Research Assistants

Alexys Aquino is a second-year student at Texas Law. She is part of the Law and Religion Clinic, the Texas International Law Journal, and is involved in the Society Program for first-year law students. She’s also worked as research assistant for Professor Thomas McGarity on recent litigation involving federal agencies. She graduated from The University of Texas with a B.A. in International Relations, Government, and Spanish. Before law school Alexys worked at the American Arbitration Association and was a research fellow at the International Institute for Democratic and Electoral Assistance in Panama. After law school she plans to join the litigation group at Sidley Austin in Dallas.

Grayson Slover is a third year JD/MPAff dual degree candidate at the University of Texas School of Law and the LBJ School of Public Affairs. Before coming to UT, he was a Policy Analyst and Managing Substack Editor for the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR), an organization dedicated to promoting Martin Luther King’s liberal philosophy of anti-racism. Prior to joining FAIR, he worked as a Research Analyst for Quilliam International, the world’s oldest counter-extremism think tank. He is the author of Middle Country: An American Student Visits China’s Uyghur Prison-State, a book about his visit to China’s far-western Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region during the summer of 2019, when the Chinese Communist Party was committing a genocide against the native Uyghur population. He is a graduate of the University of Colorado, Boulder, and is originally from the Washington D.C. area. At Texas Law, Grayson is a Staff Editor for the Texas Review of Law and Politics (TROLP) and the Texas International Law Journal (TILJ). He is also a National Security Law Fellow at the Strauss Center for International Security and Law.

Ezok Villalva is a fourth-year undergraduate student at the University of Texas at Austin, pursuing majors in philosophy and economics. During the 2022 election cycle, he played a pivotal role for election races in Oklahoma. His experience has taken him from research and teaching assistant roles at Spears School of Business and now his second year as a research assistant at UT Law. Ezok is a member of the Civitas Institute, Federalist Society, J. Reuben Clark Law Society, and the National Eagle Scout Association. This past summer he received a certificate for completing a summer school program at Cambridge University. Ezok found and operates a certified referee business contracting with collegiate, semi-professional, and national soccer organizations. He looks forward to authoring a senior thesis that focuses on the philosophy of modern youth social movements and their evolutionary roots. After graduation, he looks to continue his education into a PhD/JD, focusing on biosciences and law. Outside of academic and professional pursuits, he spends his time in the gym or with his cat.