Daman Chhikara

Daman Chhikara is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the USC Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research, in the Program for Global Aging, Health and Policy. His current research examines how country and state education policies during childhood impact late-life health outcomes, including cognitive function and the dynamics of cognitive decline. Examples of policies include compulsory schooling policies, educational tracking, school tuition and fees, public investments in education, and policies providing access to pre-primary schooling education and care, studied as part of the Gateway to Global Aging Data (g2aging.org).

Previously, at UC Irvine, he studied the impact of STEM access policies — including developmental education and self-placement — on pass rates, graduation rates, and labor market outcomes, with close attention to whether these policies affect minoritized groups differently.

His publications examine how relational and cultural dynamics within schools shape belonging and safety for structurally marginalized students. His work on chronic absenteeism sits at the intersection of sociology and psychology — pairing student-teacher race-match with the relational bond between them. He finds that ethnoracial mismatch increases chronic absenteeism, and that relational Closeness can offset this adverse effect — a finding with particular weight for Black students, who are perceived most negatively by teachers across racial lines. A second study addresses a gap in the literature on English Learners' social experiences, finding that ELs face elevated peer bullying overall, but substantially less so within Dual Language program models — evidence that schools affirming students' cultural and linguistic identities offer safer social environments.

He has previously been affiliated with Michigan State University. His research has been supported by an AERA-NSF Dissertation Grant, and he was named a semi-finalist for the NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship. His dissertation received the AERA Leadership for Social Justice SIG's Dissertation of the Year Award, and he is a 2025 APPAM Equity & Inclusion Young Professional Fellow.