Georgina Agyei

Georgina is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Biological Sciences under the guidance of Dr. Felipe Santiago-Tirado.

Research

Eventually I hope to leverage the skills and knowledge gained from medicine, science, and socio-ethical training such as the Graduate Justice Fellowship to collaborate with research and local government institutions to strengthen local research and development companies to serve the needs of their populations. Read more.

Kaitlyn Bowe

Kaitlyn is a second-year law student involved in Notre Dame Law School’s Exoneration Justice Clinic. She is committed to advocating for the rights of all people within the justice system. Kaitlyn holds executive board positions on Notre Dame’s Black Law Students Association, the Exoneration Project, and the First-Generation Professional Students Organization. Kaitlyn also serves the Student Bar Association as a Diversity and Inclusion Committee Member.

Research

Kaitlyn’s research examines America’s mass incarceration crisis, seeking transformative justice at the intersection of law, community, and equity. Read more.

Louisa Conwill

Louisa is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. A graduate of Brown University, Louisa worked as a software engineer for Amazon Alexa and served as a campus missionary with the Fellowship of Catholic University Students before starting graduate studies at Notre Dame.

Research

My research proposes Catholic social teaching as a framework to guide the development of Internet technologies toward human dignity and the common good. Read more.

Joel Devonshire

Joel is a doctoral student in Peace Studies and Psychology focusing on the psychology of nonviolence, especially the tension/interplay between empathy and insistence for justice; the development and control of moral identity and narratives; how fixed-pie and zero-sum attitudes affect resistance to, and efficacy of, mediation and other conflict interventions; and how a framework of basic human needs might help break down barriers between individuals and groups.

Research

As a scholar-practitioner of peace studies and social/developmental psychology, I am most broadly interested in the psychological dynamics that affect the development of peace and conflict both within individuals and among groups in society. Read more.

Sofia Dueñas

Sofia is a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, her research explores issues of (in)equity in K-12 education policy.

Research

My research considers the impacts of academic policies on students, examining the trends that most often lead to students being retained; and it considers school climate and the ways that this can impact teachers and students. Read more.

Ben Francis

Ben is a Ph.D. student in peace studies and political science. He is originally from the United Kingdom and has a decade’s worth of experience working in the development and peace building fields through a number of international NGOs. Ben has lived and worked in conflict-affected areas as diverse as Palestine, Libya, Nepal, and Afghanistan, and these experiences have helped to shape how he understands the drivers and mechanics of conflict in different contexts.

Research

As a social scientist and a peace builder I’m concerned with the social and political effects of climate change and I am especially drawn to questions around the role the climate crisis will play in creating and exacerbating violence and violent conflict around the world. Read more.

James Kirk

James Kirk is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Political Science. His research interests include public opinion, political geography, and political behavior. He is particularly interested in rural politics and public policy, including how perceptions of economic, social, and environmental injustice influence political attitudes in rural communities.

Nate Kroeze

Nate Kroeze is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Biological Sciences with a broader focus on global change biology. His current research centers on the disparate impacts of climate change on Indigenous communities in the U.S. and the legal challenges and opportunities for ecological conservation on tribal lands.

Research

My research investigates the efficacy of Indigenous climate adaptation plans, focusing on their unique approach to managing ecological change. Species must respond to changing environmental conditions by relocating or face extirpation, quite literally “move or die.” Read more.

Liz Moison

Liz is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Sociology studying gender and social movements. Her research explores how social movements include or exclude children and adolescents in their decision making, especially when the social movement is oriented around issues facing kids directly. In particular, she focuses on how queer social movement organizations are responding to sociopolitical action that targets the rights of transgender children.

Research

My research seeks to answer the question of why people invest in keeping certain voices and stories out of their public libraries. In short- why participate in a book ban, and what is it about these books that matter? Read more.

Thanh Khoa Nguyen

Thanh Khoa Nguyen is a Ph.D. student in the Integrated Biomedical Sciences program.

Research

My research looks at the genetic pathways underlying the developmental genetics of MCCs using the amenable zebrafish kidney. It is focused on the role of empty spiracles homeobox gene 2 (emx2), a transcription factor previously found to be active in several developmental processes around the body, in ciliated cells development. Read more.

Ozioma Collins Oguine

Ozioma Collins Oguine is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering advised by Dr. Karla Badillo-Urquiola. His research interests lie at the intersection of human-computer interaction, social media/immersive technologies (Social VR/AR/XR), and online safety and privacy, with a specific aim to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in computing.

Research

Through qualitative and quantitative methodologies, I hope to understand how the intersecting factors of their identities shape their online experiences and advocate for the implementation of evidence-based policies that prioritize the rights and well-being of marginalized and underrepresented users. Read more.

Connor Patrick

Connor Patrick is a candidate in the M.S. in Management program in the Mendoza College of Business with a concentration in Finance. On campus, Connor also serves as a mentor in the Business Honors Program and is an Assistant Rector of Dillon Hall.

Research

My research explores how the private and public sectors can better work together to reconnect neighborhoods, invest in affordable housing and public transportation, and more. Read more.

Kristen Sieranski

Kristen Sieranski is a Ph.D. student in English. Her research focuses on representations of ghosts on stage as a way for playwrights to represent personal, community, and/or national traumas, especially in postcolonial contexts. She is interested in performance as a way for communities to approach the unspeakable.

Research

My research looks at the relationship between ghosts, performance, and historical calamities of colonization and enslavement around the Atlantic and analyzes haunting in Anglophone drama from the mid-20th Century to the present. Read more.

Dennis Wieboldt

Dennis Wieboldt is a J.D. candidate at Notre Dame Law School and Ph.D. student in the Department of History. He is a Richard and Peggy Notebaert Premier Fellow at the Graduate School and Edward J. Murphy Fellow at the Law School.

Research

Dennis’s research explores the relationship between law, politics, and religion in the twentieth-century United States, with a particular focus on the development of American Catholic legal thought and institutions. Read more.

Mariana Alifa

Mariana Alifa is a fifth year Ph.D. student in environmental engineering studying topics related to air pollution and health. She is currently conducting research on socioeconomic disparities in the monitoring and regulation of air pollution’s health effects.

Sara Chan

Sara Chan is a Ph.D. student in philosophy whose research focuses on the metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical issues surrounding marginalization, particularly marginalization due to cognitive disability. She is particularly interested in how love can play a central role in value theory.

Isaih Dale

Isaih Dale is a Ph.D. candidate in English literature. He studies black masculinity and black violence in 20th Century African American Literature. His dissertation elucidates how black writers use both black physical and metaphysical violence as an aesthetic tool for imagining black creation.

Henry Downes

Henry Downes is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in economics, with research interests in labor economics and economic history. He has also worked as a research assistant with the Wilson-Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities, where his work focused on the impacts of homelessness prevention programs. His current research focuses on the (often unexpected) ways in which labor power impacts the broader economy.

Spencer French

Spencer French is a Ph.D. student in English, where he studies late 20th century literature, especially literature that explores religion and social justice. His current research focuses on how poets of the late 20th and early 21st century use and co-opt religious language in the fight for social justice.

Geneva Hutchinson

Geneva Hutchinson is an MFA candidate in the Department of Art, Art History, and Design. She works in a variety of mediums, such as photography and installation, and most recently has begun working in embroidery in order to honor the work of women, especially in the southern United States, where she is from.

Helal Khan

Helal Khan is a Ph.D. candidate in anthropology and peace studies in the Department of Anthropology and the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, Notre Dame. His doctoral research looks at the well-being of Rohingya refugees in the three Midwestern towns of Chicago, Milwaukee, and Fort Wayne, with a focus on the notions of trust and hope.

Alexandra Lesnik

Alexandra Lesnik is a second-year law student interested in prison abolition, alternatives to incarceration, and healing from harm within community. She recently completed a summer internship at the Promise of Justice Initiative in New Orleans and recently began a fall internship at the Illinois Prison Project.

Laura López-Pérez

Laura López-Pérez is a Ph.D. student in political science. She is part of the Violence and Transitional Justice Lab at Notre Dame. Her research examines the intersection of political and criminal violence, impunity, and contentious politics in Latin America, especially Mexico.

Aidé Cuenca Narvaez

Aidé Cuenca Narvaez is committed to leveraging the grassroots work of communities that are already working for social transformation through collaborative partnership, empowerment, and mutuality. Her research seeks to understand the effects of education and environmental policies on vulnerable communities.

Carlos Alejandro Noyola Contreras

Carlos Alejandro Noyola Contreras is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at Notre Dame. His research explores the relationships between poetry, religion, and political independence in Latin America.

Joachim Ozonze

Joachim Ozonze is Ph.D. student in peace studies and theology at the Kroc Institute. His research looks at how conceptions of justice are shaped by unique histories and structures of violence, and explores the possibilities, gifts, and challenges of healing-justice–a concept of justice defined and driven by a journey of individual and social healing.

Erica Patterson

Erica Patterson is a third-year law student with an interest in health law and energy law in both national and international settings. Her current research focuses on global health law.

Tracy Porter

Tracy Porter is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Biology under the guidance of Rebecca Wingert. She is currently working on a gene called Apol1 and its relation to kidney function with the Zebrafish as a model organism.