Graduate Certificate Students

Gabriela's research interests include natural disasters; popular culture; gender and queer theory; LatinX and Chicanx communities; migration narratives; and politics.

Cassy is currently a PhD student in the Department of Ethnic Studies, with a concentration of criminology and Africana studies. She is interested in domestic human trafficking, focusing on the experiences of Black/African-American individuals (as traffickers and trafficking victims) as they navigate the criminal legal system with their unique intersecting identities, and how they may affect their trafficking experiences.

Erin Kaplan is a doctoral candidate in Theatre & Performance Studies. She is currently working on her dissertation project entitled, "Explicit Body Performance and the Staging of Critical Feminist Pedagogy." She was awarded the 2017-2018 CU Engage Fellowship for Community-Based Research and Creative Work for her work creating theatre and performance workshops in Colorado Correctional Facilities.

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...

Mary is a PhD candidate on the School of education and research is focused on gender and sexual diversity in K-12 schools, advocacy for queer youth in K-12 schools, religious conservatism and its influence on education policy, and understanding teachers’ experiences advocating for queer youth in religiously conservative communities

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.