printer-friendly version

President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Recipients 2008–2009

Arts & Humanities

Michelle Armstrong-Partida

Education: B.S., Texas A&M University, Marine Biology; M.A., University of Iowa, History; Ph.D., University of Iowa, History

Dissertation: Misbehaving Clerics: Sexuality, Masculinity, and Pastoral Care in Fourteenth-Century Catalunya

Thesis Advisor: Constance Berman, Professor of History, University of Iowa

Research Topic: Priests and their Concubines: Clerical Families in Fourteenth-Century Catalunya

Mentor: Teofilo Ruíz, Professor of History, University of California, Los Angeles

Ofelia Ortiz Cuevas

Education: B.A., University of California, Berkeley, Interdisciplinary Studies; M.A., University of California, San Diego, Ethnic Studies; Ph.D., University of California, San Diego, Ethnic Studies

Dissertation: Mortifications of the Flesh:  Racial Discipline in a Time of Crisis

Thesis Advisor: Denise Ferreira Da Silva, Professor of Ethnic Studies, University of California, San Diego and Yen Le Espiritu, Professor of Ethnic Studies, University of California, San Diego

Research Topic: Visual Regimes of Punishment: The Racial Body, Crisis and the State

Mentor:   Dylan Rodriguez, Professor of Ethnic Studies, University of California, Riverside

Michelle Erai

Education: B.A., Victoria University, Sociology and Women's Studies; M.A., Victoria University, Social Science Research; Ph.D., University of California , Santa Cruz , History of Consciousness (Feminist Studies)

Dissertation: In the Shadow of Manaia: Colonial Narratives of Violence against Maori Women, 1820-1870

Thesis Advisor: Angela Y. Davis, Professor of History of Consciousness (Feminist Studies), University of California, Santa Cruz

Research Topic: E Rua, Wahine Whakataparepare: Two Framings of Maori Women – A Narrative Picture-book, and Mihiwera: Theorizing Violence in the Pacific

Mentor: Piya Chatterjee, Professor of Women's Studies, University of California, Riverside

David G. García

Education: B.A., University of California, Los Angeles, Sociology; M.A., University of California, Los Angeles, Latin American Studies; Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, U.S. History

Dissertation: The Evolution of a Critical Race Theater: Culture Clash and Chicana/o Performance Art, 1965-2005

Thesis Advisor: Juan Gómez-Quiñones, Professor of History, University of California, Los Angeles

Research Topic: Culture Clash: Critical Race Satire for Urgent Times

Mentor: George Lipsitz , Professor of Sociology and Black Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara

Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor

Education: B.A., Tufts University, English; M.A., Cornell University , History; Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara, History

Dissertation: “‘Jim Crow’ Cars, Passport Denials and Atlantic Crossings: African-American Travel, Protest and Citizenship at Home and Abroad, 1827-1865”

Thesis Advisor: Patricia Cline Cohen, Professor of History, University of California, Santa Barbara

Research Topic: “Disabled Citizenship,” African-American Mobility and the Debates over Black Citizenship before the Civil War. 

Mentor: Cheryl Harris, Professor of Law, University of California, Los Angeles

Hilda Mercedes Romero

Education: B.A., Barnard College, English; M.A., University of California, Berkeley, Ethnic Studies; Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, Ethnic Studies

Dissertation: Wonder's Collapse

Thesis Advisor: Jose David Saldivar, Professor of Ethnic Studies and English, University of California, Berkeley

Research Topic: “Still Life: Black Radical Movement and Courtroom Drawings, 1971”

Mentor: Gina Dent, Professor of Feminist Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz

Daphne Taylor-García

Education: B.A. (Honors), Trent University, Indigenous Studies/Cultural Studies; B.Ed., Queen's University, Concurrent Education; M.A., University of California, Berkeley, Ethnic Studies; Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, Comparative Ethnic Studies

Dissertation: The Emergence of Racial Schemas in the Americas: Sexuality, Sociogeny and Print Capital in the Sixteenth Century Atlantic

Thesis Advisor: Laura E. Perez, Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies, University of California, Berkeley

Research Topic: The Articulation of Geopolitical Difference in Early Colonial Nahuatl Print Culture

Mentor: Chela Sandoval, Professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara

Life Sciences

Jackelyn Alva

Education: B.S., University of California, Los Angeles, Cell and Molecular Biology; Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, Molecular Biology

Dissertation: Investigation of the contribution of the Notchl signaling pathway during vascular morphogenesis

Thesis Advisor: Luisa Iruela-Arispe, Professor of Molecular Biology, University of California, Los Angeles

Research Topic: Investigating the mechanisms that cause human embryonic stem cell transformation and the use of HESCs as a tumor model system

Mentor: April Pyle, Professor of Molecular, Cell & Developmental Biology, University of California, Los Angeles

Wesley G. Moons

Education: B.A., Boston College, Psychology; Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara, Psychology

Dissertation: Empathic Forecast Confirmation: Inducing Expected Emotions in Others

Thesis Advisor: Diane M. Mackie, Professor of Psychology and Communication, University of California, Santa Barbara

Research Topic: How cultural differences in cognitive processes influence estimates of others' stress response, which in turn determine the amount and type of social support provided and others' psychological and biological stress

Mentor: Shelley E. Taylor, Distinguished Professor of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles

Serena Moseman

Education: B.S., University of California, San Diego, Ecology, Behavior, Evolution; M.S., Scripps Institution of Oceanography (UC San Diego ), Oceanography; Ph.D., Scripps Institution of Oceanography (UC San Diego ), Oceanography

Dissertation: Diversity and function from the ground up: Microbial mediation of wetland plant structure and ecosystem function via nitrogen fixation

Thesis Advisor: Lisa A. Levin, Professor of Integrative Oceanography, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego

Research Topic: Denitrification and microbial diversity in coastal wetlands

Mentor: Patricia Holden, Professor of Environmental Science & Management, University of California, Santa Barbara

Mathematics, Engineering & Physical Sciences

Cullen R. Buie

Education: B.S., The Ohio State University, Mechanical Engineering; M.S., Stanford University, Mechanical Engineering; Ph.D., Stanford University, Mechanical Engineering

Dissertation: Application of Electroosmotic Pumps to Miniature Low Temperature Fuel Cells

Thesis Advisor: Juan G. Santiago, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford

Research Topic: Carbon Nanotube Enabled Energy Devices

Mentors: Liwei Lin, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley

Luis M. Campos

Education: B.S., California State University, Dominquez Hills, Chemistry; Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Dissertation: Light-Induced Processes in Organic Chemistry: Quantum Tunneling, Decarbonylations in Crystals, and Solar Cells

Thesis Advisors: Miguel A. Garcia-Garibay, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles and K. N. Houk, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles

Research Topic: Robust, Efficient, and Orthogonal Materials Platforms: From Biomedical to Energy Applications

Mentors: Craig J. Hawker, Professor of Materials, University of California, Santa Barbara and Dennis O. Clegg, Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara

Sukanya Chakrabarti

Education: B.A., North Carolina State University , Physics, Philosophy; M.A., Georgia Institute of Technology, Physics; Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, Physics, Astrophysics

Dissertation: Spectral Energy Distributions of Embedded Protostars and Dusty Galaxies

Thesis Advisor: Christopher F. McKee, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley

Research Topic: The Dynamical and Photometric Evolution of Galaxies

Mentor: Leo Blitz, Professor of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley

Luis Velarde

Education: B.S., Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, Engineering Physics; M.S., New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Physics; Ph.D., University of Arizona, Chemistry

Dissertation: Photoinitiated Dynamics of Cluster Anions via Photoelectron Imaging and Photofragment Mass Spectrometry

Thesis Advisor: Andrei Sanov, Professor of Chemistry, The University of Arizona, Tucson

Research Topic: Molecule-surface scattering with velocity controlled molecular beams

Mentor: Alec Wodtke, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Santa Barbara

Michael J. Williams

Education: B.S., University of Georgia , Athens , Mathematics; M.A., University of Georgia, Athens, Mathematics; Ph.D., University of California, Davis, Mathematics

Dissertation: Lens Space Surgeries on Tunnel Number One Knots

Thesis Advisor: Abigail Thompson, Professor of Mathematics, University of California, Davis

Research Topic: Dehn Surgery and Genus Two Heegaard Splittings

Mentor: Martin Scharlemann, Professor of Mathematics, University of California, Santa Barbara

Social Sciences 

Leisy Abrego

Education: B.A., Pomona College, Spanish; M.A., University of California, Los Angeles, Sociology; Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, Sociology

Dissertation: Barely Subsisting, Surviving, or Thriving: How Parents' Legal Status and Gender Shape the Economic and Emotional Well-Being of Salvadoran Transnational Families

Thesis Advisors: Rebecca Jean Emigh, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles and Vilma Ortiz, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles

Research Topic: Effects of Parents' Legal Status on Children Growing Up in Mixed-Status Families in the U.S.

Mentor: Leo Chavez, Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Irvine

Chelsea Blackmore

Education: B.A., Georgia Southern University, Anthropology; M.A., Florida State University, Anthropology; Ph.D., University of California, Riverside, Anthropology

Dissertation: Challenging “Commoner”: An Archaeological Examination of Social Identity and Class Formation at the Northeast Group, Chan, Belize

Thesis Advisor: Wendy Ashmore, Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Riverside

Research Topic: “Queerying” Ancient Maya Archeology: The Application of Critical Social Theory to Class and Identity Formation

Mentor: Rosemary Joyce, Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley

Marne Campbell

Education: B.A., University of California, Los Angeles , History & Afro-American Studies; M.A., University of California, Los Angeles, Afro-American Studies; Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, History

Dissertation: Heaven's Ghetto?: African Americans and Race in Los Angeles, 1870s-1910

Thesis Advisor: Brenda E. Stevenson, Professor of History and Afro-American Studies, University of California, Los Angeles

Research Topic: Heaven's Ghetto: Race, Class, and Revival in Turn of the Century Los Angeles

Mentor: Vincent Franklin, Distinguished Professor of History and Education, University of California, Riverside

Elisabeth Middleton

Education: B.A., University of California, Davis, Nature and Culture; Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management: Division of Society and Environment

Dissertation: “We Were Here, We Are Here, We Will Always Be Here”: A Political Ecology of Healing in Mountain Maidu Country

Thesis Advisor: Louise Fortmann, Professor of Environmental Science, Policy & Management, University of California, Berkeley

Research Topic: “Spaces of Representation and Resistance: Mapping Maidu Land Divestiture and the Characteristics of Maidu Activism” (the parallels between hydroelectric development and setting aside lands for conservation in terms of their affects on Maidu land ownership and Maidu activism for the lands)

Mentor: Ben Orlove, Professor of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California, Davis

Althea Scott Nixon

Education: B.A., Harvard University, Psychology; M.S., University of Pennsylvania, Education; Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, Education

Dissertation: From their own Voices: Understanding Youth Identity and Literacy Practices through Digital Storytelling

Thesis Advisor: Kris D. Gutierrez, Professor of Education & Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles

Research Topic: Understanding Technology Adoption at the Community Level: Youth Engagement with Digital Media in Urban Community Technology Centers

Mentor: Michael Cole, University Professor of Communication, Psychology, and Human Development, University of California, San Diego

Lilia Soto

Education: B.A., University of California, San Diego, Ethnic Studies/Latin American Studies; M.A., University of California, Berkeley, Ethnic Studies; Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, Ethnic Studies

Dissertation: Migration as a Matter of Time: Perspectives from Mexican Immigrant Adolescent Girls in California's Napa Valley

Thesis Advisors: Patricia Penn Hilden, Professor Emeritus of Ethnic Studies, University of California, Berkeley and George Lipsitz, Professor of Sociology and Black Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara

Research Topic: Shifting Identities of Mexican Immigrant Adolescent Girls, Time and Migration, Mexican Immigrants and Chicana/o Identities

Mentor: Abel Valenzuela, Jr., Professor of Chicana/o Studies, University of California, Los Angeles