Placement
Our Ph.D. alumni work in fields ranging from higher education to health policy.
Graduate Alumni
2023
Damien Hagen, Ph.D
Lecturer, University of Maryland
Dissertation Title: Some of us are staring at the stars: Speculative Fiction, Fandom, and Trans Imagination
Dissertation Committee: Lothian, Alexis (Chair, WGSS), Hageman, Eva (WGSS), Bruce, La Marr Jurelle (AMST), Ramos, Iván (Brown University), Keegan, Cáel (Concordia University)
Amira Lundy-Harris
2023-2024 Postdoctoral Fellow, Pembroke Center, Brown University
2024 Assistant Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies, Ponoma College
Dissertation Title: Like I’m Kin to Him: Black Trans Publics, Relational Bonds, and Collective Creation
Dissertation Committee: Lothian, Alexis (Chair, WGSS), Parham, Melissa (ENGL),Steele, Catherine Knight (COMM), Avilez, GerShun (ENGL), Green, Marshall (Williams College)
Artist
Dissertation Title: Maintenance Art for Other Possible Worlds: Rehearsing a Pedagogy of Care
Dissertation Committee: Lothian, Alexis (Chair, WGSS), Ahuja, Neel (WGSS), Harding, James (TDPS), Montoya, Maria del Carmen (GWU), Williams, Justine (Yale University)
2022
Clara Montague
Lecturer, Gender, Women's and Sexuality Studies at Grinnell College
Dissertation Title: Women's Studies Worldwide: Cartographies of Transnational Academic Feminism
Dissertation Committee: Tambe, Ashwini (Chair, WGSS), Rosenfelt, Deborah (Professor Emerita, WGSS), Rowley, Michelle V. (WGSS), O'Meara, KerryAnn (CHSE), Smith, Martha Nell (ENGL)
2021
D.B. Bauer, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Games and Interactive Media, Arizona State University
Dissertation Title: Transversal Media: Power, Peril, and Potential in the Ever-Expanding 3D Multiverse
Dissertation Committee: Lothian, Alexis (Chair, WGSS); Kraus, Kari (ENGL/INST); Phillips, Amanda (external); Lu, Jessica H. (DCC); Kirschenbaum, Matthew (ENGL)
T. Laurance Hoagland, Ph.D.
Policy Analyst, U.S. Government Accountability Office
Dissertation Title: When Surviving is Illegal: Black Women and the Entrapment of U.S. Incarceration and Welfare
Dissertation Committee: Rowley, Michelle V. (Chair, WGSS); Barkley Brown, Elsa (WGSS); Williams-Forson, Psyche (AMST); Ray, Rashawn (SOCY); Williamson, Terrion (external)
2020
Anna Storti, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, Duke University
Dissertation Title: A Host of Memories: Mixed Race Subjection and Asian American Performances Against Disavowal
Dissertation Committee: Lothian, Alexis (Chair, WGSS); Horton-Stallings, LaMonda (external); Ramos, Iván (WGSS); Benedicto, Robert Manuel (external); Blanco Borelli, Melissa (TDPS)
2019
Sina Lee, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the College of Wooster
Dissertation Title: Leaving “Home” In Search of the “Homeland”: Transnational Solidarity Among Adopted Korean Returnees, Adoptive Mothers, and Birth Mothers.
Dissertation Committee: Kim, Seung-kyung (Chair, WGSS); Bolles, A. Lynn (WGSS); Tambe, Ashwini (WGSS); Michel, Sonya (HIST); Mohamad, Sahar (COMM)
*
Cara Snyder, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Louisville, Kentucky
Dissertation Title: Which Team Do You Play For?: Visibility and Queering in Brazilian Soccer
Dissertation Committee: Tambe, Ashwini (Chair, WGSS); Elsey, Brenda (external); Nunes, Zita (ENGL); Ramos, Iván (WGSS); Sartorius, David (HIST); Williams, Daryle (HIST)
2018
Donnesha Blake, Ph.D.
Director of Diversity and Inclusion, College of Medicine at Central Michigan University
Dissertation Title: Stylin’ BlaQueer Feminisms: The Politics of Queer Black Women’s Fashion Activism
Dissertation Committee: Bolles, A. Lynn (Chair, WGSS); Barkley Brown, Elsa (WGSS); Paoletti, Jo (AMST); Horton-Stallings, LaMonda (external); Carpenter, Faedra (external)
*
Sara Haq, Ph.D.
Independent Scholar, Lahore, Pakistan
Previous: Provost’s Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Southern California
Dissertation Title: Sufiminism: The Sexual, the Spiritual, the Self
Dissertation Committee: Tambe, Ashwini (Chair, WGSS); Dakake, Maria (external); Horton-Stallings, LaMonda (external); Maparyan, Layli (external); Keshavarz-Karamustafa, Fatemeh (Persian, SLLC)
*
Sunhye Kim, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Women's Studies, Ewha Womans University, South Korea
Dissertation Title: “Baby Miles”: Reproductive Rights, Labor, and Ethics in the Transnational Korean Reproductive Technology Industry
Dissertation Committee: Kim, Seung-kyung (WGSS, Chair); Rowley, Michelle V. (WGSS); Padios, Jan (AMST); Sangaramoorthy, Thurka (ANTH)
*
yh Patt, Ph.D.
Dissertation: “Feminists Transforming Their Worlds: A Collective Oral-history of Salvadoran Protagonists”
Dissertation Committee: Stromquist, Nelly (CHSE, Chair); Bolles, A. Lynn (WGSS); Rodriguez, Ana Patricia (SLLC); Rowley, Michelle V. (WGSS); Tambe, Ashwini (WGSS)
*
Justin Sprague, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies, West Chester University
Dissertation Title: Cooking with Mama Kim: The Legacy of Korean Women (Re)Defining Cultural Authenticity
Dissertation Committee: Bolles, A. Lynn (Co-chair, WGSS); Kim, Seung-kyung (Co-chair, WGSS); Williams-Forson, Psyche (AMST); Lothian, Alexis (WGSS); Wong, Janelle (AMST)
2017
Avery Dame-Griff, Ph.D.
Lecturer in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Gonzaga University
Founder, Queer Digital History Project
Dissertation Title: Talk Amongst Yourselves: “Community” in Transgender Counterpublic Discourse Online, 1990-2014
Dissertation Committee: King, Katie (Co-chair, WGSS); Farman, Jason (Co-chair, AMST); Maddux, Kristy (COMM); Kraus, Kari (ENGL, INST); Lothian, Alexis (WGSS)
*
Jaime Madden, Ph.D.
Adjunct Lecturer, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Georgetown University
Dissertation Title: Phantom Futures: The Cultural Politics of Education-Related Debt
Dissertation Committee: Tambe, Ashwini (Chair, WGSS); Barkley Brown, Elsa (WGSS); Hanhardt, Christina (WGSS); Rosenfelt, Deborah (WGSS), Struna, Nancy (AMST), Padios, Jan (AMST)
*
Safoura Nourbaksh, PhD
Lecturer, Georgetown University, Washington D.C.
Dissertation Title: Towards a Feminist Reconstruction of Persian Sufism
Dissertation Committee: Moses, Claire (WGSS, Chair); Rosenfelt, Deborah (WGSS); Zilfi, Madeline (HIST); Grossman, Maxine (JWST); Caughey, John L. (AMST)
*
Melissa S. Rogers, Ph.D.
Youth Program Director, Millvale Community Library, Pittsburgh, PA
Dissertation Title: Soft Circuitry: Methods for Queer and Trans Feminist Maker Cultures
Dissertation Committee: King, Katie (Chair, WGSS); Bianco, Jamie Skye (external); Farman, Jason (AMST); Lothian, Alexis (WGSS); Smith, Martha Nell (ENGL)
2016
Laura A. Kalman Brunner, Ph.D.
Lead Recruiter at QPS Employment Group
Dissertation Title: Screening Diversity: Women and Work in the Twenty-First Century Popular Culture
Dissertation Committee: Bolles, A. Lynn (Chair, WGSS); Rosenfelt, Deborah (WGSS); Giovacchini, Saverio (HIST); Barkley Brown, Elsa (WGSS); Parks, Sheri (AMST)
*
Angel Love Miles, Ph.D.
Rehabilitation Program Specialist at the US Department of Health and Human Services
Dissertation Title: Barriers and Facilitators to Homeownership for African American Women with Physical Disabilities
Dissertation Committee: Thornton Dill, Bonnie (Chair, WGSS); Bolles, A. Lynn (WGSS); Rosenfelt, Deborah (WGSS); McRuer, Robert (external); Marsh, Kris (SOCY)
*
Cristina J. Perez, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of American Studies, Franklin and Marshall College
Dissertation Title: Bodies on the Line: Violence, Disposable Subjects, and the Border Industrial Complex
Dissertation Committee: Rowley, Michelle V. (WGSS, Chair); Tambe, Ashwini (WGSS), Hanhardt, Christina (WGSS), Ontiveros, Randy (ENGL), Struna, Nancy (AMST)
*
Jeannette Soon-Ludes, Ph.D.
Rural Economic Development Specialist at the Kohala Center
Operations Director, Hamakua Youth Center
President & Founding Member, Kilo Collaborative
Dissertation Title: Belonging and the Making of Community: Native Hawaiian Claims to Selfhood and Home
Dissertation Committee: Kim, Seung-kyung (WGSS, Chair); Tambe, Ashwini (WGSS), Barkley Brown, Elsa (WGSS), Parry-Giles, Shawn (COMM); Wong, Janelle (AMST)
*
Jess River Vooris, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Women's, Transgender, and Queer Studies, Wells College
Dissertation Title: Life Uncharted: Parenting Transgender, Gender-Creative, and Gay Children
Dissertation Committee: King, Katie (Chair, WGSS); Hanhardt, Christina (AMST); Lindemann, Marilee (ENGL); Schuler, Catherine (WGSS); Smith, Martha Nell (ENGL)
2015
Katie White, Ph.D.
Director of Social Action and Upper School English Teacher, Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart
Dissertation Title: Food on the Move: Gendered Representation, Cultural Sustainability, and Culinary Practices of Gullah Women
Dissertation Commitee: Bolles, A. Lynn (WGSS, Chair); Barkley Brown, Elsa (WGSS); Rosenfelt, Deborah (WGSS); Williams-Forson, Psyche (AMST)
2014
Bettina Judd, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies, University of Washington
Author, Feelin: Creative Practice, Pleasure, and Black Feminist Thought
Dissertation Title: Feelin’ Feminism: Black Women’s Art, Affect, and Politics
Dissertation Committee: Barkley Brown, Elsa (Chair, WGSS); Parks, Sheri (AMST); Rosenfelt, Deborah (WGSS); Washington, Mary Helen (ENGL); Williams-Forson, Psyche (AMST)
*
Denise Shupiko, Ph.D.
Student Aide/Substitute Teacher, Lower Cape May Regional School District.
Dissertation: “The Development of the Russian Counter-Trafficking Movement: The Angel Coalition and International Politics on Civil Society, Feminism and Human Trafficking”
Dissertation Committee: Moses, Claire (Chair, WGSS); Aldoory, Linda (COMM); Bolles, A. Lynn (WGSS); Kim, Seung-kyung (WGSS); Martin, Cynthia (Russian, SLLC)
2013
Julie Enszer, Ph.D.
Instructional Assistant Professor of Gender Studies at the University of Mississippi
Scholar, Poet, Author of Avowed (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2016), Lilith’s Demons (A Midsummer Night’s Press, 2015), Sisterhood (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2013), and Handmade Love (A Midsummer Night’s Press, 2010)
Dissertation Title: “The Whole Naked Truth of Our Lives”; Lesbian Print Culture in the United States from 1969 until 1989
Dissertation Committee: Smith, Martha Nell (Co-Chair, ENGL); Rosenfelt, Deborah (Co-Chair, WGSS); King, Katie (WGSS); Moses, Claire (WGSS); Michel, Sonya (HIST); Hanhardt, Christina (AMST)
*
Ana Perez, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Gender and Women’s Studies, Minnesota State University, Mankato
Dissertation Title: Gueras, Morenas, y Prietas: Mexicana Color Lines and Ethnoracial Sameness-Difference
Dissertation Committee: Bolles, A. Lynn (Chair, WGSS); Rodríguez, Ana Patricia (Spanish, SLLC); Rowley, Michelle V. (WGSS); Corbin Sies, Mary (AMST); Ontiveros, Randy (ENGL)
*
Ryan Shanahan, Ph.D.
Research Director, Youth Justice, Vera Institute of Justice, New York
Dissertation Title: Youth Engaging in Prostitution: An Examination of Race, Gender, and Their Intersections
Dissertation Committee: Curtis, Ric (external); Kim, Seung-kyung (WGSS); Leone, Peter (CHSE); Richardson, Joseph (AASP)
*
Kimberlee Staking, Ph.D.
Lecturer, Diablo Valley College, Pleasant Hill, CA, and Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA
Dissertation Title: Teaching Women’s Studies: Exploring Student Engagement in Technology-Rich Classroom Learning Communities
Dissertation Committee: Rosenfelt, Deborah (Co-chair, WGSS); King, Katie (Co-chair, WGSS); Caughey, John (AMST); Paoletti, Jo (AMST); Withers, Josephine (ARTH)
2012
Rajani Bhatia, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, SUNY, Albany
Dissertation Title: Lifestyle Sex Selection: Shifting Forms of Reproduction, Transnational Flows, and Inequality
Dissertation Committee: Thornton Dill, Bonnie (Chair, WGSS); Aldoory, Linda (COMM); Mamo, Laura (external); McCann, Carole (external); Rowley, Michelle V. (WGSS)
*
Mel Michelle Lewis, Ph.D.
Vide President for People, Justice, and Cultural Affairs at American Rivers
Dissertation Title: Body of Knowledge: Black Queer Feminist Thought, Performance, and Pedagogy
Dissertation Committee: Rosenfelt, Deborah (Chair, WGSS); Thornton Dill, Bonnie (WGSS); Hanhardt, Christina (AMST); McCune, Jeffrey (external); Valli, Linda (Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership, UMD)
*
Genevieve Page, Ph.D.
Professeure, Political Science, University of Quebec, Montreal, Canada
Dissertation Title: Feminism à la Quebec: The Travelings of American and French Feminist Thought (1970-2005)
Dissertation Committee: Moses, Claire (Chair, WGSS): Caughey, John (AMST); Descarries, Francine (external); Rowley, Michelle V. (WGSS); Struna, Nancy (AMST)
*
Jing Song, Ph.D.
Dissertation Title: “Global Assimilation and Global Alienation: Lives of Professional Women in Contemporary China."
Dissertation Committee: Kim, Seung-kyung (Chair, WGSS); Rosenfelt, Deborah (WGSS); Moses, Claire (WGSS); Thornton Dill, Bonnie (WGSS); Liu, Jianmei (SLLC); Gao, James (HIST)
2010
Barbara Boswell, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Head of the Department of English Literary Studies at the University of Cape Town
Dissertation Title: Black South African Women Writers: Narrating the Self, Narrating the Nation
Dissertation Committee: Bolles, A. Lynn (Co-chair, WGSS); Rosenfelt, Deborah (Co-chair, WGSS); Barkley Brown, Elsa (WGSS); Collins, Merle (ENGL); Nieves, Angel David (HIST)
*
Red Washburn, Ph.D.
Professor of English and Director of Women's Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Queens College (CUNY)
Dissertation Title: Slave Ships, Shamrocks, and Shackles: Transatlantic Connections in Black American and Northern Ireland Women’s Auto/biographical Writings, 1960s-1990
Dissertation Committee: Rosenfelt, Deborah (Chair, WGSS); Zlotnik Schmidt, Jan (external); Moses, Claire (WGSS); Hill Collins, Patricia (SOCY); Bermann Loizeaux, Elizabeth (ENGL)
2009
JV Sapinoso, Ph.D.
I.A.P. Advisor, College of Letters and Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park
Dissertation Title: From “Quare” to “Kweer”: Towards a Queer Asian American Critique
Dissertation Committee: King, Katie (Chair, WGSS); Cohen, William (ENGL); Kim, Seung-kyung (WGSS); Lindemann, Marilee (ENGL); Struna, Nancy (AMST)
2008
Clare Jen, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Chair, Women’s and Gender Studies Program, and Department of Biology, Denison University
Dissertation Title: Technoscience Race–Nation–Gender Formations in Public Health Discourses
Dissertation Committee: Zambrana, Ruth Enid (Chair, WGSS); Aldoory, Linda (COMM); Kim, Seung-kyung (WGSS); Nash, Phil Tajitsu (AAST); Struna, Nancy (AMST)
*
Laura A. Logie, Ph.D.
Director of Research, Nueva Vida
Dissertation Title: An Intersectional Gaze at Latinidad, Nation, Gender, and Self-Perceived Health Status
Dissertation Committee: Zambrana, Ruth Enid (Chair, WGSS); Bolles, A. Lynn (WGSS); Struna, Nancy (AMST); Mamo, Laura (external); Rowley, Michelle V. (WGSS)
*
Kimberly Williams, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Program Coordinator, Women’s and Gender Studies, Mount Royal University, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Dissertation Title: Casualties of Cold War: Toward a Transnational Feminist Ecology of U.S. Russia Policy
Dissertation Committee: Moses, Claire (Chair, WGSS); King, Katie (WGSS); Rowley, Michelle V. (WGSS); Struna, Nancy (AMST); Martin, Cynthia (Russian, SLLC)
2007
Heather Emily Rellihan, Ph.D.
Professor and Coordinator, Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies and Academic Chair for Interdisciplinary Studies, Anne Arundel Community College, Maryland
Part-time Professor of WGSS, George Washington University
Dissertation Title: Ad/ministering Education: Gender, Colonialism, and Christianity in Belize and the Anglophone Caribbean
Dissertation Committee: Bolles, A. Lynn (Chair, WGSS); Moses, Claire (WGSS); Rosenfelt, Deborah (WGSS); Collins, Merle (ENGL); Grant-Wisdom, Dorith (HONR)
*
L. Ayu Saraswati, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Chair, Women’s Studies, University of Hawaii-Manoa
Dissertation Title: The Maze of Gaze: The Color of Beauty in Transnational Indonesia
Dissertation Committee: Moses, Claire (Co-Chair, WGSS); Kim, Seung-kyung (Co-chair, WGSS); Rosenfelt, Deborah (WGSS); Parry-Giles, Shawn (COMM); Riker, James (Beyond the Classroom Living & Learning Program)
*
Sarah Tillery, Ph.D.
Vice President of Learning and Operations at Coaching Peach Consulting, LLC
Dissertation Title: Performing Fatness and the Cultural Negotiations of Body Size
Dissertation Committee: Struna, Nancy (Chair, AMST); King, Katie (WGSS); Kim, Seung-kyung (WGSS); Parks, Sheri (AMST); Mamo, Laura (external)
2006
Na Young Lee, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, South Korea
Dissertation Title: The Construction of U.S. Camptown Prostitution in South Korea: Transformation and Resistance
Dissertation Committee: Kim, Seung-kyung (Chair, WGSS); Moses, Claire (WGSS); Rosenfelt, Deborah (WGSS); Parry-Giles, Shawn (COMM); Aldoory, Linda (COMM)
2003
Nikki Ayanna Stewart, M.A. (2003)
Assistant Superintendent of Systems and Supports, K-12 at the DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE)
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Alexis Lothian
Associate Professor, The Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Core faculty, Design Cultures & Creativity (Honors College)