Graduate Students

Nikhit Kumar Agrawal

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Anthropology of social movements; anthropology of the state; agricultural anthropology; anthropology of bureaucracy

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: nikhit@ucla.edu

Akua A. Agyen

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Sexual violence; healthcare disparities; forensic medicine; social constructions of victimhood/survivorhood; Black women; critical race studies; Black feminist studies; queer theory

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: akua.agyen@ucla.edu

Bader Alfarhan

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

international students and study abroad, anthropology of education, tourism, raciolinguistics; United States, Kuwait

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: balfarhan@ucla.edu

Karime Parodi Ambel

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Language and the law; law, gender and power; Latin America; gender-sensitive judging; courtroom interaction and discourse; anthropology of expertise; judges and lawyers; legal institutions

Subfield:

Linguistic and sociocultural anthropology

Contact Information

Email: karimeparodi@ucla.edu

Izem Aral

Graduate Student

Subfield:

Psychological/Medical Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: izemaral18@ucla.edu

Liz Arnold

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Emergent social complexity; origins of inequality; materiality; identity; agency; craft production; political economies; ceramic analysis; social network theory; community archaeology; Bronze Age Europe

Contact Information

Email: elarnold@ucla.edu

Madison Aubey

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Black Feminist Archaeology; American South; Slavery; African American Identity and Cultural Persistence

Contact Information

Email: madisonaubey@g.ucla.edu

Vincent M. Belletto

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Comparative indigeneity; [post-]colonialism; cultural ecology; ecology of language; globalism; historical consciousness; linguistic landscapes; language ideologies; language and materiality; language and genetics; language and identity; language and culture; Melanesia, Northern Europe, Oceania, Southwestern United States

Subfield:

Linguistic Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: vmbelletto@ucla.edu

Marisa Berwald

Graduate Student

Contact Information

Email: marisaberwald@gmail.com

Jarred Brewster

Graduate Student

Subfield:

Linguistic Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: jmebrewster@g.ucla.edu

Burcu Buğu

Graduate Student

Subfield:

Sociocultural and Medical/Psychological Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: burcu.bugu@gmail.com

Sara Isabel Castro Font

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Linguistic landscapes; language ideologies; political economy; semiotics; Puerto Rico

Subfield:

Linguistic Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: saraicastro@g.ucla.edu

Nicola Chávez Courtright

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Affect; political life; queer/cuir theory; trans studies; homonationalism; anthropology of social movements; archival methods; phenomenology; precarity; gender; transnationalism; El Salvador; Central America

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology; Psychological and Medical Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: nicolachavezc@ucla.edu

Faith Cole

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Critical global health; global mental health; governance of community mental health; science technology studies; Latin America

Contact Information

Email: faithco@ucla.edu

Research Interests:

Primate sociality, affect and communication; animal ethnography; empathy; care; infant interaction; philosophy of animal minds; the moral standing of animals; animal ethics; human-animal studies; critical animal studies; speciesism; anthropocentrism; compassionate conservation; Asian colobines; black crested macaques; primate life history; natural history; illustration

Contact Information

Email: brendadegroot@ucla.edu

Mercedes Douglass

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Performance/verbal artistry; education and local governance systems; NGOs, participatory politics, and democracy; language socialization; multimodal communication; Latin America and the Caribbean

Subfield:

Linguistic Anthropology and Medical Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: mercedesdouglass@gmail.com

Aiko Dzikowski

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Language ideologies; the language of race, gender, and colonialism; transnationalism; identity; diplomacy; the anthropology of humor; experimental ethnography; Japanese diaspora; Asian American Studies; East Asian Studies

Contact Information

Email: adzikowski@ucla.edu

Viki Eagle

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

"Rez Metal"; contemporary Native American music & arts; sonic sounds and resistance; settler colonialism; photography of Native Americans, indigenous research methodologies; indigenous feminisms; photoethnography; indigenous political movements; NAGPRA; museum studies; Native American youth; Lakota language

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: veagle@g.ucla.edu

Nat Finnegan

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

neotropical primates; primate evolution; primate evolutionary behavior; genomics; computational genomics; bioinformatics; phylogenetics

Contact Information

Email: nrfinneg@ucla.edu

Tlaoli Fuentes

Graduate Student

Subfield:

Biological Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: tlaolifuentes@gmail.com

Thomas Gerz

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Colonialism; Language Ideologies; Linguistic Landscape; Ryukyuan Languages; US Military & Okinawa

Contact Information

Email: thomasggerz@gmail.com

Lilit Ghazaryan

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Multilingualism; language socialization; peer language socialization; metalinguistic awareness; language policies and practices, post-Soviet preschool education; Republic of Armenia

Subfield:

Linguistic Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: ghazaryanl@ucla.edu

Dani Heffernan

Graduate Student

Subfield:

Linguistic Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: daniheffernan@ucla.edu

Maxwell Hellmann

Graduate Student

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: mhellmann@mednet.ucla.edu

Matt Hing

Graduate Student

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: mhing312@gmail.com

Emilia Rose Ø. Holmbeck

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Substance use/addictive experience and recovery; mental health/illness; trauma; diagnostic labeling; psychotherapeutic and psychiatric interventions; peer-support running as intervention; endurance/long-distance running; sporting embodiment; U.S./Denmark.

Subfield:

Psychological and Medical Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: emiliarose@g.ucla.edu

Jonathan Johnson

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Anthropology of youth, development, and law; political anthropology; anthropology of human rights; anthropology of education; Southeast Asia

Contact Information

Email: j2jonathan95278@gmail.com

Research Interests:

Identity management; disability studies; museum studies; American Sign Language and Deaf culture; semiotic theory; Caribbean studies; digital discourse

Contact Information

Email: briejmo@ucla.edu

Joelle Julien

Graduate Student

Contact Information

Email: jjulien@ucla.edu

Stephanie Keeney Parks

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

African Americans; African American literature; Black English; autism; disability; autism diagnosis;healthcare disparities; narrative; everyday family life; phenomenology; morality; United States

Subfield:

Medical/Psychological Anthropology and Linguistic Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: skeeneyparks@ucla.edu

Zia Khoshsirat

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Language ideologies, Semiotics, Discourse analysis, Theories of Affect, Iranian diaspora, Medieval Persian literature, Historical linguistics, Iranian languages (Caspian languages), Human-Computer Interaction, UXR.

Subfield:

Linguistic Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: ziaoddin@ucla.edu

Kelsey Kim

Graduate Student

Contact Information

T. Yejoo Kim

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Political Economy; Militarism; South Korea; Border; Social Movement; Cold War.

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: yejookim@ucla.edu

Sophie Elizabeth Klitgaard

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Emotions; morality; human cognition; human social behavior; evolutionary psychology; perceptions of privacy; digital privacy; digital communications

Contact Information

Email: klitgaardsophie@gmail.com

Delaney Knorr

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Social support; cultural stress; pregnancy and (grand)motherhood; evolutionary medicine; health and human biology

Subfield:

Biological Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: d.knorr@ucla.edu

Nicco La Mattina

Graduate Student

Subfield:

Linguistic Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: nalamattina@ucla.edu

Cheryl Lee

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Asian American language and identity; language and race; bilingualism; heritage language use; language socialization; language ideologies

Subfield:

Linguistic Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: cherylsjlee@g.ucla.edu

Jeremy Levenson

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Urban anthropology; political economy; critical medical anthropology

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: jdlevenson@ucla.edu

Suraiya Luecke

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Freediving; breath; selfhood and embodiment; phenomenology; visual ethnography; neuroanthropology; mental health and wellbeing; human-environment interactions; Southeast Asia

Subfield:

Psychocultural and Medical Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: suraiyaluecke@ucla.edu

Sita Mamidipudi

Graduate Student

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: mvsita@gmail.com

Natalie Jane Marshall

Graduate Student

Subfield:

Linguistic Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: nataliemarshall@ucla.edu

Erick Matus

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Reggaeton; Hip-Hop; Latin Trap; Music; Latin America; Transnationalism; Race & Ethnicity; Black & Brown Coalition; Education

Contact Information

Email: erickmatus@ucla.edu

Paul Melas

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Anthropology of religion; monasticism; everyday life; asceticism; ritual; labor; urban anthropology; Christianity; Greek Orthodoxy; the Balkans; Greece

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: pmelas93@g.ucla.edu

Vanessa Melo

Graduate Student

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: vanessa4@stanford.edu

Research Interests:

Primate Behavioral Ecology; Stress Physiology; Pace-of-Life Syndromes; Behavioral Endocrinology

Contact Information

Email: anm2186@g.ucla.edu
Office: Haines Hall 330A

Research Interests:

American Empire; Industrial Archaeology; Historical Ecology; Remote Sensing

Contact Information

Email: rsmeyerlorey@ucla.edu

NaaKoshie A. Mills

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Race and transnational diaspora networks, Black Americans, U.S. foreign policy in Africa, diplomatic statecraft, gender and intersectionality

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: namills@ucla.edu

Bethel S. Moges

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Post-development and de-growth; Human mobility and autonomous migration; Black self-determination; Political disobedience and illegality

Contact Information

Email: bethelsm@ucla.edu

Victoria A. Newhall

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

New World archaeology (Mesoamerica); paleoethnobotany; macrobotanical analysis; foodways; emergent social inequality; development of socio-political complexity; social identity; gender; discipline socio-politics; diversity; equity

Subfield:

Archaeology

Contact Information

Email: vnewhall@ucla.edu

Rachel Parks

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Biomedicalization; chronic illness; evidence-based medicine; disability; risk; race/racism in medicine; Los Angeles; photoethnography

Subfield:

Sociocultural and Medical Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: parks.rachel.e@gmail.com

Raisa Parnell

Graduate Student

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: rcparnell@g.ucla.edu

Sarah Paust

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Critical global health; philanthropy and humanitarianism; effective altruism; consulting; sustainable finance; biopolitics; empathy

Contact Information

Abdullah Puckett

Graduate Student

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: hpuckett@g.ucla.edu

Wanda Quintanilla-Durán

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Central American migration

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: wquinta95@ucla.edu

Hannah Reiss

Graduate Student

Contact Information

Email: hreiss@ucla.edu

Research Interests:

Mutual aid; critical medical anthropology; arts-based methods; migration studies; space/place; Mexico and Central America

Contact Information

Email: siennaruiz@g.ucla.edu

Research Interests:

Immigration; violence; death; poverty; homelessness; workers rights; social inequality; anti-capitalist social movements

Contact Information

Email: emorals@g.ucla.edu

Contact Information

Email: kaseyschleper4@g.ucla.edu

Matt Schneider

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Climate change and finance (systemic risk, green investment, litigation); politics of social science; media and public spheres; semiotics; City of London; Los Angeles

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: mschneider1@g.ucla.edu

Research Interests:

Sikhs; nomadism; caste; carcerality; violence

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Eric Sinski

Graduate Student

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: esinski01@gmail.com

Tyanna Slobe

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Linguistic variation and identity; embodiment; prosody; interaction in institutions; language and gender; adolescence; high schools; youth political participation; Santiago, Chile; Los Angeles, CA

Subfield:

Linguistic Anthropology; Visual Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: tyanna@ucla.edu

Andrew Marcus Smith

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Language evolution; language development; gesture; communicative behavior; human social behavior; evolutionary psychology

Subfield:

Biological Anthropology, Linguistic Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: andrewmsmith@ucla.edu

Nicole Smith

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Archaeology of the contemporary; migration; climate change; human-environment interactions; borderlands; Latin America

Subfield:

Archaeology

Contact Information

Email: nsmithh@ucla.edu

Jessie Stoolman

Graduate Student

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: jessiest@umich.edu

Doğa Tekin

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Multispecies ethnography; anthropology of the environment; semiotics; affect; cultural geography; embodiment; materiality

Subfield:

Linguistic Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: dogatekin@g.ucla.edu

Jaime Geronimo Vela

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Phenomenology; storytelling; qualitative; quantitative; Indigenous populations; NAGPRA; indigenous rights; social justice; equality; public policy; narrative; indigenous education; indigenous health

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: jvela@ucla.edu

Alexander Ward

Graduate Student

Subfield:

Linguistic Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: alexanderward@ucla.edu

Donghyoun We

Graduate Student

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: donghyoun.we@gmail.com

Wesley Wilson

Graduate Student

Contact Information

Email: weswilson@ucla.edu

Sasha Winkler

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Primate social behavior; animal communication; emotion and cognition; the evolution of humor and play

Subfield:

Biological Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: sashawinkler@g.ucla.edu

Brian Young

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

“Development”; globalization; migration; nationalism; citizenship; borders; big data; photo/video-ethnography; multi-species ethnography; Bhutan

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: youngb41@ucla.edu

Kimberly Zhu

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Human evolution, high-altitude adaptation, developmental adaptation, population genetics, genetic selection, epigenetic modifications, transcriptomics. 

Subfield:

Biological Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: kitzhu@g.ucla.edu

Haoyan Zhuang

Graduate Student

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: zhuanghy1991@163.COM