents, conducting expert surveys, and building a global scholarly network, the project aims to bring greater conceptual clarity and visibility to an underexamined state response to irregular migration.The initiative emphasizes cross-regional research collaboration, with El Colegio de México as the lead institutional partner, and will serve scholars, policymakers, and advocates through a user-friendly platform and public-facing launch event at Pitt in 2027.