People

NOTE: This profile page is for current students. Alums, please check out the Department's alum page, where you can stay connected, fill out an alumni survey, and more.

Profiles

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Stephanie Aragão
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Stephanie is currently pursuing a PhD in Communication at UMass. She received a BA in Communication from George Washington University and a MS from the London School of Economics. Some of her previous work includes critical discourse analysis of gender roles in popular film and social semiotic analysis of race and news coverage of missing women. Her current research interests involve exploring the role of individual, diasporic, and institutional identities in cultural production and consumption behavior. She is currently working on a project which focuses on Portuguese-speaking communities in London and examines how postcolonial conflict is negotiated in cosmopolitan European spaces. This project examines the intersection of points of origin, race, legal status, and language, and explores the influence of European policies and discourses of migration and multiculturalism in the management of commodified ethnicities and creation of emergent Lusophone identities.

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Xima Avalos
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Currently pursuing her PhD at UMass, Xima was raised in National City, California, on MGM musicals, John Waters and Hitchcock films her parents checked out for her and her siblings from the public library.  She did her undergraduate work in English Literature at UC Berkeley and then went on to receive her MA in Library and Information Science at the University of Arizona before becoming a film and media librarian at UC Santa Barbara and California College of the Arts. Her professional work lead her to pursue her second MA degree in Critical Studies at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts. Her current research involves how sports fandoms affect and create identities and identity performance.

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Felicitas Baruch
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Felicitas is pursuing her PhD in Communication at UMass. She received a B.A. in Social Communication from Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana in Mexico City and a M.A. in Broadcast Journalism from Emerson College, where she was as a Fulbright scholar. Felicitas has worked as a videographer, editor, and TV producer in Mexico City and Boston. She has been a reporter for different media outlets covering sports, politics, immigration, and international conflicts. As a journalist Felicitas has worked for The Associated Press, and two news agencies from China and Mexico. Her research interests include the use of technology and new media to solve social inequalities; media, peace and justice; and the role of ethnic media in multicultural societies.

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Greg Blackburn
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Greg received a B.A. in Communication from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2006, and an MA in Communication at the University of Arkansas in 2010. His principal research interest is media effects. Working from a quantitative, empirical perspective, he is interested in studying the social effects of the US military's involvement in the entertainment fields. He is also interested in interplay between media violence and portrayals of masculinity, and how these can impact thoughts, attitudes, and affect regarding aggression and gender roles. Additional areas of study include interactive media, political expression on the internet, and censorship.


Rachel Briggs
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Rachel Briggs has an M.Ed. in Social Justice education and currently is a performance studies Ph.D. student in the department of Communication and a Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies certificate student. She works at the intersection of rhetoric and performance studies with a focus on gender performativity in various contexts, including queer drag performance and gender performativity in the classroom. This interdisciplinary work brings together the fields of social justice education, queer theory, feminist theory, critical pedagogy, and performance studies. She is the GEO steward for the Department of Communication and a co-organizer of the Performance Studies Graduate Student Association.

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Allison Burr-Miller
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I am a fourth year doctoral student at UMASS. My research deals with rhetorics of space, memory, and identity particularly with regard to sporting institutions. I recently had an essay on Fantasy Baseball come out in the Southern Journal of Communication. My dissertation deals with the retro trend in contemporary Major League Baseball parks.

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Tovar Cerulli
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Tovar split his undergraduate years between Dartmouth College and Eugene Lang College of the New School for Social Research, where he received his B.A. Over the next fifteen years, he worked as a carpenter, logger, and freelance writer. He was awarded a graduate school fellowship by UMass in 2009 and completed his M.A. thesis — Meat and Meanings: Adult-Onset Hunters' Cultural Discourses of the Hunt — in 2011. He is now enrolled as a Ph.D. student. His research interests include cultural discourse analysis, ethnography, food, hunting, and human relationships with nature. Tovar is also the author of The Mindful Carnivore: A Vegetarian's Hunt for Sustenance (2012).

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Mariama M. Changamire
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Mariama Changamire received both her B.A. (1996) and M.A. (2000) in Communication at DePaul University, with emphases in Mass Media, Multicultural Communication, and Organizational Communication. She also received undergraduate and graduate certificates in the Women’s Studies Program while at DePaul. Her research focus is on the study of global linguistic survival strategies, recasting these strategies as tools of empowerment toward facing the challenges of the expanding global economy. She believes that exposing linguistic hegemony is critical to the liberation and survival of the most underserved and disenfranchised world citizens, and is open to historic and dynamic possibilities of language and culture, scaffolding strengths revealed in communicative identities. Other areas of interest include the pragmatic voices of women of color, and the violence of silences in communities around gendered violence, incest, and rape, highlighting notions of dominance and power.

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Ellen Correa
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Ellen earned her B.A. in Human Communication from the University of California Monterey Bay and her M.A. in Intercultural Relations from Antioch University MacGregor. Her dissertation research explores the ethical and relational implications of assimilation in a racially/ethnically stratified society.

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Fadia Hasan
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Fadia Hasan is currently a PhD student in the Communication Department at UMASS, Amherst. She earned her BA from Hampshire College with an undergraduate thesis titled, "The Politics of Femininity in Mainstream Indian Films". Her MA was in Communications from University of Massachussetts, Amherst. Fadia's focus in her Masters has been Global Consumer & Class Cultures and Alternative Economies. Her Masters thesis is titled, "Fair Trade Practices in Contemporary Bangladeshi Society: Community Development, Cultural Revival And Sustainability through a Participatory Approach."

Kylie Lanthorn
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Kylie Lanthorn is pursuing her M.A. in Communication at UMass. She holds a B.A. from the University of Washington Tacoma in Arts, Media, and Culture where she graduated in 2013 magna cum laude as the Chancellor’s Medalist. Her primary research interests lay at the intersections of critical cultural studies and political economy, focused broadly on consumer culture, media studies, and environmental communication. Kylie’s thesis research is focused on the relationship between economic and environmental development in Vietnam. She plans to continue her graduate studies in a PhD program, pursuing her interests in critical studies of intersectional systems of inequality.

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Liene Ločmele
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Liene is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Communication at UMass Amherst. She received a Fulbright student fellowship and joined the department in 2009 after spending several years working for the PR industry in her homeland of Latvia. Liene is interested in interpersonal and intercultural aspects of human communication with a special focus on the communication of Latvian identity. Liene has a BA in Communication and Public Relations from Vidzeme University of Applied Science in Latvia, and an MA in Intercultural Communication from the University of Jyväskyla in Finland.

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Zachary McDowell
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Zach McDowell earned a B.S. in Communication Studies from Arizona State University at the West Campus, focusing on Rhetoric, Critical Theory, and the Philosophy of Communication. Zach earned his Masters Degree at Arizona State University as well, research and thesis focusing on Prophetic Advocacy, Language, and Being-in-the-World-Together. His current focus is in the area of advocacy, communication, and collaboration in a digital environment, especially the issues surrounding the Open Source / Free Software Movement, Digital Rights Management, Peer to Peer Sharing, and (Intellectual) Property. Zach has presented at NCA, ICA, CSA, and numerous other venues, as well as publishing numerous pieces in a variety of places. He is currently working on his dissertation, a media archeology of digital sharing technology. For more information please visit his website.

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Kavita Nayar
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www.kavitailonanayar.com

Kavita Ilona Nayar is a doctoral student in the Department of Communication at the University of Massachusetts - Amherst, with specialties in the areas of critical cultural studies, feminist media studies, technology & society, and media ethnography. Nayar's research interests include mediated intimacies; gender, labor, and technology; consumer and promotional culture; and the sociology of emotion. These research interests have generated several projects that broadly focus on the role of media and technology in the production and circulation of emotions in everyday life and its relationship to gendered subjectivities, the structuration of pleasure, and the social 'work' of intimacy. Research into how internet and mobile technologies are constructed and used for various intimacy formations such as romantic dating, casual sex, and sex work represent the nascent stages of a dissertation project that asks, how do emotions move technologies, and in turn, how do technologies move emotions? Before coming to UMass Amherst, Nayar earned an M.A. in Broadcasting, Telecommunications, and Mass Media and a graduate certificate in Women's Studies from Temple University and a B.A. in Communication Studies from the University of Michigan.

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Christine Olson
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I received my BA in Communication and English at Boston College and my MA here at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. My research asks how practices of web-based media production are being shaped by and are shaping the possibilities for social action and community building both on and offline. Through investigations of social media platforms and the experiences of content creators and fan communities, I study affective attachments and emerging inequalities in the media landscape. Additionally, my work seeks to understand what skills, competencies, and literacies are required and cultivated by these spaces.


Wendy Pringle
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Wendy Pringle holds an MA from McGill University and is currently a PhD student in the UMass Amherst Department of Communication. Her research, grounded in Canada, examines the medicalization of the end of life through the lens of feminist biopolitics. Bringing the long history of feminist scholarly engagement with the medicalized body and reproductive rights to bear on recent debates about 'dying with dignity,' her project traces a shift toward greater autonomy from medical authority in the rituals and representations of dying.


Tenzin Dhardon Sharling
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Tenzin Dhardon Sharling is pursuing a PhD in Communication at UMass. She received a BA in English Literature and an MA in Communication from Madras University in India and a further MSc in Counseling Studies from the University of Edinburgh. Besides her academic engagements, Sharling is involved with the Tibetan political movement as the elected member of Tibetan Parliament, the co-chair of International Tibet Network and General Secretary of Tibetan-Chinese PEN Centre. Her research interests are in the areas of political communication, specifically internet-mediated political communication with specific reference to the Sino-Tibet political communication and also global communication, advocacy and activism.

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Natasha Shrikant
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Natasha utilizes ethnographic and discourse analytic approaches to studying the relationship between communication, culture, and identity. Currently, Natasha is in the process of completing her dissertation project, which examines the discursive construction racial and ethnic identity in organizational contexts. Natasha has two publications in internationally recognized academic journals: IPRA's Pragmatics Quarterly and Discourse and Society. These prior works investigate how racial, ethnic, gender, and sexuality identities are constituted through everyday communication practices.

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Razvan Sibii
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Razvan earned his B.A. degree in Journalism/Mass Communication from the American University in Bulgaria in 2001. Following graduation, he worked as a full-time political reporter for two Romanian publications. He is currently pursuing a doctoral degree at UMass Amherst (Communication) while working as a lecturer and chief undergraduate advisor in the Journalism Program. His Master’s thesis was built around the concepts of ideology & culture and “Romanian-ness.” Since 2003, he has taught more than 30 undergraduate classes as a stand-alone instructor, both in-class and online (e.g. Newswriting and Reporting, Media Ethics, Public Speaking, Interpersonal Communication, Media and Society, News Analysis, Cultural Codes in Communication) at UMass Amherst (Communication and Journalism) and Holyoke Community College. Raz’s academic interests include issues of identity, culture, and ideology; political communication; media & storytelling; and critical pedagogy.

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Timothy Sutton
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Timothy Sutton is a perpetual grad student with no plans of completing his Ph.D. in order to avoid paying back the massive loans he has accrued. My dissertation is a performance (auto)ethnography using the "Western" genre as a framing device. I ask the question, “Why don’t I speak Spanish?” as the entry point to begin to unravel the tangled legacy of colonialism in California (and the Western U.S.), and to locate my body within it. Overall, I hope to contribute to the project of decolonizing knowledge production by turning the lens of the researcher’s gaze back upon the straight, white, male academic. I employ an experimental writing style, or bricolage, advocated by Norman Denzin and Yvonne Lincoln (along with other scholars) in their multiple editions of the Sage Handbook of Qualitative Inquiry as well as Denzin, Lincoln, and Linda Tuhiwai Smith's Handbook of Critical and Indigenous Methodologies. I am also inspired by Gloria Anzaldúa, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Stuart Hall.

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Siyuan Yin
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Siyuan is currently a Ph.D student and her research interests include feminism, critical cultural studies and political economy of communication. Specifically, Siyuan studies women’s rights and social inequalities in China. Before coming to UMass, Siyuan held her M.A. in Communication from University of Illinois and B.A. in Journalism from Peking University.

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Danbi Yoo
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Danbi Yoo is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Communication at UMass Amherst. She received a B.A. in Mass Communication from the Yonsei Univerisity in South Korea, and earned her M.A. in Communication at the Yonsei University as well, where her research explored how people interact through visual media in specific socio-historical or political-economic contexts. Currently, her research interests involve utilizing discourse analysis and governmentality studies to examine the influence of neoliberal change on our everyday lives. Other academic interests include art production and consumption in capitalist societies. Before coming to UMass, Danbi participated as a producer in independent theater and film projects, and worked as an assistant researcher of academic institutions in Korea.

Full Student List

Alcazar, Victoria ude.ssamu|razaclav#ude.ssamu|razaclav
Alhayek, Katty ude.ssamu|keyahlak#ude.ssamu|keyahlak
Alvarez, Mike F. ude.ssamu.mmoc|zeravlafm#ude.ssamu.mmoc|zeravlafm
Aragao, Stephanie ude.ssamu.mmoc|oagaras#ude.ssamu.mmoc|oagaras
Avalos, Xima ude.ssamu.mmoc|solavax#ude.ssamu.mmoc|solavax
Baruch Blanco, M. Felicitas ude.ssamu.mmoc|bhcurabm#ude.ssamu.mmoc|bhcurabm
Berti Silvina B moc.liamtoh|itreb_anivlis#moc.liamtoh|itreb_anivlis
Blackburn, Gregory R. ude.ssamu.mmoc|ubkcalbg#ude.ssamu.mmoc|ubkcalbg
Bordino, Alex ude.ssamu|onidroba#ude.ssamu|onidroba
Boudreau, Tyler E. ude.ssamu.mmoc|uaerduob.relyt#ude.ssamu.mmoc|uaerduob.relyt
Burr-Miller, Allison ude.ssamu.mmoc|limrruba#ude.ssamu.mmoc|limrruba
Cadrette, Ryan R. ude.ssamu.mmoc|etterdacr#ude.ssamu.mmoc|etterdacr
Cerulli Tovar ude.ssamu.mmoc|illurect#ude.ssamu.mmoc|illurect
Changamire Mariama M. ude.ssamu.mmoc|magnahcm#ude.ssamu.mmoc|magnahcm
Cho, Sarah ude.ssamu.mmoc|ohcharas#ude.ssamu.mmoc|ohcharas
Choi Su Young ude.ssamu.mmoc|gnuoyus#ude.ssamu.mmoc|gnuoyus
Correa, Ellen ude.ssamu.mmoc|aerroce#ude.ssamu.mmoc|aerroce
Coryat, Diana M. ude.ssamu.mmoc|tayrocd#ude.ssamu.mmoc|tayrocd
D'Aprile, Matthew R ude.ssamu.mmoc|elirpadm#ude.ssamu.mmoc|elirpadm
Dinerstein, Anton ude.ssamu|nietsrenida#ude.ssamu|nietsrenida
Dorchak, Gregory J. ude.ssamu.mmoc|kahcrodg#ude.ssamu.mmoc|kahcrodg
Ge, Xinmei ude.ssamu.mmoc|iemnix#ude.ssamu.mmoc|iemnix
Glickman, Taos G. ude.ssamu.mmoc|amkcilgt#ude.ssamu.mmoc|amkcilgt
Gong, Yuan ude.ssamu.mmoc|gnauy#ude.ssamu.mmoc|gnauy
Han, Woori ude.ssamu.mmoc|nahw#ude.ssamu.mmoc|nahw
Hasan, Fadia ude.ssamu.mmoc|nasahf#ude.ssamu.mmoc|nasahf
Hernandez-Ojeda, Carmen ude.ssamu|jozednanrehc#ude.ssamu|jozednanrehc
Huling, Raymond E. ude.ssamu.mmoc|gniluhr#ude.ssamu.mmoc|gniluhr
Kepes , Gyuri S. ude.ssamu.mmoc|sepekg#ude.ssamu.mmoc|sepekg
Kim, Bohyeong ude.ssamu.mmoc|gnoeyhob#ude.ssamu.mmoc|gnoeyhob
Kim, Changwook moc.liamg|741ykcir#moc.liamg|741ykcir
Kim, D. Daniel ddk-at-comm.umass.edu
Kim, Dasol ude.ssamu|miksad#ude.ssamu|miksad
Kim, Gwangseok ude.ssamu.mmoc|oesgnawg#ude.ssamu.mmoc|oesgnawg
Laliberty, Ryan ude.ssamu|ytrebilalr#ude.ssamu|ytrebilalr
Lanthorn, Kylie ude.ssamu|nrohtnalk#ude.ssamu|nrohtnalk
Lee, Jung-Yup ude.ssamu.mmoc|eelyj#ude.ssamu.mmoc|eelyj
Lloyd, Alicya ude.ssamu.mmoc|dyolla#ude.ssamu.mmoc|dyolla
Locmele, Liene ude.ssamu.mmoc|elemcoll#ude.ssamu.mmoc|elemcoll
Lovegrove, Dawn ude.ssamu.mmoc|orgvold#ude.ssamu.mmoc|orgvold
Marmon, Sarah M. ude.ssamu.mmoc|nomrams#ude.ssamu.mmoc|nomrams
Martinez-Krawiec, Camille L ude.ssamu.mmoc|mellimac#ude.ssamu.mmoc|mellimac
Marty, Jillian A. ude.ssamu.mmoc|ytramj#ude.ssamu.mmoc|ytramj
McDowell, Zachary J. ude.ssamu.mmoc|lewodcmz#ude.ssamu.mmoc|lewodcmz
Mortensen, Taliah ude.ssamu|nesnetromt#ude.ssamu|nesnetromt
Myers, Brian ude.ssamu.mmoc|sreymhb#ude.ssamu.mmoc|sreymhb
Nayar, Kavita I. ude.ssamu.mmoc|rayank#ude.ssamu.mmoc|rayank
Nielsen, Elizabeth ude.ssamu|nesleine#ude.ssamu|nesleine
Nikoi, Nii ude.ssamu|iokinn#ude.ssamu|iokinn
Odabasi, Eren ude.ssamu.mmoc|isabadoe#ude.ssamu.mmoc|isabadoe
Olson, Christine J. ude.ssamu.mmoc|noslojc#ude.ssamu.mmoc|noslojc
Onut, Gamze ude.ssamu.mmoc|tunog#ude.ssamu.mmoc|tunog
Owens, James ude.ssamu|snewoej#ude.ssamu|snewoej
Pringle, Wendy J. ude.ssamu.mmoc|elgnirpw#ude.ssamu.mmoc|elgnirpw
Pu, Yong moc.oohay|gnoyup#moc.oohay|gnoyup
(Wortman) Raring, Lisa D. ude.ssamu.mmoc|namtrowl#ude.ssamu.mmoc|namtrowl
Rodriguez, Fernando A. ude.ssamu.mmoc|gidoraf#ude.ssamu.mmoc|gidoraf
Ross, Matt ude.ssamu|ssorm#ude.ssamu|ssorm
Ryabovolova, Alina M. ude.ssamu.mmoc|ovobayra#ude.ssamu.mmoc|ovobayra
Sabet, Mayar K. ude.ssamu.mmoc|tebaskm#ude.ssamu.mmoc|tebaskm
Sharling, Tenzin Dhardon ude.ssamu|gnilrahst#ude.ssamu|gnilrahst
Shavit, Nimrod ude.ssamu.mmoc|tivahsn#ude.ssamu.mmoc|tivahsn
Shrikant, Natasha ude.ssamu.mmoc|nakirhsn#ude.ssamu.mmoc|nakirhsn
Sibii, Razvan ude.ssamu.mmoc|navzar#ude.ssamu.mmoc|navzar
Stephenson, Ayshia ude.ssamu|nosnehpetsea#ude.ssamu|nosnehpetsea
Sul , EunSook moc.liamg|ewollue#moc.liamg|ewollue
Sutton, Timothy M.L ude.ssamu.mmoc|nottust#ude.ssamu.mmoc|nottust
Tao, Hui-Ping ude.ssamu.mmoc|oath#ude.ssamu.mmoc|oath
Thibault, Rachel L. ude.ssamu.mmoc|uabihtlr#ude.ssamu.mmoc|uabihtlr
Weinstein, Lisa E. ude.ssamu.mmoc|etsniewl#ude.ssamu.mmoc|etsniewl
Wemmer, Todd J. ude.ssamu.mmoc|remmewt#ude.ssamu.mmoc|remmewt
Yang, Jui-Kai ude.ssamu|gnayiakiuj#ude.ssamu|gnayiakiuj
Yin, Siyuan ude.ssamu.mmoc|nauyius#ude.ssamu.mmoc|nauyius
Yoo, Danbi ude.ssamu.mmoc|ooyd#ude.ssamu.mmoc|ooyd
Zenovich, Jennifer A. ude.ssamu.mmoc|hcivonezj#ude.ssamu.mmoc|hcivonezj