Research Interests: Cultural Sociology; Inequality and Stratification; Comparative Sociology; Gender; Race

Elena Ayala-Hurtado is a PhD student in sociology at Harvard University. Her research examines how individuals narrate and make sense of their lives within unstable social contexts, and particularly how individuals narrate their projections toward the future. Her dissertation research is a comparative study of how young university graduates in Spain and the United States, two developed countries with increasing employment precarity and economic insecurity even among the highly educated, understand their social positions, describe their trajectories and project themselves into the future, and make decisions about their lives. Her previous research focused on young Spaniards’ imagined professional futures.

Before starting graduate school, Elena earned a B.A. in Sociology with Honors and English with Honors from Stanford University and taught high school in Spain through the Fulbright Program.

Previous Degrees:
B.A. in Sociology (honors) and English (honors), Stanford University (2014)