2023–24 Graduate Justice Fellows

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.