Patrick Rubalcava '15 was one of several Southern California undergraduates recently featured in a Los Angeles Times article on the benefits of academic research projects and the expansion of such opportunities at large universities.
Rubalcava combined his academic interest in employment discrimination and his love for comic books in his research project, Holy Discrimination, Batman. Using sales figures and other data, Rubalcava's preliminary research shows that it's more costly for comic book publishers to feature female and non-white super heroes. This, in turn, leads to underrepresentation of women and people of color in blockbuster movies that have a huge cultural sway on young people.
The project has "done wonders" for his enthusiasm and knowledge of economics, said Rubalcava to the LA Times.
