Past Program Participants
Learn about the SSRC Dissertation Proposal Development Program from past program participants.
Video
Participants describe their experiences in the DPD program.
Past Participants
- Nathanael Lapierre, Art History
- “It must be marble”: Marble, Bronze, and Race in Nineteenth-Century
Martinique
- “It must be marble”: Marble, Bronze, and Race in Nineteenth-Century
- Jojo Galvan Mora, History
- Making a Mexican [Mid]west: Suburban Communities and Transnational Identities in Cicero, Illinois
- Marsae Lynette, Performance Studies
- "Reconnecting Currents: Reclaiming Diasporic Memory and Stewardship in the Face of Global Environmental Crisis"
- Walker West Brewer, Media, Technology, and Society
- Zugzwang: A cross-national study examining inter-state migration practices of LGBTQ+ individuals within the United States and European Union
- Kenneth W. Salter, History
- "The Fight for a More Equitable State: Black Political Activism in Missouri from Slavery to Reconstruction."
- Kahlil Oatis, Black Studies
- Dissertation Title TBD
- Sophia Elzie, Comparative Literary Studies
- (Re)locating Tragedy: Antigone, Oedipus, and Medea on Chicago’s Stages
- Pia Rodriguez, Music
- Musical Hagiography, Iconography, and Devotions surrounding St.Michael the Archangel in Northern Italy and the Gargano, ca. 1500-1700
- Nevena Stanic, Music
- Minimalist and Early Music Crossings: Paul Hillier’s Timbral Agency in the Music of Pérotin, Steve Reich, and Arvo Pärt (1980s–1990s)
- Hyerim Hong, Spanish and Portuguese
- Cuidados migrantes (Migrant Cares): Negotiating Care in Asian Spanish Art and Activism
- Youssef Boucetta, Comparative Literary Studies
- Interstitial Vernaculars: Poetics of Youth in Moroccan-Iberian Literature
- Livia Arantes, Screen Cultures
- Writing Her Way In: Women Screenwriters Forging Lesbian Identity in Brazilian Television (From Broadcast to Streaming)
- Oana Delia Alexan Katz, Spanish and Portuguese
- Feeling Ancestral: Genealogies Unbound in Spain’s Post-migrant Im/material Heritage
- Nora Alami, Performance Studies
- Liminal Alterity: Eros and Diaspora in Experimental Performance
- Jorge Ochoa, Sociology
- When States Defy Science: Genealogy of a Policy Problem and the Pandemic Turning Point
- Lauren Johnson, English
- The Multifarious Sounds of Expatriation: Black Transnational Sonic Counter Reactions from The Harlem Renaissance to the Present
- Rebecca Ann Lawrence, Human Development and Social Policy
- Identity in Transition: The Role of Higher Education in Shaping the Identity Development and Mental Health Outcomes of Socioeconomic and Ethnic-Racially Marginalized Students
- Andres Mendieta, Spanish and Portuguese
- Towards a Genealogy of Trans masculinities at fin de siècle Latin America
- Gillian Hemme, Theatre & Drama
- Reclaiming the Body: Performance in and about the Twentieth-Century Catholic Carcerality of Ireland's Magdalene Laundries
- Angad Singh, English
- Punjab: Region, History, Gender, Sexuality
- Eva Rubens Célem, Communication Studies
- Imagining a New Democratic Horizon: The Shadow of the Military Dictatorship (1964-85) in the Contemporary Political Life of Brazilian Women
- Semiu Adegbenle, History
- Translating Ethnicity and Identity Politics in Togolese Yorubaland, 1764-2009
- Bradley Davey, Learning Sciences
- Science in the Wild: Ethnographic Investigations of Everyday Science
- Eden Melles, Political Science
- Who's Black Enough? Migration, Ethnicity, & the Transnational Politics of the African Disapora
- Vivian Tompkins, Musicology
- “Ravish’d With Sacred Ecstasies”: Domestic Devotional Music-Making among Women in England, c. 1700
- Archita Arun, Performance Studies
- Resonant Bodies: Listening to Queer Diaspora
- Izzak Novak, Religious Studies
- “Not Going Hunting Feels like not Calling My Mother”: An Ethnography of the Religious, Gendered, and Political Valences of White Settler Hunting in the US
- Melanie Muskin, Human Development and Social Policy
- Mobilization in Pursuit of Professional Dignity: Teachers as Political Actors during the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Kayla Boyden, English
- (Dis)appeared women: Literary Representations of the Black Women in African American Literature from Black Arts to Black Lives Matter
- Jan Michael, History
- “A Tension Between Order and Liberty:” The FBI Confronts Political Extremists, 1976 to 1998
- Iolanthe Brooks, Sociology
- My Friends are My Family: Cultivating, Leaning On, and Struggling with Friendships in Prison Reentry
- Mounica Sreesai Vegi, Anthropology
- The Gender of the Union? Women’s Labor Politics in Visakhapatnam, India
- Myera Rashid, Economics
- Engine of Intergenerational Mobility: Typewriter Adoption and Women's Economic Outcomes
- Andy Acosta, Rhetoric, Media, and Publics
- The Looney Bin: A Qualitative Methods Analysis on Madness and Oppression in Hip Hop
- Miguel Chavez, Sociology
- Luchando con Machismo: A Transnational Analysis of the Cultural Production and Reception of Hybrid Masculinities
- Alex Baines, Interdisciplinary Program in Theatre and Drama (SoC)
- Escape in Time: Performance, Reinscription, and Empire in Heritage Aesthetic Sites.
- Ray Buckner, Religious Studies (WCAS)
- Touching, Buddhist, Bodies: Formations of Queer and Trans Buddhism in Bangkok
- Valeria Chávez Roncal, Music (Bienen)
- Selective Musical Celebrations: Negotiating Indigeneity in Peruvian Cumbia Fusion Music
- Alison Choi, History (WCAS)
- Korean Diasporic Joy: Art and Community Activism in the Twenty-First Century
- Ashleigh Deosaran, Art History (WCAS)
- Atmospheric Aesthetics and Contemporary Art: Collaborations and Conversations with/in Anglophone Caribbean Artist Collectives
- Hannah Feiner, Communication Sciences and Disorders (SoC)
- Barriers and Facilitators of Spanish-Dominant Caregivers’ Involvement in Early Intervention: Integrating Provider, Caregiver, and Interpreter Perspectives
- Maura Fennelly, Sociology (WCAS)
- Boundary-making via Residential Organizations: The Formation, Routines, and Outcomes of Homeowners’ Associations
- Julio Garcia Solares, Anthropology (WCAS)
- Cultural Productions and Placemaking within Latinx Hardcore Punk Music Scenes in Los Angeles County
- Jiwon Jung, Slavic Languages and Literatures (WCAS)
- Picturing beyond the Boundaries: The Question of Mental Illness Represented in A. Chekhov’s Literary Works
- Daisy Donaji Matias, Performance Studies (SoC)
- The Body Does Not Exist: Imagining Alternate Corporealities
- Charlotte Mencke, Political Science (WCAS)
- “Thought Has No Mothers but Only Fathers” – Gender, Tragedy, and Representation in the Work of Christa Wolf
- Govind Narayan Ponnuchamy, English (WCAS)
- Residues of Victorian Energy – Transhistorical and Transimperial Energy Regimes in Late Victorian Empire and Independent India
- Eduardo Ramirez Bello, Spanish and Portuguese (WCAS)
- Miraculous Development: Modern Visual Cultures in Mexico (1940s-1970s)
- Tayler Scriber, Screen Cultures (SoC)
- Is This All There Is?: Interstitial Space, Historicity, and Race in Media
- Soumya Rachel Shailendra, Comparative Literary Studies (WCAS)
- Transing Blackness: Race, Caste, and Colorism in Contemporary Dalit Writings
- Mustafa Siddiqui, African American Studies (WCAS)
- Trans* Synthetics: Black Immaterial Praxis and the Politics of Gender Authenticity
- Andrew Stein, Human Development and Social Policy (SESP)
- “Straight” As: Accountability, Abstinence, and Anti-WOKEness in K-12 Education Policy
- Marquis Taylor, History (WCAS)
- “In Pursuit of Democracy:” African American Youth Movements during the Interwar Period 1876-1945
- Andrew Barrett, Music (Bienen)
- Transatlantic Musical Networks and United States-Spanish Relations during the Early Cold War
- Syd Gonzalez, Anthropology (WCAS)
- Latinx Productions of Masculinity: Embodiments of Masculinity through Material Culture in Houston, TX
- Fortunate Kelechi Ekwuruke, Human Development and Social Policy (SESP)
- More than a Home: The Role of Housing Insecurity in Shaping Adolescent Development Trajectories
- Claudia Kinahan, Interdisciplinary PhD in Theatre and Drama (SoC)
- Virtual Women: Intersections of Performance, Gender, and Labour in New Media Technologies
- Monique Newton, Political Science (WCAS)
- Worst Behavior: How State Sanctioned Traumatic Events Impact Local Political Participation of Black Neighborhoods in the United States
- Aoi Saito, History (WCAS)
- Contesting Welfare in Red-light Districts: Women's Networks, Self-Protection, and Public Health in Japan 1925 to 1965
- Jennifer Dibbern, Linguistics (WCAS)
- Raciolinguistic ideologies within a Chicago Latinx community: How social information shapes language perception and use in bilinguals
- Sarah Dwider, Art History (WCAS)
- Traveling Artists, Traveling Idioms: Egyptian Artist and Formative Spheres of Artistic and Diplomatic Exchange, 1952-1970
- Sophie Reilly, Anthropology (WCAS)
- Cooking Meals and Creating Resilience: Examining Food Security in Transconquest Peru
- Jesse Rothbard, Spanish and Portuguese (WCAS)
- De las ruinas de Sodoma: Queer Survival and Resistance in Latin American Narratives of Crime (1900-1940s)
- Luna Vincent White, Sociology (WCAS)
- The Master's Tools: Whiteness and Racial Framing in U.S. Black Freedom Movements
- Erique Zhang, Media, Technology, and Society (SoC)
- Looking Trans and Being Beautiful: Understanding Conceptions of Beauty among Transgender Women and Femmes
- Jaime Benheim, Linguistics (WCAS)
- The Sociolinguistic Construction of White Ethnic Identity at a Chicago Catholic High School
- Sarah J. Breiter, Anthropology (WCAS)
- Building Landscapes in West Suffolk: Human-Environmental Relations during the Feudal to Capitalist Transition
- Austin Bryan, Anthropology (WCAS)
- Sexuality, Gender, and Law: Unequal Regimes of Living and Dying in the East Africa Federation
- Rikki Byrd, African American Studies (WCAS)
- In Loving Memory: Performance and the Sartorial Politics of Black Mourning
- Mian Chen, History (WCAS)
- Propagandists and the Making of the Communist Propaganda Network (1921-1965)
- Jennifer Rose Cowhy, Human Development and Social Policy (SESP)
- Special Education Policy: What is the Current State of Education Policy? And, How Did We Get Here?
- Ashley P. Ferrell, Rhetoric and Public Culture/Communication Studies (SoC)
- Accounting for University Pasts: Institutional Legacies, Memory Practices, and Contemporary Modes of Redress
- Prince Grace, Sociology (WCAS)
- Racial Calibrations: Constructing “Racial Discrimination” in the International Human Rights Regime
- Bethany Hill, Art History (WCAS)
- Space and the Image(inary): Black Feminist World Building and Theory as Praxis in the United States (1965-1985)
- Emily Lyon, History (WCAS)
- Domesticating Difference: White Women, Visual and Material Culture, and U.S. Empire, 1870-1930
- Emily Masincup, Music (Bienen)
- Signaling Sirens: Representations of the Monstrous Vocal Female in Mexican Horror and Fantasy Cinema
- Myrna Moretti, Screen Cultures (SoC)
- Everyday Cyborg: Embodiment and Emerging Consumer Technology in Popular Representations of Everyday Life (1980-2000)
- Yasmin Silvia Portales-Machado, Spanish and Portuguese (WCAS)
- Those Families Will Be Queer: Familial Bonds and Sexualities in Cuban Science Fiction Literature and Their Relationship to Political Thought
- Risa Puleo, Art History (WCAS)
- The Disorder of Things: Unsettling Western Collections with Indigenous Cosmologies
- Qi Song, Sociology (WCAS)
- “Data as the New Oil”? Uncovering Data Production in the Artificial Intelligence Industry as a Social Process
- Enzo Vasquez Toral, Performance Studies (SoC)
- Cuir Devotion: Queer and Trans Engagement in the Andean Patron-Saint Fiesta
- Cinnamon Williams, African American Studies (WCAS)
- Another Kind of Slavery: Black Feminist Maternal Refusal in the Era of Black Power
- Anna Zalokostas, English (WCAS)
- Counternarratives of Globalization: Domestic Labor, Internationalism, and Multiethnic Literature in the 1990s
- Enrique Alvear, University of Illinois at Chicago, Sociology
- Circuits of Neoliberalization: Gang Enforcement in Chicago and Santiago, Chile
- Claire Arnold, Northwestern University, History (WCAS)
- The Intimacy of Distance: British Families Around the World, 1780-1914
- Jessy Bell, Northwestern University, Art History (WCAS)
- A View of the World to Come: Spatializing Futures and Revolutionary Hope in Soviet and Yugoslav Architecture and Urban Planning (1922–1974)
- Allena G. Berry, Northwestern University, Learning Sciences (SESP)
- Historical Imagination in History Classrooms: How Ideology Mediates the Narratives We Construct about the Past, Present, and Future
- Andrew Born, University of Illinois at Chicago, Urban Planning and Policy
- Race, Place, and Collaboration: Understanding Urban Governance in Chicago during the Great Black Exodus
- Marissa Croft, Northwestern University, Communication Studies/Rhetoric and Public Culture (SoC)
- State of Dress: Rhetorically Fashioning the Ideal Republican Citizen in France, 1789–1799
- Bright Gyamfi, Northwestern University, History (WCAS)
- Ghanaian Intellectuals and the Global Development of African Studies, 1966–1992
- Kévin Irakóze, University of Chicago, Philosophy
- Impersonal Forms of Justice
- Benjamin Jones, Northwestern University, Art History (WCAS)
- What We Cain't Do: Pedagogy and the Art of Charles White, Elizabeth Catlett, and Dewey Crumpler.
- Mendel Kranz, University of Chicago, Religious Studies
- In the Shadows of Colonialism: Jewish and Postcolonial Identity in 20th-Century France
- Yujie Li, University of Chicago, History
- Wheels and Sweat: Bicycles, Wheelbarrows and Horse-drawn Carts in the Everyday Life of Socialist China, 1949-1976
- Gervais Marsh, Northwestern University, Performance Studies (SoC)
- A Wi Seh Slackness: Exploring Representations of Sexualities in the Queer Caribbean
- Julissa Muñiz, Northwestern University, Human Development and Social Policy (SESP)
- “I Don't Think Any Kid Should Be Here”: Schooling and Learning in the Carceral Context
- Idil Ozkan, Northwestern University, Anthropology (WCAS)
- Jewish Memory in Spain: Language Ideologies, Citizenship, Homeland
- Kenneth Pass, Northwestern University, Sociology (WCAS)
- Diagnosing Blackness: AIDS, Science, and the Evolution of Black Politics
- Matthew Peterson, University of Chicago, Religious Studies
- Suspension of Belief: The Religious Afterlives of Phenomenology and Psychoanalysis
- José L. Ramirez, University of Illinois at Chicago, Latin America and the Caribbean History
- The Ultimate Expression of Revolution, War: The Initial Years of the Salvadoran Civil War (1980-1983)
- Kaelin Rapport, Northwestern University, Anthropology (WCAS)
- Health in the Carceral Capital: Lived Experiences of Black Men in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Sangi Ravichandran, University of Illinois at Chicago, Sociology
- Racializing the Human Genome: The Development of DNA from an Evidentiary to a Surveillance Tool
- Catalina Rodriguez, Northwestern University, Spanish and Portuguese (WCAS)
- Writing Like a Woman: Gendered Pseudonyms in Nineteenth-century Latin America (1830-1899)
- Angela Tate, Northwestern University, History (WCAS)
- "You Got to Disturb the Peace When You Can't Get No Peace": Race, Citizenship, and Aesthetics of Black Womanhood in the Global Freedom Struggle, 1919-1994
- Benjamin Weissman, Northwestern University, Musicology/Music (Bienen)
- “Simply Voice, Human Voice”: Extending and Disassembling Voice in Institutions of Musical Experimentation, ca. 1971-1985
- Jacob Wilkenfeld, Northwestern University, Spanish and Portuguese (WCAS)
- Diasporic Stories: Cultural Hybridity in Jewish-Brazilian and Jewish-American Fiction Since 1940
- Benjamin Zender, Northwestern University, Performance Studies (SoC)
- Queer, Black, Feminist Trash: Abject Object Orientations and Collecting Communities
- Eduardo Acosta Gonzalez, University of Chicago, South Asian Languages and Civilizations
- Nabadvip Lost and Found: Towards a Textual History of the Nadia Raj in Bengal, 17th - 18th centuries
- Brandon Alston, Northwestern University, Sociology (WCAS)
- Cradle to the Grave: Tracing the Perilous Surveillance That Constrains Black Boys’ Gender and Sexualities
- Anjni Amin, Northwestern University, Music Theory and Cognition (Bienen), Cognitive Science Certificate
- Conceptualizing Expressive Musical Performance: Skills, Representations, and Learning
- Christopher Anderson, University of Illinois at Chicago, History
- The Environmental History of Outdoor Ministry, 1945-2007
- Blair Bainbridge, University of Chicago, Joint Degree in Anthropology and Conceptual & Historical Studies of Science
- Habitability: Speculative Science and the Planetary Present
- Colin Bos, Northwestern University, History (WCAS), Science in Human Culture Cluster
- The Book of Healing: Writing, Orality, and the Transformation of Yorùbá Medical Culture, 1840-1980
- Olivia Cacchione, Northwestern University, Musicology (Bienen)
- "A Perfect Rainbow of Sound": Musical Mediumship and the Experience of the Supernatural in British and American Spiritualism, ca. 1850-1920
- Jayme Collins, Northwestern University, English (WCAS), Poetry and Poetics Cluster
- In Situ: Climactic Materiality, Archival Environments, Artefactual Poetics, 1945-2017
- Lucia Delaini, Northwestern University, Rhetoric and Public Culture (SoC), Critical Theory Cluster
- Ready-Minds: Rhetorical Technologies of Self and Others in Early Modern Italy
- Erin Eife, University of Illinois at Chicago, Sociology
- Freed Without Freedom: Surveillance and Mechanisms of Control for People on Pretrial Release
- Sarah M. Estrela, Northwestern University, Art History (WCAS), Global Avant-garde and Modernist Studies Cluster
- Visualizing the Future: The Art of Lusophone Africa in Its Struggle for Independence
- Isaac Ginsberg Miller, Northwestern University, African American Studies (WCAS), Poetry and Poetics Cluster
- Beware the Dog: Contemporary Black Poetry Collectives and the Question(s) of Community
- Claire Hautot, University of Chicago, The Divinity School/Religious Studies
- God’s Plan for the South: Religion, Politics, and Memory in Mississippi
- James Howard Hill Jr., Northwestern University, Religious Studies (WCAS), Comparative Race and Diaspora Cluster
- “What Does Webster Say About Soul?”: Black Popular Culture, Religion, and the Poetics of the Political
- LaShaya Howie, University of Chicago, Anthropology
- Funeralized: Death Work & Mourning on Chicago’s South Side
- Nathalia Justo, Northwestern University, Political Science (WCAS)
- The Politics of Natural Disasters: Narrating Displacement and Asylum Claims in the “New World”
- Alicia Vanessa Nunez, Northwestern University, Spanish & Portuguese (WCAS), Latin American and Caribbean Studies Cluster
- Viajar sin referencia: Sounds of Becoming, Places of Belonging in Latinx Literature & Soundscapes
- Salih Nur, Northwestern University, Political Science (WCAS), Comparative and Historical Social Science Cluster, African Studies Cluster
- The Legacies of Liberation: Critical Junctures and Regime Development in Postcolonial Africa
- Jennifer Porter-Lupu, Northwestern University, Anthropology (WCAS), Gender and Sexuality Studies Cluster
- Drugs, Drag, and Decadence: An Archaeology of Queer Care in 1920s Washington, DC
- Caterina Scalvedi, University of Illinois at Chicago, History
- Education in Italian Colonialism (1880s-1940s)
- Mine Tafolar, University of Illinois at Chicago, Political Science
- Divergent or Convergent Paths of Populism?: Disentangling Social Policy in Erdogan's Turkey and the Kirchners' Argentina
- Keegan Terek, Northwestern University, Anthropology (WCAS), Middle East and North African Studies Cluster, Gender and Sexuality Studies Cluster
- The Language of Queer Asylum in Amman, Jordan
- Anthony Topoleski, Northwestern University, Slavic Languages and Literatures (WCAS)
- Developing Reality: Nature, Technology, and the Soviet State in Russian Metarealist Poetry
- Wara Urwasi, Northwestern University, Sociology (WCAS)
- The Planner and the Poor: Varieties of Planning Culture and Urban Exclusion in the Global South
- Morgan Clark, Department of Sociology (WCAS); Gender and Sexuality Studies Cluster
- “Skanks Need to Pay with Their Lives”: Sexual Harassment in Online Communities
- Gideon Cohn-Postar, Department of History (WCAS)
- “Mind How You Vote, Boys”: Economic Intimidation and the Construction of an Illiberal Political Culture, 1873-1900
- Maria de Simone, Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Theatre and Drama (Department of Theatre, SoC); Gender and Sexuality Studies Cluster and Certificate
- Exchanging Race, Connecting Culture: Racial and Ethnic Impersonations on the Chicago Vaudeville Stage, 1897-1924
- Thomas Love, Department of Art History (WCAS); Critical Theory Cluster
- “Could Fairies Be Socialists?”: Left Radicalism and Alternative Sexualities in Berlin, 1968-1989
- Jahara “Franky” Matisek, Department of Political Science (WCAS); Program of African Studies
- Strong Militaries in Weak States: An alternative path to state-building in Africa?
- Bennie Niles, Department of African American Studies (WCAS); Gender and Sexuality Studies Cluster
- Changing the Game: Black Athletes, Sports Cultures, and the Dilemma of Black Gender
- Zachary Nissen, Department of Anthropology (WCAS); Latin American and Caribbean Studies Certificate; Gender and Sexuality Studies Certificate
- Negotiating Change: Histories of Everyday Life at Aventura, Belize.
- William Richardson, Department of Sociology (WCAS)
- The Urban Settler Colonial Present: Racial Residential Segregation and White Settlers' Relationship to Land
- Vanessa Tonelli, Musicology Program (Bienen); Gender and Sexuality Studies Cluster
- Early Modern Music, Politics, and Gender at the Venetian Ospedali Grandi: A New Perspective on the All-Female Musical Ensembles
- Cintia Vezzani, Department of Spanish and Portuguese (WCAS); Critical Theory Cluster
- Shared Secrets, Public Lies: The Crisis of Marriage in Turn-of-the-Century Brazilian Literature
- Brianna White, Department of Political Science (WCAS); Comparative and Historical Social Science (CHSS) Cluster
- Locked In: How Inmates Influence the Political Behavior of State Legislators
- Guangshuo Yang, Department of History (WCAS); Gender and Sexuality Studies Cluster; Asian Studies Graduate Cluster
- Defining Animals, Building the Chinese Nation: The Invention, Discipline, and Protection of Non-Human Beings in 20th Century China