Graduate Certificate Students

Dania Arayssi is a doctoral student in the Department of Political Science. She has received both a master of public policy from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, and a master's degree in the history of international affairs from Saint Joseph University of Beirut. Dania's research interests are women's role in democratizing politics, human rights, sustainable human development, gender mainstreaming, and public policy, mainly in the Middle East. Previously...

Trevor graduated from Montclair State University with a Bachelor’s degree in German with a minor in environmental justice in 2021. While at Montclair State, Trevor was a teaching assistant for the German Department, taught a Beginning German course at the Adult School of Montclair, and was also a peer advocate at the LGBTQ+ Center in the Office for Social Justice and Diversity on campus. His research interests include gender and...

Lau’s research is focused on developing a praxis-oriented theory and decolonial option called recovecos that examines the intimacies and affinities of queers of color who deploy performative enactments (or performance theory) to reify the relationality of subject with space and time. Born in Bogotá, Colombia, Lau is also interested in examining Latinx transnational racializations through an analysis of formations of belonging as enacted in performance and cultural productions. Fiction/Short Story...

Page is a Miramontes Fellowship recipient and doctoral student in the School of Education . Under the program area Education Foundations, Policy, and Practice they explore teaching and learning as sites of resistance where through radical love, systems of knowing can be troubled or queered toward more intentional, whole living.

Melodie Roschman is an English PhD student, specializing in modern and contemporary literature. Her dissertation research examines how Christian women in marginalized identity categories use memoir as a form of legitimization and resistance against dominant religious hegemonies. Her other research interests include popular fiction, Virginia Woolf studies, and social history. She has an MA in English from McMaster University and a BA in English and Journalism from Andrews University. In...

Katerina Santiesteban is currently a doctoral student in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. She received her BA in Spanish with minors in music and education from the University of Miami and her MA in Spanish from Florida Atlantic University. Currently, she researches the use of Spanish Golden Age literary figures in Spanish Early-Twentieth Century popular literature. Her work focuses on the satirization of canonical reconfigurations of Spanish national identity...

Elisa Varela is a doctoral student in the Department of Communication. Her research focuses on democratic engagement across difference. Broadly, she draws on social interaction and feminist perspectives to dig into questions of discourse, difference, and democracy. In particular, she is interested in how persons in dialogue and deliberation engage in discursive practices that support and limit quality communication across difference and ultimately democratic action.

I graduated from The University of Mississippi with a BA in History (2015) and a MA in Sociology (2017). My Master’s thesis titled, “Discreet Only: An Exploration of Discreet Practices in a Mississippi Town,” explored how out gay and bisexual men navigate and construct their identity on Grindr. My general research interests include Gender, Men and Masculinities, Virtual Methodologies and Qualitative Research Methods.