Institute for Regional and International Studies
Biography Melinda Adams is a graduate student in Political Science. She is just beginning her dissertation research on women’s movements in Africa. To identify the key issues of concern for women in Africa, she will take up her internship fellowship this summer in Nigeria, working with Women Living Under Muslim Laws and under the supervision of …
Biography Desmond Arias is a graduate student in Political Science who works on issues related to globalization, political order, and violence in the developing world with a focus on Latin America. He is finishing a dissertation on strategies to reduce violence and more effectively guarantee human rights in favelas (shantytowns) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. …
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 Madhavi Mallapragada is a doctoral candidate in the Media and Cultural Studies division of the Department of Communication Arts. Her recent interests include cyberculture studies, especially within the context of diasporic communities. Presently, she is looking at the relationship between the websites that cater to the “Indian” diasporic communities in the United States, the …
Biography Lawrence P. Markowitz is a graduate student in Political Science. Before deciding to pursue a doctorate at UW–Madison, he received a NSEP fellowship to conduct several months of field research in Uzbekistan (1997-98) for his master’s thesis, which examined the interrelations of religious and national identity among ethnic Uzbeks. His current research explores the …
Biography Oghenetoja Okoh is a graduate student in African History. Her graduate work focuses on the impact of the African diaspora, as a cultural force, on the historical development of Africa itself. In 1997 she did research in Nigeria for her honors senior thesis, which looked at the themes of exile and postcoloniality through African …
Biography Noah Rost is a graduate student in the Department of Geography. Prior to his arrival in Madison, he attended Louisiana State University where he completed a Master of Arts degree in Geography. His thesis research examined the connections between late nineteenth and early twentieth century Serbian cultural representations of Kosovo and the emergence of …
Biography Fadjar I. Thufail is a graduate student in Anthropology. Besides pursuing his doctorate at UW–Madison, Fadjar Thufail is also a researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Science in Jakarta. His main focus of study is the anthropology of violence and riot. He is also interested in the topics of public sphere, narrative, and cultural …