Hi! I’m Samyu (she/her). I’m a writer, organizer, and PhD student based in Los Angeles, CA. I specialize in the study of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics and Quantitative Methods in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles. My dissertation focuses on evaluating interventions aiming to mitigate the impacts of anti-abortion direct action, such as policing, clinic escorting, and clinic defense, based on the preferences of women of color, a subgroup of abortion seekers that is multiply marginalized. I am also a proud alumna of the University of South Carolina's departments of Computer Science and Statistics.

You may also know me from:

the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Health Policy Research Scholars program, led by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Palms Unhoused Mutual Aid, an abolitionist network of care supporting our unhoused neighbors through food distribution and harm reduction. Please consider donating here if you are able.

my work as a Graduate Associate on various projects such as

research for the Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Survey (CMPS).

communications, graphic design, and planning for the 2024 and 2025 annual meetings of the Western Political Science Association in Vancouver, BC, and Seattle, WA, respectively.

research for the third edition of Uneven Roads: An Introduction to U.S. Racial and Ethnic Politics.

teaching for the UC-HBCU Initiative's Sawyer Summer Institute and UCLA Academic Advancement Program’s McNair Summer Research Institute.

You can find my latest writing in various academic and public outlets, including:

two encyclopedia articles for the SAGE International Encyclopedia of Politics and Gender (September 2025)

a journal article for the Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics (March 2025)

a data brief for the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies (January 2025)

the front page article for the second edition of Street Views, a Los Angeles street-based newspaper made with, by, and for unhoused communities and organizers (June 2024)

a personal essay for the Let This Radicalize You: Reflections from New Activists and Organizers zine, featured at the Haymarket Books virtual launch for Let This Radicalize You (May 2023)

You can contact me via email at [email protected], Twitter at @SamyuComandur, or LinkedIn at samyu-comandur.