2023–24 Graduate Justice Fellows

In 2023–24, we welcomed our second cohort of fellows that represented four colleges, two schools, and six departments around the University. The fellowship is designed to create an interdisciplinary community of graduate students committed to scholarship that engages questions of justice. The aim is to introduce young scholars from various disciplines to questions of justice in the hope that they make those a regular part of their scholarship and teaching going forward.

Georgina Agyei

Georgina Agyei is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Biological Sciences under the guidance of Dr. Felipe Santiago-Tirado. She is currently looking at the intracellular phagosomal activity of the pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans.

Kaitlyn Bowe

Kaitlyn Bowe 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.

Louisa Conwill

Louisa Conwill is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Her research focuses include computer vision, human-computer interaction, and technology ethics, and she has a particular interest in how the teachings of the Catholic Church can inform technology ethics. 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 (FOCUS) before starting her graduate studies at Notre Dame.

Sofia Dueñas

Sofia Dueñas 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.

Ben Francis

Ben Francis, a Ph.D. student in peace studies and political science, is originally from the United Kingdom and has a decade’s worth of experience working in the development and peacebuilding 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. Ben’s academic work sits at the intersection of climate justice and gender justice.

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.

Liz Moison

Liz Moison 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.

Thanh Khoa Nguyen

Thanh Khoa Nguyen is a Ph.D. student in the Integrated Biomedical Sciences program. His research focuses on the role that developmental genetics play in kidney development using the zebrafish model. Ultimately, his work aims to improve our understanding of kidney diseases.

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. Her 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 (DE&I) in computing. Guided by the principle of design justice, Ozioma’s research goals are dedicated to empowering underprivileged and marginalized groups, such as foster youth, adolescents with disabilities, and those from minority social/racial backgrounds.

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. His research interests focus on how the public and private sectors can better work together to advance the common good, particularly regarding the issues of affordable housing, access to public transportation, and more. On campus, Connor also serves as a mentor in the Business Honors Program and is an Assistant Rector of Dillon Hall.

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.

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. His research explores the relationship between law, politics, and religion in the 20th century United States.