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2023-24 PhD Candidates

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2022-23 Placements

Kindra De'Arman

• Initial Placement: Assistant Professor of Environment and Sustainability, Clark Family School of Environment and Sustainability, Western Colorado University
• Dissertation: "The Wild Horse and Burro Program: A Social-ecological Trap from Settler Colonial Logics in Modern State Operations"
• Committee: Richard York (Chair), Kari Norgaard, Matthew Norton, and Lauren Hallett (Institute of Ecology and Evolution)

Kathryn Norton-Smith

• Initial Placement: Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminology, University of Arkansas
• Dissertation: “You’re Too Young for This Cancer: An Intersectional Analysis of Off-time Illness"
• Committee: Jessica Vasquez-Tokos (Chair), Ellen Scott, Ryan Light, Jill Harrison, and Elizabeth Budd (Education)

Amanda Sikirica

• Initial Placement: Lecturer, Department of Criminal Justice and Sociology, University of Wyoming
• Dissertation: “How Can Low-Carbon Energy Dematerialize the Economy? Technological Transitions and the Political Economy of Electricity Generation"
• Committee: Richard York (Chair), Clare Evans, Krystale Littlejohn, and Leigh Johnson (Geography)

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2021-22 Placements

Michelle Alexander

• Initial Placement: Academic and Career Advisor, University of Oregon College of Arts & Sciences
• Dissertation: "Roles of the Dice: Play and Community in Roleplay Practice"
• Committee: Ryan Light (chair), Aaron Gullickson, Matthew Norton, CJ Pascoe, and Maxwell Foxman (Journalism and Communication)

Sarah Ahmed

• Initial Placement: Assistant Professor, Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Pakistan
• Dissertation: "Women’s Empowerment through Polio Eradication: Agency and Representation of Lady Health Workers in Pakistan"
• Committee: Michael Dreiling (chair), John Foster, Kemi Balogun, and Yvonne Braun (International Studies & Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies)

Mauricio Betancourt de la Parra

• Initial Placement: Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology, Oberlin College
• Dissertation: "Ecological Imperialism: A Holistic Analysis of the Guano Trade in 19th-century Peru"
• Areas of Interest: Environmental Sociology, Political Economy, Ecology, Social Theory, Quantitative and Comparative-historical Approaches
• Committee: John Bellamy Foster (chair), Richard York, Matthew Norton, and Carlos Aguirre (History)

Diego Contreras-Medrano

• Initial Placement: Research Analyst for the Migrant Education Program, Oregon Department of Education
• Dissertation: "The Harvest of Farmworkers Never Ends: Farm Labor Contractors and the Reproduction of Precarity in the Willamette Valley"
• Committee: Ellen Scott (chair), Michael Aguilera, Jill Harrison, Daniel Tichenor, and Lynn Stephen (Anthropology)

Kenneth Hanson

• Initial Placement: Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Wyoming
• Dissertation: "The Silicone Self: An Ethnography of the Love & Sex Doll Community"
• Areas of Interest: Sexualities, Digital Sociology, Social-psychology, Gender, New Media
• Committee: C.J. Pascoe (chair), Ryan Light, Oluwakemi “Kemi” Balogun, and Colin Koopman (Philosophy)

Lola Loustaunau

• Initial Placement: Assistant Professor, School for Workers, University of Wisconsin
• Dissertation: "The Hands that Feed Ss: Experiences of Migrant Women Working in Food processing"
• Committee: Ellen K. Scott (chair), Eileen Otis, Raoul Lievanos, and Laura Pulido (Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies)

Kirsten Vinyeta

• Initial Placement: Assistant Professor of Sociology, Utah State University
• Dissertation: "Ikpíkyav (To Fix Again): Drawing From Karuk World Renewal To Contest Settler Discourses Of Vulnerability"
• Committee: Kari Norgaard (chair), Raoul Lievanos, Laura Pulido, Frank Lake, and Michelle Jacob (Education)

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2020-21 Placements

Dimitra Cupo

• Initial Placement: Pro-tem Instructor, Department of Sociology, University of Oregon
• Dissertation: "Politicizing Embodied Violence: Emerging and Diverging Frames of Self-Defense"
• Committee: Matthew Norton (chair), Oluwakemi Balogun, Jessica Vasquez-Tokos, and Colin Koopman (Philosophy)

Larissa Petrucci

• Initial Placement: Post-doctoral Scholar, School of Labor and Employment Relations, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Dissertation: "Taylored Flexibility: Agile, Capitalism, and the Software Labor Process"
• Committee: Jill Ann Harrison (chair), Eileen Otis, Ellen Scott, and Anita Chari (Political Science)

Mirranda Riley

• Dissertation: "Labor of Last Resort: Mothers Navigating Special Education in a Context of Resource Scarcity"
• Committee: Jocelyn Hollander (co-chair), Ellen Scott (co-chair), Jill Harrison, and Elizabeth Wheeler (English)

Kathryn Warden

• Initial Placement: Disability Rights Attorney, Oklahoma Disability Law Center, Inc.
• Dissertation: "A Misfits Perspective: The Lived Experiences of Mothers of Disabled Children"
• Committee: Jessica Vasquez-Tokos (chair), Aaron Gullickson, Ellen Scott, and Laura McIntyre (Special Education)

Ashley Woody

• Initial Placement: Assistant Professor, Department of African American Studies, California State University Fullerton
• Dissertation: "Race, Space, and Resistance in America’s Whitest Big City"
• Committee: Jessica Vasquez-Tokos (chair), Jiannbin Shiao, Raoul Lievanos, and Lynn Fujiwara (Ethnic Studies)

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2019-20 Placements

Allison Ford

• Initial Placement: Sonoma State University (Assistant Professor)
• Dissertation: "Environmental Politics at the End of the World: Prepping as Environmental Practice"
• Committee: Kari Marie Norgaard (chair), Ryan Light, Matt Norton, CJ Pascoe, and Anita Chari (Political Science)

Andrea Herrera

• Dissertation: "Alien Femininities: Transcending Gender through Drag in an Aesthetically Restrictive Culture"
• Committee: CJ Pascoe (chair), Kemi Balogun, Tristan Bridges, and Priscilla Ovalle (Cinema Studies)

Dan Shtob

• Initial Placement: Assistant Professor, Brooklyn College (CUNY)
• Dissertation: "Resilience, Recovery, and Reality: Hurricanes, Housing, and the Human Cost of Disaster"
• Committee: Richard York (chair), Raoul Lievanos, Erin Moore (Architecture), and Leigh Johnson (Geography)

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2018-19 Placements

Camila Alvarez

• Initial Placement: Assistant Professor, UC Merced
• Dissertation: "From Classical to Critical: Addressing Theoretical and Methodological Gaps within Environmental Justice Research"
• Committee: Richard York (Chair), Clare Evans, Ellen Scott, and Laura Pulido (Ethnic Studies)

Cassie Comley

• Initial Placement: California Department of Education
• Dissertation: “Surfing? That’s a White Boy Sport: An Intersectional Analysis of Mexican Americans’ Experiences with Southern California Surf Culture"
• Committee: Jessica Vasquez-Tokos (chair), Ken Lieberman, Michael Aguilera, and Ocean Howell (History)

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2017-18 Placements

J.M. (Jules) Bacon

• Initial Placement: Grinnell College (Visiting Assistant Professor)
• Dissertation: "Producing, Maintaining and Resisting Colonial Ecological Violence: Three Considerations of Settler Colonialism as Eco-social Structure"
• Committee: Kari Norgaard (chair), Stephanie LeManager, Jill Harrison, and Brian Klopotek (Ethnic Studies)

David Dominguez

• Dissertation: "Tourism and Change in Costa Rica: Pura Vida, Power and Place in a Small Beach Community"
• Committee: Richard York (co-chair), John Foster (Co-chair), Jill Harrison, and Yvonne Braun (International Studies)

Patrick Greiner

• Initial Placement: Vanderbilt University (Assistant Professor)
• Dissertation: "Growth, Power and Time: Developing a Deeper Understanding of Anthropogenic Drivers of Carbon Dioxide Emissions from 1960-2015
• Committee: Richard York (chair), Clare Evans, John Foster, and Leigh Johnson (Geography)

Heather Marek

• Initial Placement: Oregon Court of Appeals
• Dissertation: "Criminalizing Our Way to Racial Equality? An Empirical Look at Hate-Crime Regulation"
• Committee: Matthew Norton (chair), Clare Evans, Stuart Chinn, and Erik Girvan (Law)

Elizabeth Miller

• Initial Placement: Whittier College (adjunct instructor)
• Dissertation: "Farming without Farmers: Deskilling in Contract Broiler Farming"
• Committee: Richard York (chair), Eileen Otis, Jim Elliott, and Stephen Wooten (International Studies)

Robert Molinar

• Initial Placement: University of Oregon (adjunct instructor)
• Dissertation: "Self-organization in Tiny Homes as a Response to Homelessness: Negotiating Autonomy and Transitional Living Inside a 'Village' Community"
• Committee: Jill Harrison (co-chair), Matthew Norton (co-chair), Greg McLauchlan, and Naomi Zack (Philosophy)

Brian Ott

• Initial Placement: Truman State University
• Dissertation: "Sense Work: Inequality and the Labor of Connoisseurship"
• Committee: Eileen Otis (chair), Jill Harrison, Jocelyn Hollander, and Stephen Wooten (International Studies)

Tony Silva

• Initial Placement: Northwestern University (postdoc)
• Dissertation: "Bud-Sex: Sexual Flexibility Among Rural White Straight Men Who Have Sex with Men"
• Committee: CJ Pascoe (chair), Raoul Liévanos, Kristen Barber, and Peter Alilunas (Cinema Studies)

Evan Shenkin

• Initial Placement: Oregon State University (Visiting Instructor)
• Dissertation: "Activism or Extractivism: Indigenous Land Struggles in Eastern Bolivia"
• Committee: Richard York (chair), Galen Martin, Matthew Norton, and Derrick Hindery (International Studies)

Lauren Stewart

• Initial Placement: University of Oregon (Instructor)
• Dissertation: "The Power of Pleasure: Heteronormativity and Homophobia in Heterosexual Sex"
• Committee: Jocelyn Hollander (co-chair), CJ Pascoe (co-chair), Eileen Otis, and Yvonne Braun (Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies)

Craig Van Pelt

• Initial Placement: Sandhills Community College (Instructor)
• Dissertation: "Food Values and the Human Right to Food: A Sociological Analysis of Food Insecurity in Oregon"
• Committee: Michael Dreiling (co-chair), Matthew Norton (co-chair), Galen Martin, Greg McLauchlan, and Stephen Wooten (International Studies)

Tongyu Wu

• Initial Placement: Zhejiang University, China
• Dissertation: "Brogrammers, Tech Hobbyists, and Coding Peasants: Surveillance, Fun, and Productivity in High Tech"
• Committee: Eileen Otis (chair), Aaron Gullickson, J Shiao, and Andrew Nelson (Management)

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2016-17 Placements

MeCherri Abedi-Amin

• Initial Placement: Washington College (visiting assistant professor)
• Dissertation: "Bound by Blackness: African Migration, Black Identity, and Linked Fate in Post-Civil Rights America"
• Committee:  Aaron Gullickson (chair), Kemi Balogun, Jessica Vasquez-Tokos, and Alai Reyes-Santos (Ethnic Studies)

Jordan Besek

• Initial Placement: University of Buffalo
• Dissertation: "On the Historicity of Social and Ecological Change: From the Asian Carp Invasion to the Reversal of the Chicago River"
• Committee: Richard York (chair), Jim Elliott, John Foster, and Marsha Weisiger (History)

Martha Camargo

• Initial Placement: University of Chicago Center for the Economics of Human Development, Research Data Administrator
• Dissertation: "Reinvigorating the Contact Hypothesis"
• Committee: Caleb Southworth (chair), Aaron Gullickson, Richard York, Joseph Lowndes (Political Science)

Madhurima Das

• Initial Placement: Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
• Dissertation: "Mothers across Borders: A Transnational Analysis of Parenting between Indian Mothers in Edison and Kolkata"
• Committee: Eileen Otis (chair), Jill Harrison, Ellen Scott, and Arafat Valiani (History)

Sierra Deutsch

• Initial Placement: Dissertation Editor LLC
• Dissertation: "Western Conversation as an Accidental Vector for Capitalism: A Socioeconomic Cross-national Comparison of Irrawaddy Dolphin Conversation Projects"
• Committee: Richard York (chair), Jocelyn Hollander, Jill Harrison, and Lamia Karim (Anthropology)

Cade Jameson

• Dissertation: "Radical Conservation and the Politics of Planning: A Historical Study, 1917-1945"
• Committee: John Foster (chair), Val Burris, Richard York, and Joseph Fracchia (Honors College)

Shih-Chi Lin

• Initial Placement: Formosan Association for Public Affairs
• Dissertation: "Producing, Maintaining and Resisting Colonial Ecological Violence: Three Considerations of Settler Colonialism as Eco-social Structure"
• Committee: Aaron Gullickson (chair), Matthew Norton, Richard York, and William Terry (Political Science)

David Martin

• Initial Placement: Aquinas College
• Dissertation: "User ID/entity: Examining the Role of Online Interactions in Black Racial Identity Formation"
• Committee: J Shiao (chair), CJ Pascoe, Jessica Vasquez-Tokos, and Gordon Hall (Psychology)

Mitchell Monsour

• Dissertation: "Together and Alone: Intimacy and Alienation in the Age of Competitive Individualism"
• Committee: Greg McLaughlan (chair), Jill Harrison, Richard York, and Patricia Curtain (Journalism)

Uyen (Cindy) Nguyen

• Initial Placement: Northwestern University, Admissions and Marketing for the Master of Science in Analytics Program
• Dissertation: "Vietnamese American Racialization and Ethnic Organizations"
• Committee: J Shiao (chair), Aaron Gullickson, Jessica Vasquez-Tokos, Gordon Hall (Psychology)

Intan Suwandi

• Dissertation: "Back to Production: Labor-Value Commodity Chains and the Imperialist World Economy"
• Committee: John Foster (chair), Val Burris, Richard York, Daniel Buck (Geography)

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2015-16 Placements

Tracy DeHaan

• Initial Placement: San Jose State University
• Dissertation: "Dying to Succeed: A Qualitative Content Analysis of Online News Reports about Affluent Teen Suicide Clusters"
• Committee: Robert O’Brien (chair), CJ Pascoe, Jean Stockard, and Autumn Shafer (Journalism)

Julius McGee

• Initial Placement: Portland State University
• Dissertation: "The Paradox of Green Commodities"
• Committee: Richard York (chair), John Foster, Ryan Light, and Stephen Wooten (International Studies)

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2014-15 Placements

Matthew Clement

• Initial Placement: Grinnell College (Visiting Assistant Professor)
• Dissertation: "Local Growth and Land Use Intensification: A Sociological Study of Urbanization and Environmental Change"
• Committee: Jim Elliott (chair), John Foster, Richard York, and Rebecca Lewis (Planning, Public Policy, and Management)

Matthew Friesen

• Initial Placement: Bluffton University
• Dissertation: "Parsing the Palate: A Mixed Methods Analysis of the US Food Advocacy Movement"
• Committee: Michael Dreiling (chair), Ryan Light, Kari Norgaard, and Yvonne Braun (Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies)

Jeffrey Gunn

• Initial Placement: Whittier College
• Dissertation: "Pipelines of Influence: The Fossil Fuels Industry, Climate Change, and the Policy Planning Network"
• Committee: Michael Dreiling (chair), Ryan Light, Kari Norgaard, and Yvonne Braun (Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies)

Christopher Hardnack

• Initial Placement: Colorado Mesa University
• Dissertation: "Framing Neoliberalism: The Counter-hegemonic Framing of the Global Justice, Antiwar, and Immigrant Rights Movements"
• Committee: Michael Dreiling (chair), John Foster, Greg McLauchlan, and Daniel HoSang (Political Science)

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2013-14 Placements

Miriam Abelson

• Initial Placement: Portland State University (Assistant Professor of Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies)
• Dissertation: "Men in Context: Transmasculinities and Transgender Experiences in Three US Regions"
• Committee: Jocelyn Hollander (co-chair), Ellen Scott (co-chair), CJ Pascoe, and Lynn Fujiwara, Elizabeth Reis (WGS)

Christina Ergas

• Initial Placement: University of Tennessee (Assistant Professor)
• Dissertation: "Barriers to Urban Sustainability"
• Committee: Richard York (chair), Jim Elliott, Kari Norgaard, and Stephen Wooten (International Studies)

Kathleen Rodgers

• Initial Placement: Coe College (Assistant Professor)
• Dissertation: "Leaving the Game: Status and Identity in the Role Exit of Professional Football Players"
• Committee: Jocelyn Hollander (chair), Aliya Saperstein, Ellen Scott, and Brian Klopotek (Ethnic Studies)

William Wishart

• Initial Placement: Creighton University (Assistant Professor)
• Dissertation: "Underdeveloping Appalachia: Toward an Environmental Sociology of Extractive Economies"
• Committee: John Foster (chair), Michael Dreiling, Richard York, and Joseph Fracchia (Honors College)