ASPECT Alumni
Judson Abraham
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "Populist Just Transitions." Chair: Scott Nelson. Defended December 2019. Current position: Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Alabama Tuscaloosa,
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, Instructor, Department of Political Science, Virginia Tech.
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: Visiting Assistant Professor, 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 and Political Science, 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.
Nada Berrada
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: Contextualizing Everyday Practices of Agency: Young Moroccans Navigating Life Spaces. Chair: Max Stephenson. Defended December 2020. Current Position: International Project Coordinator, the Education Development Center, Washington, DC.
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 in the Department of Political Science and Policy Studies, Leadership Faculty Scholar, and Faculty Fellow for Race, Ethnicity, and Diversity, Elon University.
Jay Burkette
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "Upside-Down Utopia: Directionality for the Kingdom of God". Chair: Brett Shadle. Defended January 2022. Current Position:
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.
Linea Cutter
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: Binge-Restrict-Repeat: The Governmentality of Eating Regimes. Chair: Francois Debrix. Defended April 2023. Current position: Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, College of Charleston
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. Current position: Instructor, Department of Philosophy, Virginia Tech.
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 position: Instructor, Sociology, Virginia Tech.
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: Coordinator of Student Engagement, Department of Religion and Culture, Virginia Tech; Instructor, 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. Current position: Workflow manager for a payment service provider; Independent Researcher; Editor of Strukturriss journal.
Jordan Fallon
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "Culinary Man." Chair: Francois Debrix. Defended March 2023. Current position:
Robert Flahive
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "Preserving Power, Remaking the Past: Race, Colonialism, Modernism, and Architectural Preservation." Chair: Priya Dixit. Defended May 2021. Current position: Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Politics, Whitman College.
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: Associate 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: Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University.
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: Project Coordinator, Virginia Rural Health Association (VRHA); and Senior Research Associate, Institute for Liberatory Innovation.
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: Assistant Professor, Urban and Environmental Planning, University of Virginia.
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.
Leigh McKagen
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "Visions of Possibilities: (De)Constructing Imperial Narratives in Star Trek: Voyager". Chair: Brett Shadle. Defended: April 2020. Current positions: Instructor, Department of History, Virginia Tech; Instructor, Department of Political Science, Virginia Tech.
Kent Morris
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: “Crisis Thought.” Chair: Francois Debrix. Defended October 2016. Current position: Instructor, Department of History, Ferrum College, Ferrum, VA.
Mohammed Pervaiz
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: “Disciplining Religious Bodies, Forming Secular Bodies: Atatürk, Modern Power and Secular Affect.” Chair: Rachel Scott. Defended: May 2020. Current position: Instructor, Department of Religion and Culture, Virginia Tech.
Sarah Plummer
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: “Objects in Protest: Bread and Puppet Theater's (Non)Human Solidarities.” Chair: Zhange Ni. Defended: June 2023. Current position: Mellon Postdoctoral Associate for the Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia (MAAV) Project.
Shaun Respess
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: “The Ethics of (Dis)connection: Understanding 'Care' Through Phenomena of Despair.” Chair: Michael Moehler. Defended: October 2021. Current position: Instructor, Department of Philosophy, Virginia Tech.
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: Lecturer (Assistant Professor equivalent) in International Relations in the School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics at Queen's University Belfast, in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
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. Current position: Assistant Professor of Political Science and Public Policy and Chair of Public Service and Community Studies, Washington & Jefferson College, Washington, Pennsylvania.
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.
Patrick Salmons
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "Hip Hop, Bluegrass, Banjos, and Solidarity: Race and Class Histories in Appalachia U.S.A." Chair: Sylvester Johnson. Defended May 2021. Current position: Instructor, Appalachian Studies and Political Science, Virginia Tech.
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: Associate Professor and Chair, PhD in Intercultural Studies, Biola University, La Mirada, CA.
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.
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, Department of Philosophy, Virginia Tech.
Ezgi Seref
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "Transforming Gender and Sexuality in-between the Personal and the Professional: The Promise of Legal Change in (Un)Becoming Advocate (Avukat) in Turkey". Chaired by: David Brunsma. Defended December 2020.
Kathryn Shepard
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "Artists for Humanity's Sake: An Ameliorative Project Concerning Artists and the Existentialist Struggle Against the Dominant Narrative". Chaired by: Joseph Pitt. Defended May 2021. Current position: Instructor, Department of Philosophy, Radford University.
Faith Skiles
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "'I Would Never Set Foot On American Soil Again': Religion, Space, and Gender: American Missionaries in Korea". Co-chairs: Danna Agmon and Helen Schneider. Defended September 2021. Current position: Instructor, Department of History, Virginia Tech.
Emma Stamm
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "Hallucinating Facts: Psychedelic Science and the Epistemic Power of Data". Chair: Francois Debrix. Defended February 2020. Current position: Assistant Professor in Science, Technology, and Society, Farmingdale State College-SUNY. .
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: Assistant Vice Provost and Director of Academic Programs, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO.
Alexander Stubberfield
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "The Greater-sage Grouse in Wyoming: A Technonatural Study." Chair: Tim Luke. Defended December 2019. Current position:
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. Current position: Instructor (tenure-track), Political Science, Saddleback College, Mission Viejo, CA.
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 Professor (Tenure track), Department of Political Science, Texas A & M International, 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 positions: Assistant Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies and Director of the Center for Civic Engagement, Tusculum University.
Sara Wenger
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "Synthetic Women: Gender, Power, and Humanoid Sex Robots." Chair: Christine Labuski. Defended May 2023. Current position:
Zachariah Wheeler
PH.D. IN THE ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ETHICAL, AND CULTURAL THOUGHT
Dissertation Title: "An Inconvenient Coalition: Climate Change and Democratic Party Elite Discourse on Class, 1988-2008." Chair: Andrew Scerri. Defended March 2022. Current position: Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Providence College.