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Gabriella Simpson
Benjamin Aaron MA, 2019
Laura Abbasi-Lemmon MA, 2016
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Graduate Students
Emillion Adekoya
PhD student, 2022-present
Areas of interest: Black feminism, Gender and Sexuality, Queer Politics, Critical
Race theory, African studies, Asylum and Refugee Aesthetics, African lgbtq+ migration
and mobility.
Full Profile & Office Hours
![AB](/commcms/wgss/Ashley%20Barry.png)
Ashley Barry
PhD student, 2018-present
Areas of interest: affect theory, feminist film criticism,
Madness Studies, and queer theory.
Peter Bruno
PhD student, 2023-present
Areas of interest: Sexuality Studies, Media Studies, American Studies, Imperialism,
Biopolitics and Science Studies, Masculinities, Critical Theory and Fascism
Full Profile & Office Hours
Areas of interest: Gamification of Relationships, Video Games, Feminist Technoscience,
Care Work, Film and Digital Media, Monster Theory, and Technologies of Gender
Full Profile & Office Hours
Galia Cozzi Berrondo
PhD student, 2020-present
galia.cozziberrondo@stonybrook.edu
Areas of interest: transnational feminisms, Queer politics, Migration and mobility
in Latin America, Queer and transgender studies, de/coloniality, Latinx imaginaries,
Performance studies
Hayden Cuttone
PhD student, 2022-present
hayden.cuttone@stonybrook.edu
Areas of interest: queer and transgender studies, feminist literary and cultural studies,
surveillance studies, disability studies, transgender narratives, hypervisibility/invisibility,
body politics, and critical medical humanities.
Full Profile & Office Hours
![andy](/commcms/wgss/AndyEicger.png)
Andy Eicher
PhD student, 2015-present
PhD student, 2015-present
Areas of interest: Areas of Interest: queer and feminist theory; crip theory; critical
disability studies; neoliberalism; PrEP; gay/LGBT market; HIV/AIDS; queer visual cultures.
Annu Daftuar
PhD student, 2016-present
Areas of interest: Commercial Surrogacy in India, Globalization and fertility markets,
Assisted Reproductive Technologies, Reproductive Justice and Birth Justice movements,
Transnational Feminisms.
Jose Flores-Sanchez
PhD student, 2019-present
Areas of Interest: Disability, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, migration, aesthetics,
body and embodiment and settler-colonialism studies.
Kassel Franco Garibay
PhD student, 2023-present
Areas of Interest: Friendship; feminist solidarities; queer and transgender theory;
Latin American social movements; Mexican feminisms; affect theory; community and kinship;
Latinx and Chicanx methodologies; decolonial theory and methodology; and lesbian feminist
theory.
Full Profile & Office Hours
![Hafza](/commcms/wgss/Hafza.png)
Hafza Girdap
PhD student, 2020-present
PhD student, 2020-present
Areas of interest: Feminisms and politics, feminism and Women’s Movements, Gender Equality in Muslim Context through Intersectional Lens, Women in Conflict and
Post-conflict Context, Dislocated Women and Their Interactions with Other Women from
Different Cultures, Religions, Ethnic Groups, Human Rights, Women’s Rights, Youth Involvement in Restructuring the Society in terms of Feminism
![Tasmia](/commcms/wgss/Tasmia.png)
Tasmia Haque
PhD student, 2019-present
Areas of Interest: sexuality, feminism and queer theory, agency, trauma and mental health, critical race
theory, transnational activism.
Areas of Interest: Critical Race Theory, Cultural Production Theory, ethnographic
studies, anti-Blackness, misogynoir, and the racialized misrepresentation of the Black
woman’s identity in popular romance fiction.
Full Profile & Office Hours
Tara Holmes
PhD student, 2015-present
PhD student, 2015-present
Areas of interest: visual culture, queer theory, affect theory, and gender and sexuality
in horror films.
Jade Kai
PhD student, 2019-present
Areas of Interest: Aesthetic medicine, Black and African American studies, body/embodiment, care work,
decolonizing methodologies, kinship, queer and trans genders and sexualities.
Kara Pernicano
PhD student, 2022-present
Areas of Interest: Trauma-Informed Approaches to Care Work; Disability Justice & Madness
Studies; Queer & Crip Theories; Embodiment & Affect, Hybrid Aesthetics, Performance Studies
& Comic Studies
Full Profile & Office Hours
Frankie Petronio
PhD student, 2020-present
Areas of interest: post-gay politics and identity; television studies; parasocial
interaction; political activism and social movements; the tactical polyvalence of
discourse; alternative media; adolescence; nostalgia & reactionary populism; critical
theory and disability studies; queer
studies.
studies.
Genie Ruzicka
PhD student, 2020-present
genevieve.ruzicka@stonybrook.edu
Areas of interest: Critical Race Studies, the intersections between race, gender,
and sexuality in pop culture, television studies, consent.
![desi](/commcms/wgss/Desi%20Headshot.jpeg)
Desi Self
PhD student, 2019-present
Areas of interest: Surveillance Studies, Critical Studies of Race, Philosophy of Sex,
and Radical Pedagogy.
PhD student, 2022-present
Areas of interest: Black Geographies; Transnational Feminist activism; Critical Migration/Mobility
Studies; Global Racialized Sexualities; Surveillance Studies; Black Feminisms; Disability
Justice
Full Profile & Office Hours
Yesenia Torres
MA student, 2020-present
yesenia.torres@stonybrook.edu
Areas of interest: LGBTQ+ Homelessness, Housing and Policy, Immigration, Queer and Feminist theory, Critical
Race Theory, Mental Health and Trauma, Sexuality/ Sex Work
![Melis](/commcms/wgss/MelisU.png)
Melis Umut
Carlos Vazquez
PhD student, 2017-present
Areas of Interest: Critical Race Theory; Black and Latino Studies; Higher Education
Studies; Disability Studies; Queer Theory; Transgender Studies; Masculinity Studies
Lizbeth Zuniga
PhD student, 2020-present
Areas of Interest: Critical Fat Studies; Fat Theory and the medicalization of fat
bodies; Queer Theory; Critical Race Theory; Jotería Studies; Latinx/a and Xicanx/a
Feminisms; Latinxs in Labor Systems, Disability/Crip Theory.
Full Profile & Office Hours
Graduate Alumni
Stephanie Bonvissuto P
hD, 2022
Dissertation: "Making Room for Queer Spatiality: Discursive Designs of All-Gender Spaces"
Committee: Nancy Hiemstra, Cristina Silva, Mary Jo Bona, Liz Montegary, Jamie Hartless
![Corbman Final Headshot](/commcms/wgss/Corbman%20Final%20WEB.jpg)
Rachel Corbman PhD, 2019
Dissertation: “Conferencing on the Edge: A Queer History of Feminist Field Formation, 1969-89”
Committee: Victoria Hesford, Liz Montegary, Lisa Diedrich, Nancy Tomes, Kadji Amin, Jennifer
Nash
![No Photo](/commcms/wgss/Screenshot%202019-10-20%20at%2012.42.47%20PM.png)
Dissertation: "Symbolic Codes and Discourses of Whiteness, White Femininity, and Neoliberal Femininity
in Pop Music."
Committee: Liz Montegary, Nancy Hiemstra, Vicky Hesford
Yalda Nafiseh Hamidi PhD, 2020
Dissertation: "From Female Patriotism to Diasporic Womanhood: Negotiating Diaspora and Feminist
Aspirations."
Committee: Mary Jo Bona, Nancy Hiemstra, Nikolaos Panou, Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet
Margaret Hill MA, 2018
Thesis, "Reproductive Constraint: The Face of Modern Motherhood in an Era of Global Climate
Change/Pollution and Neoliberalism"
Committee: Mary Jo Bona, Ritch Calvin, Kristina Lucenko
![Joie](/commcms/wgss/Joie.png)
Joie Meier MA, 2018
Thesis, "White Supremacy in the Northeast: Keystone United in Pennsylvania"
Committee: Nancy Hiemstra, Zebulon Miletsky
Placement, Ph.D. student in Gender Studies at Indiana University
Shruti Mukherjee, PhD 2022
Dissertation "Living with Militarization: The Politics of Refusal and Loss in Manipur"
Committee: Joseph Pierce, E.K. Tan, Haley Duschinski, Naisargi N. Dave
Valerie Moyer PhD, 2022
Dissertation "Muscles, Testosterone, and Other 'Threats' to Women's Sport"
Committee: Lisa Diedrich, Liz Montegary, Pam Block, Toby Beauchamp
Alexandra Novitskaya PhD, 2022
Dissertation "New queer dissidents: Politics and geopolitics of post-Soviet LBGTQ migration and
asylum"
Committee: Nancy Hiemstra, Liz Montegary, Isabela Kalinowska-Blackwood, Janet Elise Johnson
![saenz](/commcms/wgss/Saenz.png)
Miranda Saenz MA, 2022
Thesis:,"Dis(ease) [sick]: An Examination of the Role of Space in Black and Indigenous Health"
Committee: Nancy Hiemstra, Liz Montegary, Pam Block
![Emily](/commcms/wgss/Emily.png)
Emily Whearty MA, 2017
Thesis, "Animating Food: Analyzing Choice, Control, and Disability"
Committee: Michele Friedner, Lisa Diedrich, Mary Jo Bona
Placement, Precinct Advocate at L.I. Against Domestic Violence
![Laura](/commcms/wgss/people/_people-images/Laura%20Abbassi.jpg)
Thesis, "Experiencing and Knowing Pregnant Bodies: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Pregnancy
Texts"
Committee: Lisa Diedrich, Liz Montegary, Michele Friedner
Placement, Ph.D. student in Women's Studies at UMD