SCIENCE IN HUMAN CULTURE PROGRAM

Ana Diaz Barriga

Cluster Fellow - Theater and Drama, entered 2018
Mentors: Dassia Posner and Marcia Grabowecky

anadiazbarriga@u.northwestern.edu

Ana received a BA in Drama from the University of Glamorgan (UK) and an MA in Advanced Theatre Practice from The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (UK). She is the recipient of a Mellon Cluster Fellowship in Science Studies.  Her research is focused on the links between cognitive science and puppetry.

Raina Bhagat

Cluster Fellow - Comparative Literature Studies, entered 2019
Mentor: Evan Mwangi

RainaBhagat2024@u.northwestern.edu

Raina Bhagat has an MA in English Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India and is interested in literatures about the future.

John Miles Branch

Cluster Fellow - History, entered 2020
Mentor: Keith Woodhouse

jbranch@u.northwestern.edu

John's research areas include the history of economic life, political history, and the history of science, with a focus on the nonprofit sector in the twentieth century. He has a B.A. in history from Bowdoin College. 

José Chavez

Graduate Affiliate - English, Comparative Literature, entered 2020
Mentors: Jim Hodge and Patrick Noonan

josechavez2025@u.northwestern.edu

José Chavez is a PhD Student in Comparative Literature, specializing in Media Theory and Visual Culture. He is interested in intellectual histories of computation, information theory, and cybernetics, across the Americas and Asia. His work attempts to bridge these histories and genealogies with theories and works in visual culture.

Lauren Cole

Graduate Affiliate - History, entered 2021
Mentor: Barbara Newman

lcole@u.northwestern.edu

Lauren's research interests center around mysticism and medicine in medieval Europe. Her dissertation research focuses on the twelfth-century mystic Hildegard of Bingen's medical texts. She holds a BA and MA in History from the University of Bristol, United Kingdom.

Bradley Davey

Graduate Affiliate - SESP, Learning Sciences, entered 2021
Mentor: Reed Stevens

bradleydavey2026@u.northwestern.edu

Bradley is working on an ethnography of professional coffee roasters and their use of science and technology to produce one of America’s most cherished goods. He is interested in dissolving the boundaries that surround K-12 science education by expanding what counts as "science".

Clay Davis

Cluster Fellow - Sociology, entered 2019
Mentor: Steven Epstein

Clay has a BA from Cornell's Science and Technology Studies Program. He is interested in the processes of medical testing in the U.S. in the context of gender and sexuality studies.

Mariana Charry Esguerra

Research Fellow, History, entered 2022
Mentor: Paul Ramirez

maremoto@u.northwestern.edu
Curriculum Vitae

Mariana is a doctoral student in the History department. Her areas of interest include women, gender studies and family history. She explores how history, religion, medicine & science have defined and regulated women and children in Colonial Latin America.

Ryan Fajardo

Graduate Affiliate - Sociology, entered 2020
Mentor: Bruce Carruthers

ryanfajardo2025@u.northwestern.edu

Ryan Fajardo is a doctoral student in the Sociology department. His interests lie at the intersection of economics, technology, everyday life, labor, and consumption. He explores the attempted implementations of economic ideas through novel technologies, and focuses on the obscured or hidden labor that supports them.

Ziyana Fazal

Graduate Affiliate - History, entered 2020
Mentor: Ashish Koul

Ziyana2026@u.northwestern.edu

Ziyana Fazal is a doctoral student in the Department of History, and a Mellon Cluster Fellow in Asian Studies. Her dissertation studies Muslim women's religious and medical advice literature from twentieth-century Kerala, the southwestern coast of India.

Dexter Fergie

Cluster Fellow - History, entered 2017
Mentor: Daniel Immerwahr

dexterfergie2023@u.northwestern.edu

Dexter has received a coveted 3-year SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship from the Canadian government to support his graduate training on post-WWII international platforms.

Fatima Gaw

Graduate Affliate - Media, Technology & Society, entered 2022
Mentor: Pablo Boczkowski

fatima.gaw@u.northwestern.edu

Fatima's research centers on the mediation of digital platforms & algorithms in cultural production, politics, and public discourse in the Global South. She holds a master's degree in Digital Communication & Culture from the University of Sydney and bachelor's degree in Broadcast Communication from the University of the Philippines.

Gerpha Gerlin

Cluster Fellow - Anthropology, entered 2020
Mentor: Rebecca Seligman

gerphagerlin2025@u.northwestern.edu

Gerpha is a first year doctoral/MPH student & Science in Human Culture Cluster Fellow, working around issues related to psychiatric disease & disablement, knowledge-production economies, and implementation science. She received a BA from Wesleyan University and an MS from Boston University School of Medicine.

Prince Grace

Cluster Fellow - Sociology, entered 2018
Mentor: Steven Epstein

PhilipGrace2023@u.northwestern.edu

Prince is a doctoral student studying the role of knowledge and technology in conflict, crisis, and accountability processes. His current research focuses on efforts to investigate, document, and redress state abuses.

María José Cornejo Griffin

Cluster Fellow - English, entered 2023
Mentor: Wendy Wall

mariacornejo2028@u.northwestern.edu

María José holds a BA in Literature and Linguistics and an MA in Literature from the Universidad de Chile. She is interested in the intersections between literature, imperialism, science and cartography in early modern Europe

Austin Jenkins

Cluster Fellow - Sociology, entered 2016
Mentor: Steven Epstein

austinjenkins@u.northwestern.edu

Austin holds a B.S. in the sociology of law, criminology, and deviance from the University of Minnesota. He is interested in the development of disease notions of addiction in the American nineteenth century and their reconfiguration in contemporary forms of legally-coerced substance abuse treatment. 

Claudia Kinahan

Graduate Affiliate, Theater and Drama, entered 2019
Mentor: Dassia Posner

ClaudiaKinahan2024@u.northwestern.edu

Claudia holds a BA in Drama and Theatre Studies from Trinity College-The University of Dublin, where she was awarded a gold medal upon graduation. Her doctoral research examines artificial intelligence through the lens of performance studies; particularly the performative aspects of artificially intelligent humanoids.

Shruti Krishnan

Cluster Fellow - Sociology, entered 2024
Mentor: Santiago Molina

Shruti holds an MA in the Social Sciences from the University of Chicago and a BA in Sociology and Anthropology from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai.  She is interested in the medicalization of sexuality, and the development of clinical standards in the fields of sexual health and psychiatry. Her work is interdisciplinary and traverses medical sociology, sexuality studies, STS, and queer-feminist philosophy. 

Michelle Lee

Graduate Affiliate - Sociology, entered 2022
Mentor: Anthony Chen

MichelleLee2028@u.northwestern.edu

Michelle Lee is a PhD student in Sociology. Her research interests are in economic sociology, technology, and globalization. 

Juan Fernando Léon

Cluster Fellow - History, entered 2019
Mentor: Lydia Barnett

Juan Fernando León graduated in 2015 with a B.A. in History from DePaul University and in 2017 an M.A. in History of Christianity from Wheaton College. His research investigates how early modern Iberians developed weather prediction knowledge, practice, and infrastructure. His project, “Weather Soundings: Vernacular Meteorology in the Iberian World during the Little Ice Age,” challenges the notion that religion, science and censorship supressed traditional meteorology and weather lore.

YouJia Li

Graduate Affiliate - History, entered 2017
Mentor: Amy Stanley

youjiali2014@u.northwestern.edu

Youjia is a doctoral student interested in social, gender, and immigration history in the late nineteenth to early twentieth century Asia, specifically in Japan and China. She is curious about how common people contributed to the modern transformation in Asia through cultural and material exchanges and movements.

Meng-rung Lin

Graduate Affiliate - Anthropology, entered 2021
Mentor: Hirokazu Miyazaki

meng-runglin2026@u.northwestern.edu

Meng-Rung Lin's research interests focus on the extraction of value and the accumulation of capital in renewable energy. She also examines the socio-political aspect of renewable energy, especially how these kinds of infrastructures introduced to Taiwan are related to the role of the country in geopolitics and the global market.

Hugh Milner

Cluster Fellow - History, entered 2022
Mentor: Lydia Barnett

hughmilner2022@u.northwestern.edu

Hugh has an MA in Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University and a BA in Envir. Studies & Greek Lang & Lit from Oberlin College. He's interested in the construction of the medieval and early modern landscape, particularly with regard to land clearance, water management, and technological lock-in along the North Sea Coast.

Jorge Ochoa

Cluster Fellow, Sociology, entered 2022
Mentor: Steven Epstein

jorgeochoa2027@u.northwestern.edu

Jorge Ochoa's research interests are at the intersection of science, technology, and social inequality. Jorge received his BA from Columbia University and has previously worked in public health, bioethics, and science and technology policy roles.

Phoebe Pan

Cluster Fellow - English, entered 2021
Mentor: Laurie Shannon

phoebepan2027@u.northwestern.edu

Phoebe studies early modern literature with a focus on poetic and scientific texts relating to processes of metamorphosis and change. She is interested in modes of perception, shifting epistemologies, and speculative writing

Gabriel Restrepo Parrado

Cluster Fellow - Spanish & Portuguese, entered 2020
Mentor: Emily Maguire

GabrielRestrepoParrado2025@u.northwestern.edu

Gabriel is a PhD student. He obtained a double B.A in Philosophy & Literature from Universidad de los Andes, in Bogotá, Colombia, where he also received an M.A in Philosophy. He's  interested in Latin American science fiction, ecocriticism, and the intersection between sciences & literature.

Devika Ranjan

Graduate Affiliate - Performance Studies, entered 2023
Mentor: Elizabeth Son

devikaranjan2028@u.northwestern.edu

Devika Ranjan (she/her) is a writer, ethnographer, theater-maker, and educator who tells stories about migration. She creates communities of care through devised immersive performance and has facilitated workshops with migrants worldwide. Devika is currently studying borders, surveillance technology, and ecologies of liberation.

Benjamin Riggs

Cluster Fellow - Screen Cultures, entered 2016
Mentor: Jake Smith

BenjaminRiggs2020@u.northwestern.edu

Ben earned a BA in Media Arts from the University of New Mexico and an MA in Communication and Education from Columbia University.  He is interested in playful experiences with science across different media, particularly narrative entertainment media, and the formation of youth science cultures.

Miranda Simes

Graduate Affiliate - Sociology, entered 2022
Mentor: Wendy Espeland

mirandasimes2028@u.northwestern.edu

Miranda is a PhD student in Sociology with research interests in environmental sociology, scientific tools, geography, and risk. She has a B.A. in Sociology from Columbia University.

Sara M. B. Simon

Cluster Fellow - History, entered 2024
Mentor: Susan J. Pearson

Sara's research is in the history of vital statistics production. She holds a B.A. from Wellesley College and an M.S. from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Between undergrad and graduate school, Sara worked as a newsroom software engineer and investigative data reporter. 

McKenzie Stupica - Cluster Fellow

Cluster Fellow - Art History, entered 2017
Mentor: Hollyamber Kennedy

McKenziestupica2023@u.northwestern.edu

McKenzie Stupica is an advanced PhD candidate in the department of Art History, specializing in comparative and non-Western modernisms. Her dissertation, "Making Ulm Work: Latin America’s Experiments in Design Pedagogy, 1955–1973," bridges its historical research on the German design school, the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Ulm.

Facundo Suenzo

Graduate Affiliate - Media, Technology, Society, entered 2020
Mentor: Pablo Boczkowski

Facundo Suenzo is a Ph.D. student interested in urban sociology, technological infrastructures, and inequalitie. He received a BA in Communication (Universidad de San Andrés (UdeSA), MA in Sociology (Universidad Nacional del General San Martín (IDAES/UNSAM), and a MA in Media, Technology, and Society (Northwestern University). He is affiliated with the Digital Apothecary Lab, led by Dr. Moya Bailey and coordinator for the Center for Latinx Digital Media.

Omri Tubi

Cluster Fellow - Sociology, entered 2015
Mentor: Wendy Espeland

OmriTubi2015@u.northwestern.edu

Omri's areas of interest are: Historical Sociology, Political Sociology and Science & Technology Studies.

Rachel Wallner

Cluster Fellow - History, entered 2015
Mentor: Peter J. Carroll

RachelWallner2020@u.northwestern.edu

Rachel studies discourse on science and the formation of academic disciplines in twentieth-century China.  Her research focuses on the politics of Chinese geographic knowledge production during the Second World War. 

Xi Wang

Graduate Affiliate - Sociology, entered 2020
Mentor: Gary Alan Fine

xiwang2026@u.northwestern.edu

Xi Wang is a doctoral student interested in culture, religion, and science and technology studies. She explores the dynamic interactions among human suffering, therapeutic culture, and mental health knowledge and practices. Her current empirical project is about China's mental health industry in a global context.

Yingzhe Zhu

Graduate Affiliate - Sociology, entered 2020
Mentor: Steven Epstein

Yingzhe has a BA from Tsinghua University and a MA from Peking University. She is broadly interested in technology, science, knowledge, culture, labor, and inequality, especially how digital technologies have influenced people's everyday lives and work conditions. Her recent research is about how online medical platforms transform healthcare delivery in China and the US.