Graduate Students

Nikhit Agrawal

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Climate change, sustainability, entrepreneurship, technology, agriculture, scale, India

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: nikhit@ucla.edu

David Aguilar

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

reproductive ecology; morality; cognitive development; life history theory; human behavioral ecology

Subfield:

Biological Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: daguilar0063@g.ucla.edu

Akua Agyen

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Black feminist anthropology, Black feminist theory, anthropology of violence and care, Black feminist healing arts, mental health care, social constructions of victimhood/survivorhood; United States

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: akua.agyen@ucla.edu

Bader Alfarhan

Graduate Student

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

Research Interests:

Disability; chronicity; politics of care and well-being; work and employment; family; gender; moral values; Turkey

Subfield:

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

Subfield:

Archaeology

Contact Information

Email: elarnold@ucla.edu

Madison Aubey

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Black Feminist Archaeology; Postbellum American South; Archaeology of Consumption; African American Identity and Cultural Persistence;

Subfield:

Archaeology

Contact Information

Email: madisonaubey@g.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

Erika Cao

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

cosmopolitanism; queer theory; surveillance; creative economies; arts governance; national identity; Singapore

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: erikacao@ucla.edu

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

Brenda de Groot

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Primate communication and affect; infant interaction; conversation analysis; animal ethnography; philosophy of science; philosophy of animal minds; animal ethics; animal studies; the moral standing of animals; speciesism; conservation; multispecies justice; Asian colobines; Japanese primatology; illustration.

Contact Information

Email: brendadegroot@ucla.edu

S. Madigan Durham

Graduate Student

Subfield:

Biology

Contact Information

Email: sarahmd1113@g.ucla.edu

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; Interethnic Studies; East Asian Studies

Subfield:

Linguistic Anthropology

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

Mark Francis Francisco

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Early modern Southeast Asia; Seascape; indigenous trade networks; Chinese porcelain; trade ceramics; archaeological ethnography; climate change; post- conflict archaeology, Mindanao studies

Subfield:

Archaeology

Contact Information

Email: mffrancisco@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

Megan Grabill

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

end of life care; medical ethics; religion and healthcare; subjectivity; phenomenology; bureaucracy; disability; chaplains

Subfield:

Psychocultural and Medical Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: mgrabill@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 disorder (SUD); SUD treatment and recovery; coping and healing processes; trauma/PTSD; diagnostic labeling; psychotherapeutic and psychiatric interventions; running as therapeutic modality; sporting embodiment; endurance/long-distance running; U.S./Denmark.

Subfield:

Psychological and Medical Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: emiliarose@g.ucla.edu

Caihuajia

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Aging and elderly care; family, house, and home; urbanization and social change

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: Not Available

Jake Hubbert

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Cultural Heritage, Islamic Heritage, The Medieval Caucasus, Medieval Ceramics

Subfield:

Archaeology

Contact Information

Email: jakehubbert@ucla.edu

Jewell Ruth-Ella Humphrey

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Black digital humanities, Caribbean heritage preservation, underwater archaeology, shipwreck archaeology, African Diaspora, digital archives

Contact Information

Email: jewellh16@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

Brie Johnson-Morris

Graduate Student

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

Email: Not Available

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:

digital privacy; privacy rights; mental models of information flow; cognitive science; digital communications; surveillance; evolutionary psychology; emotions; morality

Contact Information

Email: sklitgaard@g.ucla.edu

Keshav Kundassery

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

homelessness; substance use; harm reduction; transnational migration; political theory; United States

Subfield:

Psychocultural and Medical Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: keshavk@g.ucla.edu

Alena Kwan

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Healthcare institutions; community care; mental illness; structural violence; temporality; organizational moral and ethical codes; history of politics in care; aging

Subfield:

Psychocultural and Medical Anthropology

Contact Information

Research Interests:

Native American Indigenous Communities (U.S., Canada, Mexico, Belize), Middle East and North Africa (Post Arab-Spring) Maya Cultures, Maya Archeology, Ethnology, Sociocultural Anthropology, Illicit Antiquities Trade, Heritage Rights, Social Transformations in Indigenous Communities, Colonialism, Decolonization in Indigenous Communities, Conflict-Zone Archaeology, Cultural Commodification, Subsistence Looting, Museology, Environmental Anthropology, Effects of Water Scarcity

Subfield:

Social Cultural, Archeology, Legal Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: nikypuros@g.ucla.edu

Nicco La Mattina

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Political anthropology; Linguistics; Postcolonial studies; Mediterranean studies; Libya; Italy, Sicily; Definitional struggles, commonsense, and hegemony; Nationalism; Identity; Affect; Semiotics; Far-right movements; Environmental and infrastructural change; Interactional analysis.

Subfield:

Linguistic Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: nalamattina@ucla.edu

Cheryl Lee

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Multilingualism; Asian American racialization and identity; language and race; language and media; affect; language play; heritage language; language socialization; linguistic anthropology of education; Taiwan

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; critical phenomenology; multimodal ethnography; multispecies ethnography; mental health and wellbeing; Southeast Asia

Subfield:

Psychocultural and Medical Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: suraiyaluecke@ucla.edu

Sita Mamidipudi

Graduate Student

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: sitamv@g.ucla.edu

Natalie Marshall

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Urban Agriculture; Food and Food Justice; Genre; Narrative and Storytelling; Semiotics; Social Movements; United States

Subfield:

Linguistic Anthropology, Sociocultural 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

Jester Mediano

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Legislation, Political Rhetoric, Social Rhetoric, Violence, American Politics, and Food and Power

Subfield:

Linguistic Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: Jestermediano22@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

Ashley Mensing

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

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

Contact Information

Email: anm2186@g.ucla.edu

Robin S. Meyer-Lorey

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

American Empire; Industrial Archaeology; Historical Ecology; Remote Sensing

Contact Information

Email: rsmeyerlorey@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

Courtney Nelson

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Medical Anthropology, Psychological Anthropology, Anthropology of Religion, Phenomenology, Schizophrenia, Psychosis, Madness, Voices, Visions, Magic, Spirit Possession, Shamanism, Hauntology, Healing, Vietnam

Subfield:

Psychocultural Medical Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: cnelson98@g.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

Maya Padamsee

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

India; Urban Anthropology; Heritage; Nationalism(s); Affect; Space/Place Studies

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: mpadamsee@ucla.edu

Raisa Cornelia Parnell

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Ifa/Orisha Religion; Ecology; Anthropology Beyond the Human; African and African diasporic religions; Multispecies Ethnography; Anthropology of Religion; Nigeria; Africa

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: rcparnell@g.ucla.edu

Sarah Paust

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Critical philanthropy studies; critical global health and development; ethics and morality; Effective Altruism and Rationality; Europe and North America

Subfield:

Psychological and Medical Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: sarahcpaust@ucla.edu

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

Diana Rinza

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Latinx mental health, social determinants of health, culture, immigration, structural vulnerability, culturally responsive care, language competency, curanderismo.

Subfield:

Medical and Psychological Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: Dianarinza80@ucla.edu

Sienna Ruiz

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Externalized borders; care & caregiving; critical medical anthropology; arts-based methods; mutual aid; space/place; Mexico & Central America

Contact Information

Email: siennaruiz@g.ucla.edu

Edson Morales Sanchez

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Urban and public anthropology; immigration and illegality; violence; death; poverty; homelessness; workers and tenants rights; social inequality; anti-capitalist social movements; housing and transportation

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: emorals@g.ucla.edu

Kasey Schleper

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Female reproductive ecology; maternal and child health; social support; postpartum care; health disparities; maternal stress

Contact Information

Email: kaseyschleper4@g.ucla.edu

Matt Schneider

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Finance, climate change, energy transition; risk, value, efficacy; political economy; science and technology studies (STS); affect; London and Tokyo

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: mschneider1@g.ucla.edu

Research Interests:

Sikhs; nomadism; caste; carcerality; violence

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: Not Available

Maya Sinha

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

sustainability, privilege, elitism, techno-utopianism, Silicon Valley, transnationalism

Subfield:

sociocultural

Contact Information

Email: msinha@g.ucla.edu

Eric Sinski

Graduate Student

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: esinski01@gmail.com

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

Mason Smith

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Pastoralism and ranching; biotechnology and life sciences; post/socialist development; food regimes; multi-species anthropology; historical anthropology; Central/Inner Asia.

Contact Information

Email: msmith0308@g.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

Christopher Thompson

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

tourism; racial capitalism; affect & embodiment; temporality; New Orleans and the Gulf South

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: crthompson@ucla.edu

D.H. We.

Graduate Student

Subfield:

Sociocultural Anthropology

Contact Information

Email: dhwe@g.ucla.edu

Wesley Wilson

Graduate Student

Contact Information

Email: weswilson@ucla.edu

Cristian Yanes

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

political economy; prefiguration; harm reduction/mutual aid; racial capitalism; Los Angeles; central america; Guatemala

Subfield:

sociocultural anthropology

Contact Information

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

Emma Young

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Genetics and genomics, genotype-phenotype associations, environmental adaptations, metabolism and disease.

Contact Information

Email: youngea@ucla.edu

Haiyi Zheng

Graduate Student

Research Interests:

Intimacy, Reproduction, Marriage, Family, Gender, China

Subfield:

Social cultural anthropology; qualitative sociology

Contact Information

Email: haiyizheng2023@g.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