PhD Career Pathways

Participating organizations and internship positions for the 2024-2025 PhD Career Pathways Fellowship can be found below.

Affirma Consulting

• Mixed Methods Researcher
• UX Researcher

I’m From Driftwood

• Digital Content & Social Media Strategist

Innovative Learning Center

• Program Evaluation Analyst

RWE Clean Energy

• Talent Management Graduate Intern

Sol to Soul Harvest Foundation

• Social Justice Research Analyst

Texas Career Engagement

• Graduate Consultant, First Gen Programming

Texas Folklife

• Assistant Production Coordinator

Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board

• Data Analyst

Voces Oral History Center

• Content Developer

Applications Open – June 3, 2024

Applications Close – June 30, 2024

Interview with PhD Career Pathways Team – July 8 – July 12, 2024

Final Decisions Announced – July 26, 2024

Onboarding – August 12 – 16, 2024

Fellowship start date – September 2, 2024

Applications Now Closed for Fall 2024

Applicants must meet the following criteria:

• Current doctoral student at UT Austin. Contact Colleen Gleeson with any questions.
• Enrolled as a full-time student (at least 9 credit hours) during the 2024-25 academic year.
• Able to be employed for at least 10 hours during both the Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 semesters.
• In good academic standing with approval from academic/graduate advisor.

Virtual Info session – June 6, 2024 | 12:00-1:00 p.m.

Virtual Info session – June 20, 2024 | 12:00-1:00 p.m.

Learn more about the program and hear from past fellows, by watching the recorded PhD Career Pathways info session.

Bhoopali Keshav Nandurkar

Talent Management Graduate Intern, RWE Clean Energy

Bhoopali Keshav Nandurkar is a 5th Year PhD candidate in the Department of Communication Studies at Moody College of Communication. Bhoopali has earned a master’s degree in communication studies from North Carolina State University. She is also an international student from India who has nurtured a life-long dream to earn a doctorate from a world-class university in the US. Her research interests span organizational communication, supply chain management, critical-cultural ethnography, globalization, transparency, and use of communication and information technologies in organizations. Besides research, she is passionate about teaching in higher education and improving her pedagogical profile. Bhoopali aims to build a career centered around training and development, inclusive pedagogy, and continue research focusing on organizational policies and structures with a goal to uphold values of equity, sustainability, and empowerment.

Catalina Vasquez

Data Analyst, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board

Catalina Vasquez is a doctoral student in Higher Education Leadership and Policy. Her research focuses on enhancing data-informed policy decisions regarding labor market returns and degree completion rates in postsecondary education attainment. In addition, she examines dual enrollment pathways between high schools and community colleges, how community college students respond to state and institutional transfer policies, and labor market returns to different types of postsecondary degrees and noncredit programs. Her research has been funded by the Greater Texas Foundation. Catalina earned her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a Master’s in Public Policy from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. She has several years of experience as an analyst in the State of California, including her most recent role as a Strategic Enrollment Data Analyst for Cal Poly. During her master’s studies, she had the privilege of delivering a keynote address on Emerging Issues in Higher Education at the Western Political Science Association Conference.

Daniel Miranda

Content Developer, Voces Oral History Center

Daniel Miranda is a PhD student in sociocultural anthropology, specializing in the rhythms of aging and care on the U.S.-Mexico border. His research interests focus on healthcare disparities, social equity, and the intersection of cultural practices and health outcomes in Latino communities. Drawing from an interdisciplinary background in anthropology, Latin American studies, and sociology, Daniel approaches research not as work, but rather, as a vocation. His commitment to understanding the nuances of culture and humanity impassion him to amplify diverse voices, particularly those on the fringe of society, to serve as a conduit for the preservation of cultural narratives. His professional goals include contributing to academic discourse on aging and healthcare in border regions, developing innovative approaches to ethnographic research, and bridging the gap between academic insights and practical applications in community health.

Diego Salinas Yee

Assistant Production Coordinator, Texas Folklife

Diego Salinas Yee is a current PhD student in ethnomusicology at the University of Texas at Austin whose research focuses on Chinese diasporas within Latin America. His dissertation work is focused on the intersections of sound, ethnic identity, and performance within Chinese lion dance groups in Lima, Peru. His work seeks to further the field of Asian-American studies within Latin American studies while also borrowing from tourism and performance studies. Diego hopes to continue his career after UT in academia or working within the non-profit sector to educate the public on cultural anthropology.

Kate Nelson

Graduate Consultant for First-Generation Programming, Texas Career Engagement

Kate is a 7th year PhD candidate in French Studies. She holds a BFA in Film Production from Chapman University and an MA in Francophone Language and Literature from California State University Long Beach. Previous to arriving at UT, Kate spent eight years as a university lecturer, study abroad program director, and virtual language lab director. Her research focuses on intertextual networks between well-known French 19th-century literary works and 21st-century literary and cinematic works in the banlieue genre. She also publishes on inclusive practices in the French language classroom as a White professor. After completing her PhD in Spring 2025, she plans to transition to a career in Project Management, as she has over five years of experience in this area.

Pelin Cunningham-Erdogdu

UX Researcher, Affirma Consulting

Pelin Cunningham-Erdogdu (she/her) is a 5th year PhD candidate in the Psychology Department. Her current research interests center on the psychology of identity, power, and humor. She uses traditional research methods (e.g., surveys, behavioral experiments) as well as data scraping and natural language processing techniques to understand online behavior and shifts in political attitudes. After completing her PhD, she will pursue a consulting career in the public or private sector.

Rachel Caldwell Hill

Digital Content & Social Media Strategist, I’m From Driftwood

Rachel Caldwell Hill is a Cherokee creator, anthropologist, and storyteller. She is a PhD student in Sociocultural Anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin, where her research concerns Native American & Indigenous studies, photography, nonhuman ethnography, place, and geopolitical action. She is also a freelance writer and photographer specializing in portraits, brands, and weddings. Rachel has published articles, photos, and more content with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine, the North American Falconer Association, and Keep Texas Beautiful. A double Baylor graduate, Rachel specialized in Marketing and Studio Art before graduating Summa Cum Laude with her Master’s in Communication – Rhetoric. She is a certified Death Doula, Nature Guide, and Master Naturalist. In her off hours, Rachel enjoys comedy, fishing, and gardening.

Sydney Okland

Program Evaluation Analyst, Innovative Learning Center

Sydney is a 4th year PhD student in the Psychology Department. Her primary research interest is the rejector’s perspective during a social rejection; more specifically, she is interested in studying the language rejectors use during a social rejection, with the ultimate goal of being able to provide advice about what to say while socially rejecting. Sydney hopes to continue to use and develop her research skills to make a difference for others in an education or mental health-related role.

Amanda Smith

Social Justice Research Analyst, Sol to Soul Harvest Foundation

Amanda is a second-year PhD student in the Language and Literacy Studies program in the College of Education. Before starting at UT Austin, Amanda was a public school educator for eight years. She taught middle school math and English to emerging bi/multilingual students. Amanda’s academic research interests are centered around home, school, and community partnerships for emerging bi/multilingual students. She is passionate about collaborating with families and listening to their stories. In the future, she hopes to continue working to build strong partnerships between schools and their communities.

Emily Green

Archive Fellow at ZACH Theatre

Emily is a sixth year PhD candidate in Performance as Public Practice. Her dissertation research focuses on the phenomenology of digital theatre spectatorship. Other research interests include theatre practice and history, cultural and media studies, and pedagogy. She is also an active theatre maker and and holds an MFA in Acting from the University of Florida. After completing her PhD, Emily aims to work toward integrating theatre as a more accessible and urgent cultural practice in the United States.

Raphaël Nonin

Assistant Production Coordinator at Texas Folklife

Raphaël Nonin is a doctoral student in the Department of French and Italian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. His research explores the nexus between literature and social emancipation within the French context, focusing on literature’s role as a medium for self-fashioning and persona creation. As an avid cultural analyst, Raphaël’s academic endeavors lie at the crossroads of literary studies, sociology, and anthropology. After finishing his PhD in May 2025, he hopes to join a Global Insight & Foresight team. He hopes to use his research expertise and interpersonal skills to better understand individuals, communities, and consumers, as well as identify emerging trends and turn them into actionable future strategies and value propositions.

Jacinta Tran

Learning & Development Intern at AchieveNext

Jacinta Tran (She/Her) is currently a PhD student studying interpersonal communication in the Moody College of Communication. Her research interests explore health and computer-mediated communication. Guided by empathy and growth, she strives to help people understand online credibility, loneliness, and well-being. Her professional goals include researching for a health or tech organization or teaching as a professor in a university or community college.

Cherry Youn

Graduate Research Assistant at Resources for Learning

Cherry is a PhD candidate in the Psychology Department. Her current research interests are centered on examining the effect of protein supplementation on cognition in midlife adults using various research methodologies, including behavioral experiments, surveys, brain imaging, and neuropsychological performance assessments. She aims to develop and utilize her research and analytical skills in a consulting role upon graduation.

Ja’nell Ajani

Social Justice Research Analyst at Sol To Soul Harvest Foundation / Eugene & Associates

Ja’nell is an Austin-based cultural producer, curator and current Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on the amorphous boundaries between art, commerce, and historicizing artistic legacies with an emphasis on black and brown artist estates. While her cultural affairs production work operates at the intersection of visual arts, scholarship film, popular culture, and connecting audiences to emboldened voices and global Black perspectives through dialogue, performance, and exhibitions. In more recent years, she has produced special events in partnership with the Austin Film Festival, SXSW Art Programs, SXSW Conference and Festivals, Six Square: Austin’s Black Cultural District and the George Washington Carver Museum ATX. She has also worked in tandem with The Brooklyn Museum, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Performa, Times Square Arts, The Studio Museum in Harlem, WBAI Radio 99.5 FM NYC, and The Museum of Modern Art. Ms. Ajani is a graduate of Spelman College and the NYU School of Social and Cultural Analysis. She currently serves as an Advisory Board member for SXSW EDU.

Marcus Golding

Development Research Consultant at UT Foundation Relations

Marcus Golding is a Ph.D. candidate in the History department. He holds a B.A. in Liberal Arts from Universidad Metropolitana in Caracas, Venezuela, and a M.A. in Latin American Studies from Georgetown University. Born and raised in Venezuela, Golding’s research interests as a PhD student include business and labor histories in Latin America during the Cold War, and the cultural, social and economic influences of US petroleum businesses in the region and in Venezuela specifically.

Ash d’Harcourt

Marketing Communications Specialist at the Harry Ransom Center

Ash Kinney d’Harcourt is a doctoral candidate in the Radio-Television-Film department. Their dissertation investigates the role of media imagery in resistance and survival within contemporary performance art and nightlife subcultures. As part of this project, they are building a digital archive of experience, performance, and cultural memory of queer and transgender communities. After graduating, Ash hopes to apply their research skills and experience with media and communications strategy to foster collaborative initiatives between artists, scholars and community stakeholders.

Alex Remington

Global L&D Intern at APCO Worldwide

Alex Remington is a doctoral student in the Radio-Television-Film department of the Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin. His research focuses on American media industries and cultural analysis. He is currently working on a long-form project that thinks through the sedimentation of industrial beliefs and practices informing the horror genre on 20th century television.

Rachel Spencer

Marketing Communications Specialist at the Harry Ransom Center

Rachel L. Spencer is a third-year PhD student in the Department of English. A specialist in early modern literature, her research interests center on representations of women in proximity to power in 16th- and 17th-century history plays and prose chronicles. After completing her PhD, Spencer hopes to work in communications or outreach at a research library or institution. Her ‘dream job’ is to work at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC.

Victoria Mogollón Montagne

Research Fellow Intern at Dolph Briscoe Center for American History

Vicky Mogollón Montagne is a PhD candidate in Ethnomusicology at the University of Texas at Austin. Her dissertation explores the convergences among espiritismo marialioncero (popular religion) and afro-venezuelan tambor music in contemporary Caracas, Venezuela. She holds a BA in Music and a minor in Italian (2016) from the University of Denver, and a MMus in Advanced Musical Studies (2017) from Royal Holloway, University of London. Additionally she has conducted research on music education for Latinx youth in New York City, and training and curricula in Havana, Cuba K-12 music schools. At The University of Texas at Austin she worked as assistant instructor and teaching assistant for several courses in the Butler School of Music, she was also assistant editor for the Latin American Music Review, and editorial assistant for Sound Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal. As Latino Museum Studies Program fellow at the Smithsonian (National Museum of the American Latino), Vicky created “Queens of Latin Music” a free, online accompanying material for the Entertainment Nation exhibit at the National Museum of American History.

Sonnur Ozturk

Research & Evaluation Intern at Gibson Consulting Group

Sonnur Ozturk is a fourth-year doctoral student in STEM Education at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on issues of equity in STEM education and equity-focused PK-12 STEM teaching and learning. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education in Turkey and completed her master’s degree in Sustainability Studies at Texas State University. She investigated integrated curricular design to teach science in EC-6 classrooms. She hopes to pursue a career in the field of education to conduct research in K-12 education settings.

Emilio Gonzales

Digital Research Fellow at the Bullock Texas State History Museum

Emilio is a third year Ph.D. student in the Cultural Studies in Education program in the College of Education. As a native Texan and first generation college graduate, he has been an educator for over 10 years and has taught multiple subjects grade three to grade 12. Emilio has also worked alongside youth and educators in a number of capacities, including school principal, academic dean, and program manager for diversity, equity and inclusion. He is currently interested in participatory action research and working with local educators to examine curriculum and find ways to create more inclusive learning environments for all Texas youth. Building on frameworks such as critical theory, LatCrit theory and sociocultural theory, Emilio hopes to find new ways to approach and co-construct learning in critically conscious ways while focusing on topics that are important to the community.

Cay Lee

Mixed Methods Researcher at Affirma

I’m a 5th year Ph.D. student in the Psychology department. I’ve been conducting research to understand the cognitive and emotional changes across the adult life span, and used various research methodologies including behavioral experiments, surveys, brain imaging, and interviews. I aim to develop and utilize my research skills in various settings to define my next career pathways after completing my Ph.D.

Olivia Enriquez

Data Analyst at Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board

Olivia Enriquez is a third-year PhD student at the LBJ School of Public Affairs. Her research interests lie at the intersection of sustainability, education, science communication, and climate change. Olivia’s work is concentrated on combining innovative educational approaches and proactive policy implementation in K-12 schools. With a background in teaching and passion for research, Olivia’s professional goals are centered on bridging her professional experience as a teacher with her research design skills to create impactful curricula that drives positive change.

Karen Loya

Results & Impact Graduate Assistant at UT Undergraduate Assessment Office

Karen Loya is a second-year graduate student in the Department of Sociology. In 2019, Loya graduated magna cum laude as a Sociology major from Cornell University, then worked for three years outside of Washington DC at a public policy research firm conducting federal program evaluations. Her current research interests revolve around inequality in higher education and racial disparities. She is particularly interested in helping students get to and through college. Karen is both a trainee for the Population Research Center and is involved with the Urban Ethnography Lab in the Department of Sociology. She brings experience in program evaluation, quantitative data analysis, in-depth interviews, and data visualization.

Eliya Ben-Asher

Data and Research Policy Fellow at Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board

Eliya Ben-Asher is a PhD candidate in the department of Psychology. Her research explores the various factors that influence cognitive development across adolescence, such as the social environment, social skills and neural maturation. Long-term, Eliya hopes to continue to apply her research training to help enact positive change. Specifically, she hopes to use research to improve policies in either the public or private sector.

Rachel Dorsey

Instructional Designer Intern at Six Red Marbles

Rachel Dorsey is a PhD candidate in the Department of French and Italian. Her research examines how a variety of factors that make up the bilingual experience (i.e. code-switching tendencies, age of immersion, language proficiencies, and language dominance) contribute to one’s cognitive control performance. Rachel’s professional goals center on bridging her research and curriculum design expertise in order to create equitable learning experiences for all learners.

Odalis Garcia Gorra

Digital Content Creator at Dolph Briscoe Center for American History

Odalis Garcia Gorra is a writer and doctoral student at UT Austin. Though born in Puerto Rico, she proudly claims Miami as her hometown. She has a BA from The New School in Journalism with a concentration in Religious Studies, and an MA in theological studies from Harvard Divinity School. Her research explores diasporic Latinx identities, specifically of Caribbean descent. Her graduate thesis investigated the rising popularity of brujas on Instagram and how their activism enables digital sacred space. She is interested in how Latinx digital communities become pathways for diasporic cultural expression, identity formation and the commodification of Latinidad for capitalistic gain. She co-founded Grow Up, a film publication dedicated to exploring youth on screen in all its forms. When she’s not watching TV she is having very strong feelings about empanadas and Cuban food.

Alexander Holt

Social Justice Research Analyst at Eugene & Associates

Alexander Holt is a third-year graduate student in the Department of Sociology. His research interests are focused on developing cross-national and cross-generational understandings of collective racial trauma as a factor impacting contemporary identity development and psycho-emotional wellbeing amongst members of the African diaspora (with a sub-focus on North American and Francophone populations). This research is heavily influenced by Black Feminist Thought and seeks to develop interdisciplinary understandings of trauma and Blackness by engaging with ideas and scholars at the theoretical and methodological intersection of Sociology, Black Studies, Critical Geography, and Psychology. Through an intentional development of a human centered research and pedagogical practice Holt seeks to construct dynamic learning and knowledge building environments that will facilitate intellectual and political liberation amongst those most marginalized in today’s societies. It is with this goal in mind that he centers abolitionist praxes in his research and teaching while constantly seeking out new ways to empower the voices of the disempowered. Holt received his Bachelors in Sociology from Wake Forest University in 2020.

Eunhye (Grace) Ko

Content Writer and Research Intern at Affirma Consulting

Grace is a 3rd-year doctoral student in the Learning Technologies program at the College of Education with an interdisciplinary degree in information science. Bridging learning technologies and human-centered design, her design-based research explores how educators can empower learners to be owners of their learning while enjoying the learning process. Going forward, she aims to pursue practical and interdisciplinary research that will prepare her to become a researcher capable of conducting innovative educational research with a solid theoretical foundation on learning technologies and human-computer interaction.

Hannah Neuhauser

Curatorial Assistant at Harry Ransom Center

Hannah Neuhauser is a second-year PhD student in Musicology. Her research interests include children’s media and film music. She earned her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Millikin University in 2018 and her Master of Arts in Music History at California State Long Beach in 2020. She is the honored recipient of the Graduate Dean’s List for Scholars and Artists for her thesis, “Lost Without a Cue: The Progression of Music and Masculinity in Detective Film Noir,” which recently received the Hewitt-Oberdoerffer Award by the AMS Southwest Chapter (April 9, 2022). When not presenting her own research, Hannah is coordinating conferences and program development in her role as Student Representative (2021-23) for the AMS Southwest Chapter and Student Co-Chair for the Society for American Music (2022-24). Hannah’s philosophy is that execution is always accompanied with enthusiasm, especially regarding the promotion of creative, accessible education. Outside of her scholarly pursuits, she serves as a Teaching Assistant, facilitating past course such as Film and Music and History of Rock. Her multi-tasking abilities coupled with intellectual curiosity and ardent passion for community involvement drive her vision towards educational outreach and program development in non-profit art spaces. This fall she will begin working at the Harry Ransom Center as a Curatorial Assistant through the PhD Pathways Fellowship, whilst continuing her leadership as the Academy Associate for Ballet Austin’s Youth Children’s Division.

Tabitha Reynolds Hoang

Research Fellow at Seedling Foundation

Tabitha Reynolds Hoang is a doctoral candidate in department of Educational Leadership and Policy. Tabitha also earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Arkansas State University and a master’s degree in Educational Policy from The Ohio State University. Before coming to UT Austin, Tabitha was a public school teacher, and this experience helps to inform her current research interests. Tabitha’s dissertation focuses on public school teachers who engage in culturally responsive SEL with students. After graduating, Tabitha hopes to create enrichment programs for youth and use her expertise in education consulting.

Lorraine Scott

Graduate Research Assistant at LifeWorks

Lorraine is a 4th year doctoral student in the Human Development and Family Sciences department. Her research interests broadly focus on developing a more intersectional understanding of race-related stress, focusing on members of the African diaspora. Building on theoretical frameworks such as Intersectionality and Critical Race Theory, she analyzes the interconnectedness of race-related stress, health, well-being, racial identity, socialization, and various sociodemographic factors. She also has experience and vested interest in advocacy, consulting, and project management.

Silvana Scott

Research Fellow at Dolph Briscoe Center for American History

Raised in Queens, New York City, Silvana (she/her) is a fourth year PhD student in comparative literature who studies Queer and Trans Latinx and Peruvian Cultural Productions. She obtained her M.A. in Comparative Literature from UT Austin. Silvana focuses on varying regimes of the Human and their intersections with Liberalism, Aesthetics and the Nation-State. Silvana uses cultural productions as a vehicle to understand how Queer and Trans racialized populations are hyper impacted by the legacies of the colonial project. She hopes to pursue a career in the fields of education, publishing, digital humanities and/or communications.

Gloria Stout

Data and Research Policy Fellow at Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board

Gloria Stout (she/her/hers) is currently a 3rd year doctoral student in the Department of Human Development and Family Science (HDFS) working with the African American Resilience in Context (AARC) lab. Her research interests broadly focus on understanding how familial and community factors may hinder or facilitate positive adolescent development among Black youth. Professionally she hopes to gain more experience outside of academia and expand her network in order to best serve historically oppressed communities.

Alexandra Villarreal

Communications Specialist at Excelencia in Education

Alexandra Villarreal is a doctoral student in the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on migration and asylum policy in the United States and internationally, through an interdisciplinary focus on history and policy. In 2017, she graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude as a Hispanic studies major at Columbia University in New York City. Since then, she has had a front-row seat to the defining moments of the last half-decade as a journalist for The Guardian, The Associated Press, NBC, and other media outlets. In summer 2022, she was selected as a Graduate Archer Fellow in Washington, D.C., where she worked for the House Judiciary Committee’s Immigration and Citizenship Subcommittee.

Shannon Woods

Assistant Program Coordinator at Texas Folklife

Shannon Woods is a dance artist and received her M.A. in Performance Studies from New York University. She is currently a Ph.D. Student in Performance as Public Practice at UT Austin studying the intersection of choreography, emergency preparation, and the police state.

Elena Perez-Zetune

Communications Specialist Intern at Excelencia in Education!

Elena Perez-Zetune is a 4th year PhD student in the Mexican American and Latina/o Studies Department (MALS), also obtained her M.A. from the same department and her B.A. from Gettysburg College. She is an educator, and is teaching Introduction to Mexican American/Latinx Cultural Studies this fall. Her research focuses on Latinx labor and community formation in the Mid-Atlantic. She hopes to gain a career in the field of education- teaching intensive institutions and/or educational non-profits.

Alina I. Scott

Research Fellow Intern at the Briscoe Center

Alina Scott is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of History at the University of Texas, Austin. Her dissertation explores Black and Indigenous petition drives in the 19th century U.S. Northeast. She is interested in the digital humanities, community engaged research, and public facing work. Alina has served as Associate Editor and Communications Director at Not Even Past, an online public history magazine, and a managing editor for Native American and Indigenous Studies Journal (2019-20). She now hosts the weekly 15 Minute History Podcast, part of the University of Texas’s Podcast Network. She hopes to pursue a career in communications, publishing, and digital media.

Ricardo Castro

Curatorial Assistant Intern at The Harry Ransom Center

I am a journalist and cultural promoter currently pursuing a PhD at The University of Texas at Austin. He has contributed to outlets in Colombia, Mexico, Spain and the UK. He has taught journalism writing and practices in Bogotá and headed an annual Creative Writing Worskhop for Bogota’s public arts programme. I am interested and passionate about long-form journalism and literature. My research interests explore empathy in literature, journalism ad photography for memory and peace-building in post-conflict Perú and Colombia.

Raelynn Gosse

Graduate Research Intern at LifeWorks

Raelynn Gosse is a doctoral candidate in the Department of English. Her research considers portrayals of female characters in the 19th-century Gothic and contemporary horror film, focusing on the “monsterization” of femininity within the domestic.

Jared Jensen

Program Development Specialist Intern at Austin Urban Technology Movement

Jared Jensen is a PhD candidate in the Department of Communication Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. His research explores the communication and power dynamics that emerge in organizing for creativity and innovation. In line with his dissertation, he is currently working on a book that considers how artists and creatives can optimize their relationships with dominant social systems. In the Career Pathways program, Jensen aims to develop his project management and collaboration skills to prepare him for a career that involves entrepreneurship and consulting.

Songhee Han

Research Fellow Intern at Briscoe Center

Songhee Han is a 3rd-year doctoral student in the Learning Technologies program at Curriculum & Instruction department. Her research is focused on how web-based technologies can be used to enable authentic learning experiences for all ages. Her professional goal centers on utilizing her rich research skills in quantitative and qualitative studies but producing practical deliverables that help people’s life directly.

Aruna Kharod

Research Fellow Intern at Humanities Texas

Aruna Kharod is a doctoral candidate in the Ethnomusicology department who specializes in performing arts of South Asia. Her dissertation research studies the effects of recent environmental and political changes on India’s sitar-making industry. Aruna is an active Bharatanatyam (South Indian classical dance) and sitar (North Indian classical music) artist, and is an experienced educator both in academic and public-facing settings. Other projects on which she is currently working include an ongoing community-based project to archive and study songs of the Partition Era with South Asian elders in the diaspora and developing social justice-oriented choreographies for Bharatanatyam dance. She hopes to apply her passion for public humanities in her PhD Career Pathways fellowship and future career.

Haleigh Wallace

Program Assessment and Career Outcomes Research Fellow Intern at UT Austin Center for Women’s and Gender Studies

Haleigh Wallace is a 3rd year PhD student in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese and a graduate portfolio student in Women’s and Gender Studies. She works in sociolinguistics with a focus on the relationship between language, gender, and sexuality. She is especially interested in the ways that queer identities are performed through language, and her current research looks at the use of English borrowing in Spanish drag performances.

Ashley Garcia

Media & Engagement Coordinator Intern at Texas Folklife

Ashley Garcia is a PhD candidate at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research includes 19th century political history, American communitarianism, and American political thought. Her dissertation, “An American Socialism: The Associationist Movement and Nineteenth Century Political Culture,” explores America’s most popular utopian socialist program: the Associationist movement of the mid-19th-century. Ashley completed a Portfolio in Museum Studies as her secondary PhD field. Her professional work also extends outside of the classroom. She has worked as an archival intern for the William Wayne Justice Center and research fellow for the Texas State Historical Association. She recently served as a researcher for a historical documentary on the women’s suffrage movement in Texas called Citizens At Last: Texas Women and the Fight for Justice. After completing her PhD, Ashley hopes to pursue a career in advocacy or content training and delivery. She is committed to fostering collaborative projects that bring together community stakeholders and historical researchers.

Anahí Ponce

Community Engagement Coordinator Intern at OUTsider Fest

Anahí Ponce is a writer, poet, and organizer from El Paso, Texas. Anahí is a second year PhD student in the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies. Her research is interested in nontraditional forms of activism, and what kind of activism gets to “count” under a neoliberal lens. She also has research interests in Latinx literatures, Queer Studies, and how these topics transcend the academy and are in conversation with notions of community.

Yunina Barbour-Payne

Theatre and Dance
Curator and Outreach Director – Slavery on Stage

Yunina Barbour-Payne is a scholar, artist and educator whose work straddles performance, Africana and Appalachian Studies. She is currently a Ph.D. student in the Performance as Public Practice program.

Briana Barner

Radio-Television-Film
Social Media Manager – Center for Women and Gender Studies

Briana Barner is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Radio-TV-Film. Her research is on the performance of Blackness and marginalization in podcasts and she works with Professor S. Craig Watkins.

Kelsey Bergeson

Spanish and Portuguese
Graduate Media Consultant – Texas Career Engagement

Kelsey Bergeson is a doctoral student in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. Her research is on bilingualism and language contact in the Amazon and Andes regions, and she works with Professor Almeida Jacqueline Toribio.

Alexis Bigelow

Curriculum and Instruction
Curriculum Specialist – Texas Humanities

Alexis Bigelow is a doctoral student in the Curriculum and Instruction Department in the College of Education. Her research examines creative ways elementary-aged Black girls display resistance in and out of school. She works with Professor Dr. Keffrelyn Brown.

Alexandria Cunningham

African and African Diaspora Studies
Digital Project Manager – Artist-Scholar Initiative

Alexandria Cunningham is a doctoral candidate in the department of African and African Diaspora Studies (AADS). She is also a 2019 John Money Fellow for Scholars of Sexology at the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction. Her research explores Black women’s practices of pleasure through striptease, pole dance and sexual entrepreneurial cultures in material and digital spaces with Professor Lisa B. Thompson.

Raymond Hyser

Department of History
Digital Humanities Developer – Not Even Past

Raymond Hyser is a doctoral student in the Department of History. His research focuses on environmental history and the history of science within trans-imperial spaces during the nineteenth century, particularly the agricultural knowledge networks of coffee cultivation between the West Indies and South Asia. He works with Professors Bruce Hunt and Megan Raby.

Lauren Lluveras

African and African Diaspora Studies
Collections Manager – Black Diaspora Archive, UT Libraries

Lauren Lluveras is a doctoral student in the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies. Her research is about the political uses of West African rituals in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, and particularly the religious materiality of Creolized syncretic faiths. Lauren works with Professors Mónica Jiménez and Lyndon Gill.

Christopher Ndubuizu

African and African Diaspora Studies
Graduate Industry Consultant – Texas Career Engagement

Christopher Ndubuizu is a doctoral student in the department of African and African Diaspora Studies. His research is on the racialization African migrant communities in the United States and works with Dr. Afolabi.

Nnenna Odim

Curriculum and Instruction
Public Programming and Community Outreach Coordinator – Center for Women and Gender Studies

Nnenna Odim is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, specializing in Early Childhood Education. Her relationship with young children and research are rooted in a deep affection for how children reinforce multiple ways of knowing. Joining her (im)migration background with U.S. state policy experience, she examines global threads among families, educators, and the archive as they support young children and their families.

Iana Whalen Robitaille

English
Digital Scholarship Editor – Bob Bullock Museum

Iana Whalen Robitaille is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Department of English. Her research focuses on 20th and 21st century literature and culture, critical migration studies, postcolonial literature and theory, transnational feminisms, and human rights. Prior to beginning graduate study in Austin, she worked in publishing and nonprofit museum development in New York City. After completing her degree, she hopes to pursue work developing civic and public partnerships in the humanities across higher-education and cultural institutions.

Brett Siegel

Radio-Television-Film
Graduate Media Consultant – Texas Career Engagement

Brett Siegel is a doctoral candidate and teaching assistant in the Department of Radio-Television-Film. He received his M.A. in critical studies from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts and his M.L.I.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Information Studies. His research focuses on the intersections of power, politics, and identity in American sports media and works with Dr. Jennifer McClearen and Dr. Michael Butterworth.

Bahar Tahamtani

American Studies
Curatorial Assistant – Harry Ransom Center

Bahar Tahamtani is a doctoral student in the Department of American Studies. Her research centers on representations of violence, with a focus specifically on how violence is imagined and reimagined in American culture.

Annie Maxfield
Director, Advanced Degree Career & Professional Development
Texas Career Engagement

Colleen Gleeson
Associate Director, Advanced Degree Employer Engagement
Texas Career Engagement

Connor Behrmann
Graduate Industry Consultant – Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
Texas Career Engagement