Placement

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)

Eva Peskin 

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)

Clara Montague

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)

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)

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)

Sina Lee, Ph.D. 

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)

Donnesha Blake, Ph.D.

Director of Diversity and Inclusion, Alma College

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)

Avery Dame-Griff, Ph.D. 

Assistant Professor, Career Track, Digital Technology and Culture Program, Washington State University, Pullman

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. 

Lecturer, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, University of Maryland, College Park

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)

Laura A. Kalman Brunner, Ph.D. 

Faculty Lecturer in Gender Studies, University of Northern Colorado

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. 

Health/HCBS Policy Analyst at Access Living

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.

Operations Director, Hamakua Youth Center

Educational and Nonprofit Consultant, Haumana Consulting

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)

Katie White, Ph.D. 

Director of Social Action, 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)

Bettina Judd, Ph.D. 

Assistant Professor, Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies, University of Washington

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)

Julie Enszer, Ph.D. 

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.

Previous: 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)

Rajani Bhatia, Ph.D. 

Assistant Professor and Interim 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. 

Chair of Humanistic Studies and Associate Professor of Black/Ethnic Studies & Gender/Sexuality Studies

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)

Barbara Boswell, Ph.D. 

Professor of English and Director of Women's and Gender Studies, Queens College (CUNY)

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. 

Associate Professor of English and Co-Director of Women’s and Gender Studies, Kingsborough Community 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)

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)

Clare Jen, Ph.D. 

Associate Professor and Director, 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)

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

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. 

Dean for Engineering & Industrial Technology, Portland Community College, Oregon

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)

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)

Nikki Ayanna Stewart, M.A. (2003)

Academic Dean for the Excel Charter School, Washington, D.C.’s first public charter school for girls