Ramy Abbady is currently a third-year PhD candidate in the Sociology of Education program at New York University, where he is also a fellow in the Institute for Education Sciences-funded Predoctoral Interdisciplinary Training Program. He grew up on Long Island, where he attended local public schools for his whole life. After high school, Ramy attended Vassar College, where he majored in educational studies with a minor in physics. Though he began college with an interest in pursuing a STEM degree, as he took coursework in education, sociology, and other social sciences, he became interested in learning more about inequities in US society.
Following graduation, Ramy moved to San Francisco to pursue a masters degree in Higher Education and Student Affairs at the University of San Francisco. While in the program, he worked in residential life and academic advising in the California State University (CSU) system. For his thesis, he explored how California universities provide cultural centers for Middle Eastern, North African, and South Asian students and how these spaces foster positive campus climate.
After graduating from USF and some additional time working as a CSU academic advisor, Ramy transitioned to a role in STEM graduate program administration at Stanford University. The stark inequalities he saw when shifting from a public education system to an elite private university inspired the work he has begun to pursue at NYU. He moved back to New York in the middle of the pandemic in 2020, and has been working on his PhD ever since.