Dr. Laura Ann Reese

Dr. Guo Chen

Dr. Najib Hourani

Dr. Eva Kassens-Noor

Dr. Edward Linedecker Murphy

Dr. Zachary P. Neal

Dr. Sarah Reckhow

Dr. Xuefei Ren

Dr. Richard Sauerzopf

Susan Durkee

Edwin Phillips

Cristian Dona

I am a Chilean doctoral candidate pursuing a dual degree in Sociology and History. I have a Professional degree in Sociology from the Universidad de Chile; a Master in Political Sciences and International Relations from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile; and a Master of Arts in Sociology from Michigan State University. My current research involves the intersection of history and biography in the migration process from the Southern Cone of America to the United States. While in Chile I worked as a consultant and research assistant for the International Organization for Migration in Chile and for the Latin American and Caribbean Demographic Center (CELADE). At MSU my involvement with research has been on topics of globalization, demography and international migration with Dr. Brendan Mullan and on topics of contemporary urban history in Chile with Dr. Edward Murphy. I received a Fulbright-Conicyt fellowship (2005-2009), the All-University Excellence in Teaching award (2011) as well as several other highly competitive fellowships at MSU. I have taught sociology and history related courses in universities in Chile and at MSU and I am also interested in the pedagogical implications of using cinema in teaching sociology and history. I have presented my research at a variety of national and international conferences and I am fluent in Spanish (native speaker) and English and can read Portuguese and have a basic knowledge of spoken French.

Meskerem Glegziabher

Meskerem is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Anthropology whose research interests include international urban development, human rights, and the intersection of gender with access to housing and other basic resources in India and throughout the “developing” world. She is particularly interested in poverty alleviation and community driven development initiatives as they are experienced by so-called “Slum dwellers” and the effects of popular rhetoric on these experiences. She also serves as the Managing Editor for the Gendered Perspectives on International Development Resource Bulletin published tri-annually by MSU’s Center for Gender in Global Context. She has a B.A. in English Literature from Wake Forest University and an M.A. in Socio-Cultural Anthropology from MSU.

Kate Huttenga

Kate Durkee graduated from Michigan State University in December 2009 with a bachelor's in Political Science. While studying at MSU, she spent a semester in Washington, D.C. interning at the Hudson Institute while participating in MSU's study away program. While at the nation's capitol, she completed her capstone project concerning relations between Canada and the United States and carries on that interest today. In her spare time, she loves to horseback ride, excersize, and garden.

Larry Irwin

Meg Johnson

Meg came to MSU in the fall of 2010 after completing a B.S. and M.S. (both in Psychology) from Eastern Michigan University. She is interested in American politics, particularly political cognition and public opinion. She is also interested in applying experimental methods to questions that fall under the umbrella of political behavior. In her free time, she loves to spend time with her family and friends, read, and crochet.

Sung Kang

Sung Kang is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics at Michigan State University. My interests are in local government competition in terms of taxes and expenditures. In addition, he is also interested in reelection performance of a governor in states considering own state’s taxes and expenditure policy with competitor states’ taxes and expenditure policy. He is currently working with Dr. Laura Reese and Dr. Mark Skidmore for exploring tax abatement effects on economic growth in Michigan.

Puyang Li

My name is Puyang Li, a research assistant in Geography, MSU currently. I obtained my Bachelor of Science in Economic Geograhy (2006) and Master of Human Geography (2010) from Sun Yat-sen University, China. Since 2006, I became a counselor assistant in my Department for two years, responsible for undergrads’ daily management and moral education. I participated in some urban planning projects, urban poverty/inequality researches and some UNESCO programs, such as the application of China Danxia for World Natural Heritage during my undergraduate and postgraduate career. This is my first year as a Ph.D student here at MSU, and I focus my research interests in social inequality, urbanization/ suburbanization and migrant issues in China. Particularly, I place much attention on a series of social problems resulting from the rapid urban expansion in this country.

Josh Vertalka

Eric Walcott

Jennifer Wray

I am a third year PhD student in Sociology and the Global Urban Studies Program (GUSP). My Research interests include political sociology, urban sociology, social and structural inequality issues, tolerance, gambling, and promiscuity. I have worked on projects studying mortality from the 1918-19 influenza pandemic as well as India's drug policy. I am also the sociology departments representative for the council of graduate students (COGS).

Minting Ye

Matt Zalewski