Institute for Regional and International Studies
Biography Dimitri Kessler is a graduate student in Sociology. He lived in Taiwan for a year and studied a year of Traditional Chinese Medicine at the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in California before he decided to pursue a doctorate. As a sociologist, Dimitri has focused his research on labor issues concerning Asia. In 1999, …
Biography Harry Kiiru is a PhD candidate in the Department of African Cultural Studies with a minor in Afro-American Studies. His dissertation research studies the new African diaspora: that is, Sub-Saharan African immigrants in the United States since the 1960s. More specifically, Harry is interested in the racialization processes involved in the “becoming Black” among …
Biography Sooji Kim grew up in Brunei, studying in an Anglican mission school, and becoming part of Bruneian and Muslim cultures, whilst being a Korean. Studying African communities and civil society organizations in Tanzania brought back interesting memories of such integrations of various cultures – of local and national identities, colonial histories, and the dynamics …
Biography Hui-Jung Kim is a graduate student in Sociology. Her main research interests are social movement, sociology of culture, sociological theory, and comparative studies of Southeast and East Asian countries. She conducted her Master’s Thesis on the anti-eviction movement in South Korea, 1983 to 1991. From the research, she found out that the participants of …
Biography Niwaeli Kimambo is a PhD student in Geography. She studies smallholders’ land use around protected forests in East Africa. She earned her B.A from Brown University and an M.Sc in Geography from UWMadison. The Master’s project presented options for increasing forest connectivity in Southern Tanzania through incorporating farmer’s woodlots. Niwaeli’s interest in conservation and …
Biography Christopher Kirchgasler is a doctoral student in the department of Curriculum & Instruction. As a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Guinea, he taught English as a foreign language. Upon returning to the U.S., he taught English for four years at a public charter school in East Boston. His current research focuses on studying the …
Biography Erin Kitchell is a master’s student in Geography with a BA in History from Rhodes College. Prior to coming to UW–Madison as a graduate student, she spent four years working on community-based public health and environmental projects in Senegal and Mali. Her academic interests include land-use planning in pastoral zones, local responses to climate …
Biography Stephanie Koning is a graduate student in population health and sociology at University of Wisconsin–Madison. She is currently engaged in research with colleagues at UW as well as the United Nations, on health and social justice issues regarding migrant and indigenous populations in the US and in Southeast Asia. Stephanie was awarded a Scott …
Biography Mark Kramer is a graduate student in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications with a focus in International Journalism. He works as a freelance writer for La Comunidad, a Latino newspaper in Madison, as well as other publications and organizations. He has lived and worked in Africa and Asia, the Appalachian foothills of …
Jessica Krug, a Ph.D. student in African and African Diaspora history, has worked on various projects documenting the history of Maroons (descendents of enslaved Africans who fled the plantations and fought for their freedom) in Jamaica and Suriname. After researching the Caribbean aspect of these histories, including writing her M.A. about the development of nationalist …