Institute for Regional and International Studies
Biography Rachel DeMotts is a graduate student of Political Science who specializes in the politics of South Africa, Swaziland and Namibia. Her research focuses on transborder environmental resource conflicts. In particular, she is concerned with clarifying and improving the role played by national and international organizations in their efforts to mediate and solve such disputes …
Biography Mara Goldman is a graduate student in the Department of Geography preparing to conduct research for her dissertation in Tanzania, Mara is researching the dynamic between local Maasai understandings of nature and resources and those which international, national non-governmental organizations and government agencies promote in their efforts to create conservation “territories,” that is, national …
Biography Eli Ruben is a graduate student in the History Department. He is traveling to Germany this summer to examine the question of how popular consent and state hegemony developed in former East Germany during the Cold War. In particular, Eli seeks to explore how the Communist ruling party, cultural institutions and mass publications worked …
Biography Tyrone Siren is a graduate student studying the countries of Cambodia and Thailand in the department of Anthropology. In particular, Tyrone’s project concerns the development of “international casinos” that Thai businessmen own but operate in the border areas of Cambodia, rather than in Thailand (where gambling is illegal). Making the project doubly complex, many …
Biography Aloke Thakore is a graduate student in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. He was a working journalist before he decided to pursue the doctoral program. He has worked for CNBC in Asia and the Statesman, Calcutta, and continues to be a freelance journalist. His interests, both academic and professional, are in media …
Biography Kristen A. Velyvis is a graduate student in the department of Sociology. Her main focus within sociology has been demography, which she has used to look specifically at the spread of HIV in Senegal. In 1997, Kristen conducted her Masters Thesis research in Dakar, Senegal. She studied the sexual networks of migrant Serere women …
Biography Stephen Volz is a graduate student in the doctoral program in African history. He studies the role of African evangelists in the spread of Christianity among the Tswana people of southern Africa between 1840 and 1890. In the past, Stephen served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Botswana from 1985-1987, although he has only …