Born and raised in Honduras, Laura Assanmal Peláez is an educator, youth worker, urban ethnographer, community organizer, and doctoral student. In her work, Laura explores the experiences of asylum-seeking South and Central American youth in New York City, as well as students experiencing housing insecurity. Her research explores how immigrant, unhoused, and mixed-status family students develop strategies to navigate NYC’s school and shelter system.
Laura is a PhD candidate in Sociology of Education at NYU Steinhardt’s School of Culture, Education and Human Development. Prior to joining NYU, she received a Bachelor of Arts in Social Research and Public Policy with a minor in Political Science from NYU Abu Dhabi in 2021.
Prior to starting her PhD, Laura has supported Engaging Latino Communities for Education (ENLACE) at the Bronx Institute at CUNY Lehman College. Laura has also served as a volunteer teaching assistant at Brooklyn International High School. In addition, Laura helped co-found the New Neighbors Network, a mutual aid collective dedicated to uplifting, and advocating with newcomer, unhoused youth living in city shelters in Manhattan Valley.
Laura is currently a member of the adjunct faculty at the Education Studies Program at NYU Steinhardt and the Gallatin School of Individualized Study, a researcher at the Metropolitan Center for the Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools and a recipient of the 2024–2025 Doctoral Fellowship in Urban Practice, through which she supports The Brotherhood Sister Sol’s community organizing work.