ASPECT Alumni
Caroline Alphin
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "Living on the Edge of Burnout: Defamiliarizing Neoliberalism through Cyberpunk Science Fiction." Chair: Francois Debrix. Defended February 2019. Current position: Instructor, Department of English, Radford University, Radford, VA.
Ryan Artrip
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "Virulence and Digital Culture." Chair: Francois Debrix. Defended April 2016. Current position: Instructor, Department of Philosophy, Guilford College, Greensboro, NC.
Seth Bartee
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "Imagination Movers: The Construction of Conservative Counter-Narratives in Reaction to Consensus Liberalism." Chair: Francois Debrix. Defended February 2014. current position: Assistant Professor of History, Guilford Technical College, Greensboro, North Carolina.
Amiel Bernal
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: Epistemic Overload as Epistemic Injustice. Chair: Joseph C. Pitt. Defended May 2018. Current position: Instructor, Department of Philosophy, Virginia Military Institute; Instructor, Department of Philosophy, Radford University.
Damion Blake
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "Violent Actors and Embedded Power: An Analysis of the Roles Played by Jamaican Dons in Garrison Communities: A Case Study of Brown Villa, Jamaica." Chair: Max Stephenson. Defended: November 2012. Current position: Assistant Professor (tenure - track) in International Relations and Comparative Politics in the Department of Political Science and Policy Studies, Elon University.
Michael V. Butera
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "Techniques of Listening and Acoustic Orders". Chair: Joseph C. Pitt. Defended December 2010. Current Positions: CEO, Artiphon.
Katharine Cross
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: Spiritual, But Not Religious Identities in U.S. Faith-Based Activism: Case Studies in the Nipponzan Myohoji Order and the Catholic Worker Movement. Chair: Francois Debrix. Defended May 2018. Current position: Counselor/Coordinator of Housing, Women's Resource Center of the New River Valley.
Claudio D'Amato
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: Human Capabilities and Collectivist Justice, Chair: Joseph C. Pitt. Defended May 2017.
Michele Deramo
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: Performing Bantu: Narrative Constructions of Identity in Diaspora, Chair: Katrina Powell. Defended February 2017. Current position: Assistant Provost for Diversity Education and Programs, Inclusion and Diversity, Virginia Tech.
Komal Dhillon
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "Brown Skin, White Dreams: Pigmentocracy in India". Chair: Brett Shadle. Defended April 2015. Current positions: Instructor, Religion and Culture, Virginia Tech; Instructor, Gender and Women's Studies, Hollins University, Roanoke, VA.
Taulby Edmondson
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title:The Wind Goes On: 'Gone with the Wind' and the Imagined Geographies of the American South. Co-chairs: David Cline and Emily Satterwhite. Defended February 2018. Current position: Instructor, History and Religion and Culture/Appalachian Studies, Virginia Tech.
Sascha Engel
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "The Political Economy of Transpositions: A Study of the Eurozone Crisis." Chair: Tim Luke. Defended March 2016.
Barbara Hassell
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "Martyrs at the Hearth: The Social-Religious Roles of Resistance Women During Nazi Germany." Chair: Brian Britt. Defended: May 2014. Current position: Professor of German, Salem High School, Salem, VA; Children's books author.
Jordan Hill
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "Realms of Remembered Violence: The Emergence of Mass Murder Memorials in the United States, 1986-2012." Chair: Marian Mollin. Defended October 2014.
Elizabeth Jamison
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "Circuits of Power in Alabama's Immigration Politics: Labor Justice and Corporate Social Responsibility" Chair: Barbara Ellen Smith. Defended October 2015. Current position: Assistant Professor of Practice in the Department of Management in the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech; Independent Leadership Consultant; Trustee for the Roanoke City School Board.
Holly Jordan
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "Marriage, the Family, and Security in Israel: The Paradox of the Liberal State." Chair: Scott Nelson. Defended April 2016. Current Position: New Business Development Manager at the non-profit/NGO American Near East Refugee Aid (or ANERA) in Washington, DC.
Mario Khreiche
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: Milieus in the Gig Economy. Co-chairs: Timothy W. Luke and Rohan Kalyan. Defended October 2018. Current position: Andrew W. Mellon Sawyer Seminar Postdoctoral Fellow in "Information Ecosystems", University of Pittsburgh.
Lyusyena Kirakosyan
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "Democratic Justice for Brazilians with Impairments." Chair: Max Stephenson. Defended: March 2013. Current position: Senior Project Associate, Institute for Policy and Governance, Virginia Tech; Independent NGO Consultant.
Robert Kirsch
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "Market Challenges to Democracy: The Political Economy of Hyman Minsky." Chair: Timothy W. Luke. Defended July 2012. Current position: Assistant Professor in the Department of Leadership and Interdisciplinary Studies at Arizona State University.
Jordan Laney
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: Recreating and Deconstructing the Shifting Politics of (Bluegrass) Festivals, Chair: Katrina Powell. Defended August 2018. Current position: Presidential Pathway Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Religion and Culture, Virginia Tech.
Jennifer Lawrence
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "Governing Nature, Sustaining Degradation: An Eco-Governmental Critique of the Deepwater Horizon Disaster". Co-chairs: Tim Luke and Francois Debrix. Defended August 2015. Current position: Visiting Assistant Professor, College of Architecture & Urban Studies, Virginia Tech and Research Leader for Socio-Political Dimensions of Resilience, Global Forum on Urban & Regional Resilience at Virginia Tech.
Christian Matheis
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "We who make one another: Liberatory solidarity as relational". Chair: Brian Britt. Defended: February 2015. Current position: Visiting Assistant Professor of Community and Justice Studies, Guilford College, Greensboro, NC.
Kent Morris
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: “Crisis Thought.” Chair: Francois Debrix. Committee Members: Timothy W. Luke, Patricia Mooney Nickel, and Scott G. Nelson." Defended October 2016.
Francine Rossone de Paula
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "Brazil Come to the Future: Living Time and Space in the International Order of Competition." Chair: Francois Debrix. Defended May 2016. Current Position: Instructor of International Relations Theory, the Instituto Universitário de Pesquisas do RJ (IUPERJ) at the Universidade Candido Mendes, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Mary Ryan
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "The Democratic Kaleidoscope in the United States: Vanquishing Structural Racism in the US Federal Government." Chair: David Brunsma. Defended March 2019.
Nina Salmon
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "Paved with Good Intentions: The Road to Racial Unity in the Episcopal Diocese of Southwestern Virginia." Chair: Brian Britt. Defended April 2016. Current position: Associate Professor of English, University of Lynchburg, Lynchburg, VA.
Jamie Sanchez
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "Making Mongols: Representations of Culture, Identity, and Resistance." Chair: Francois Debrix. Defended May 2016. Current position: Assistant Professor, Cook School of Intercultural Studies, Biola University, La Mirada, CA.
Melissa Schwartz
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: The Language of Ethical Encounter: Levinas, Otherness, & Contemporary Poetry, Chair: Thomas Gardner. Defended June 2017. Current position: Instructor of Environmental Ethics, Warren Wilson College, in Swannanoa, NC.
Juan Carlos Sanchez Sierra
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "Worshiping Leadership: Morality, Revolutionary Values, And The Politics Of Magnicidio (Assassination) In The Case Of Camilo Torres And Fabio Vásquez With The ELN, Colombia 1963-1978". Chaired by: Timothy W. Luke. Defended April 2011.
Aaron Stoller
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "An Experimental Hope: The Case for Emergent Pedagogy". Chairs: Ben Sax and Janell Watson. Defended August 2013. Current position: Director of First Year Experience at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, CO
Anthony Szczurek
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "India's Temporal Imaginaries of Climate Change: 1988 - 2018." Co-Chairs: Laura Zanotti and Rohan Kalyan. Defended February 2019.
Scott Tate
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "Civic Tinkering in a Small City: Imaginaries and Intersections of Art, Place, and Marginality." Chair: Max O. Stephenson. Defended March 2012. Current position: Associate Director, Office of Economic Development, Virginia Tech.
Reed Taylor
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation title: "A Postcolonial Inquiry of Women's Political Agency in Aceh, Indonesia: Towards a Muslim Feminist Approach?" Co-Chairs: Peter Schmitthenner and Rachel Scott. Defended August 2012. Current position: Instructor, Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
Marc Thomas
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "Assessing the Boundaries of Participatory Democracy within an Emancipatory Political Framework: The Case of Parish Development Committees in Jamaica". Chairs: Craig Brians, Max Stephenson. Defended May 2015. Current position: Ministry of Security, Government of Jamaica.
Alfonso Vergaray
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "Rethinking Uncertainty: Spinoza and Hume on Shaping Uncertain Secular Futures". Chair: Joseph C. Pitt. Defended October 2014. Current position: Assistant Professional Faculty Member, Department of Political Science, Texas A & M International, in Laredo, TX.
Dana Volk
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: Passing: Intersections of Race, Gender, Sexuality and Class, Chair: David Brunsma. Defended May 2017. Current position: University Core Instructor, Radford University.
Shelby Ward
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "Strange(r) Maps: The Geopolitics of Sri Lankan Tourism." Chair: Katrina Powell. Defended March 2019. Current position: Instructor, Political Science, Tusculum University, Greenville, SC.