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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

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, LGBTQ civil rights movements and fascism.
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

Shu-Yi Chu
PhD student, 2019-present
PhD student, 2019-present
Areas of interest: genders and sexualities, Asian queer studies, Taiwan studies, postcoloniality,
U.S. imperialism, politics of knowledge production, theories of transnationalism
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
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.

Andy Eicher
PhD student, 2015-present
PhD student, 2015-present
Areas of Interest: queer and feminist theory; crip theory; critical disability studies;
neoliberalism; PrEP; gay/LGBT market; HIV/AIDS; queer visual cultures.
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.

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 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.
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 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, Black feminisms; Transnational Feminist activism;
Critical Migration/Mobility Studies; and Global Racialized Sexualities.
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 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
Callen Zimmerman
PhD student, 2020-present
Areas of Interest: Fashion Studies, Queer Theory, Alternative Histories, Disability / Crip Theory, Embodiment,
Interdisciplinary Studies
Full Profile & Office Hours
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

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

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 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

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 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

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