I am a PhD Candidate in the Criminology, Law & Society department at the University of California - Irvine.

I study how educational institutions respond to law that regulates students' experiences and access. My research lies at the intersection of the socio-legal study of law and organizations, the sociology of education, and studies of law and social change.

My dissertation applies these literatures to Title IX to understand how the law’s enactment is influenced by private companies. I combine participant observation, interviews, and content analysis to trace how the meaning and practice of Title IX is brokered by third-party training and consulting groups. This research is supported by the National Science Foundation, UCI’s Initiative to End Family Violence, and UCI’s Center for Organizational Research.

In other projects, I analyze sexual violence prevention in higher education. In collaboration with Carolina Valdivia, I also examine the educational experiences of undocumented students and university efforts to support these students amid restrictive immigration law. This work has been published in Law & Society Review, Sociological Perspectives, and Journal of Latinos and Education.

Before graduate school, I worked as a middle and high school teacher and a community organizer in Houston, TX. I have a B.A. in Sociology and in Policy Studies from Rice University.

You can see my CV here. You can also reach me at ipatten@uci.edu.