Graduate Student Trajectories

Amaja Andrews, M.A.

Capstone: Hidden Figures: The Gender Gap in Healthcare Data Collection and Care for Transgender and Non-Binary Individuals

Sarah Dixon, M.A.

Capstone: The Extension of the Physical Body; Embodiment in Virtual Reality through Phantom Sense

Nick Ferese, M.A.

Thesis: A Zooarchaeological Approach to Interspecies Gender Intersectionality: Analysis of the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Cistern Faunal Collection and the Positionality of Julia Westall Wolfe.

Jordan Misha, M.A.

Capstone: Queer Geographies: Mapping Landscapes of Identity in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Wesley Parrish, M.A.

Thesis: Portable X-Ray Fluorescence and Clay: An Examination of the Effectiveness of Using pXRF for Archaeological Ceramic Clay Sourcing Studies.:

Daniela Trujillo, M.A.

Thesis: Responses of the Muisca Chiefdom to Environmental Change: Social Inequality and Dietary Patterns at the Nueva Esperanza Archaeological Site (11th–16th Century).

Duke University: Ph.D. Student

Shante Willinson, M.A.

Capstone: The Role of Cemeteries in African American Cultural Preservation: Using Historical Records as Biodata

Nora Al Aati, M.A.

Thesis: Putting on a Show: A Re-Analysis of Gender and Performativity at the Royal Cemetery of Ur.

Penn Arts & Sciences: Ph.D. Student

Dillion Cartwright, M.A.

Capstone: Avian Insights into Mamluk Tell Qarqur, Syria: Reconstructing Environmental Conditions through Archaeo-ornithology.

Darius Collins, M.A.

Capstone: Environmental Justice: What it Means in the Walnut Creek Wetlands.

NC Water Resources Research Institute: Community Water Intern

Katrina Geist, M.A.

Capstone: Cultivating connection in the Covid era: student experiences in an in-person agroecology internship after experiencing pandemic learning.

Jessica McLawhorn, M.A.

Thesis: The Impact of Brachydactyly on the Neighboring Digits in the Hands and Feet.

Aidan Paul, M.A.

Thesis: An Archaeological History of Forbush Creek and the Piedmont Village Tradition-Mississippian Frontier.

New South Associates, Inc.: Field Technician –

Jenna Scott, M.A.

Thesis: Add to Cart? The Ethical Landscape of Buying Human Bone in the United States: A Case Study of the NCSU Human Skeletal Remains Collection.

Sarah Wells, M.A.

Capstone: Directional Asymmetry and Hand Dominance in Colonial Mexico City.

Niloufar Yarahmadi, M.A.

Capstone: Visions of Iranian Environmental Activism Inside and Outside of the Country.

Sherry Boyette, M.A.

Capstone: Porch Living: The Material Culture of the Ailey Young House.

North Carolina Department of State Archaeology: Archaeological Technician

Harley North, M.A.

Capstone:

Ciele Rosenberg, M.A.

Thesis: Fluctuating Asymmetry and the Embodiment of Maternal Stress at Newton Plantation, Barbados.

U.C. Berkeley: Ph.D. Student

Connor Seaton-Plesser, M.A.

Thesis: Fetchez la vache”: an Actor-Network Theory Approach to the Ritual and Domestic Zooarchaeology of the Irish Neolithic Transition.

Archeological Technician

Clara Chang, M.A.

Capstone: Understanding the Confederate Monument Debate in North Carolina: Anthropological Voices in the Research Triangle

Audrey Egler, M.A.

Capstone

HIT Strategies: Innovation Assistant –

Kiana Fekette, M.A.

Thesis: Beads, Buckles, Buttons, and Pipes: Embodiment of Identity at Somerset Place, NC.

University of Texas at Austin: Digital Reformatting Coordinator

Ashleigh Freeman, M.A.

Thesis: Asymmetry in the Arm and Hand Bones as Potential Indicators of Handedness.

Cobb County School District: Teacher

Paige Knapp, M.A.

Capstone: Burial Practices of Eke Parish on the Island Gotland, Sweden: An Overview of Changes in Continuity.

Jennifer Molchan, M.A.

Capstone: Digitizing the Brown Family Collection at the Molly Brown House Museum.

Burns & McDonnell: Assistant Cultural Resource Specialist –

Amanda Posgai, M.A.

Capstone

NC Department of State Archaeology: Archaeological Technician

Jordan Smart, M.A.

Thesis: Logit Summation as an Alternative Sex Estimation Method.

Novagene USA: Tech Support Scientist

Corrie Strayer, M.A.

Capstone

Cisco: IB Data Analyst

Danielle Airola, M.A.

Capstone: Keeping It in the Grave: The Bioarchaeology of the Undead.

University of Montana: Ph.D. Candidate in Anthropology

Joel King, M.A.

Thesis: Consuming or Consumed at the Fred Graves Site, 31AM448: Economic Strategies and Consumption Behaviors on a 19th Century Farmstead and Community Hub.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Ph.D. Candidate in Anthropology

Megan Schwalenberg, M.A.

Thesis: Frailty in the Lower Illinois River Valley: An Analysis of Periosteal New Bone Formation during the Transition to Agriculture.

New South Associates: Assistant Lab Manager

Sarah Edwards, M.A.

Thesis: The Politics of Place: Branding, Identity, and Belonging in Pinehurst, NC.

University of Wisconsin-Madison: Ph.D, Candidate in Media and Cultural Studies

Felipe Acosta Munoz, M.A.

Thesis: Ko’ox T’aano’on ich Máaya: Yucatec Maya Language Revitalization Efforts among Professional Educators in the State of Yucatán, México.

University of Florida: Ph.D. Candidate in Anthropology

Rebekah Podolefsky, M.A.

Capstone: The Great Pestilence and It’s Effects on Stature and Body Mass in Urban Medieval England

University of Iowa: Operations Coordinator

Maomao Tang, M.A.

Capstone: Nature-culture: An Examination of Cultural Impacts on Representations of Nature in the Museums of Natural History and Natural Science in Beijing and Raleigh

Yorktown Systems Group: Chinese Mandarin Instructor

William Turner, M.A.

Capstone: How Trade with the English Effected Occupations and Movement of the Yamasee in Lower South Carolina, Leading to the Yamasee War of 1715

Tower Engineering Professionals: Staff Archaeologist

Vanessa Way, M.A.

Capstone: Practices of Asylum Seeking: Culture, Community and the State as Alternative Forms of Law

Gianni Solórzano Rincón, Ph.D.

Dissertation: The We Is Non-Negotiable: How Students of Color Birth Belonging in Predominantly White Space

Katherine Johnson, Ph.D.

Dissertation: Multiracial Families and the Myth of a Post-racial U.S.: An Intersectional Examination of Racial Socialization Practices, Family Dynamics, and Interactions.

College of Charleston: Visiting Assistant Professor

Emilia Cordero Oceguera, Ph.D.

Dissertation: Transformative Harvests: Everyday Resistance and Relational Care in the Food and Agricultural Work of Mexican Migrant Farmworker Mothers in North Carolina

Darien Dixon, Ph.D.

Dissertation: No Longer Divided:  Analyzing the Racial Integration of Schools in North Carolina

Generative AI Content Writer & Prompt Engineer: Global Logic

Tom Leppard, Ph.D.

Dissertation: Collaborating with Competitors: Exploring Network Mechanisms that Drive the Benefits of Collaboration in Music

Postdoctoral Researcher: Data Science Academy, NCSU

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The following students were awarded a Master’s Degree en route to their Ph.D. at NC State

Malia Hamilton, M.S.

Thesis: Racialized Transactionalism: The Racial Politics of Giving and Receiving in the Black Panther Party’s Food Distribution Work

Juliene Porcuincula, M.S.

Thesis: Understanding the Filipino Immigrant Experience through Dietary Acculturation and Ethnic Identity.

Leena Torky, M.S.

Thesis: Arab Muslim Immigrant Women, Dating, and Racial
Formation

Davion Washington, M.S.

Thesis: Black Perspectives on White Racial Allyship.

John Hedlund, Ph.D.

Dissertation: The Development of Plastics in the United States: A Political Economic, Historical, and Socioecological Analysis.

Adjunct Instructor in Sociology: Elon University

Joshua Hummel, Ph.D.

Dissertation: Migrants, Monuments, and Masks: Presentations of Opposition as Collective and Racial Identity Construction.

Researcher/Author

Claudia Liu, Ph.D.

Dissertation: Foreign Feelings: Emotive and Intersectional Experiences of International Chinese Students.

Rights NGO: Research Assistant

Marissa Personette, Ph.D.

Dissertation: Controlling Images & Aversive Racism: How Race Influences Bystander Intervention in Campus Sexual Victimization.

Duke Social Science Research Institute: Evaluation and Applied Research Associate

Chaniqua Simpson, Ph.D.

Dissertation: Through a Black Queer Feminist Lens: Ideology and Praxis in a Black Youth Activist Organization

East Carolina University: Assistant Professor

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The following students were awarded a Master’s Degree en route to their Ph.D. at NCSU

Patricia Sanchez Ramirez, M.S.

Thesis: Examining the Influence of Nested Contexts of Reception on Undocumented Graduate Students.

Bec Stargel, M.S.

Thesis: Pathways of Survival and Resistance: How Trans People Navigate Healthcare Barriers.

Daulton Selke, M.S.

Thesis: All I Did Was Stand in the Middle”: A Case Study of Pitch Contours and Boundary Maintenance in the Prosody of Tupac Shakur.

Xiaoqin Yan, M.S.

Thesis: American Sociology as a Cultural System: Examining meaning structure in knowledge production through semantic network analysis.

Chao Liu, Ph.D.

Dissertation: Network Embeddedness and Team Collaboration in the GitHub Community.

Minnesota State University, Mankato: Assistant Professor of Sociology

Shelly Maras, Ph.D.

Dissertation: Healthcare as an Institution of Social Control: Intimate Partner Violence Survivors’ Experiences of Medicalization, Safety, and Punitive Care.

UNC Chapel Hill: Research Scientist

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The following students were awarded a Master’s Degree en route to their Ph.D. at NCSU

Christian Alberg, M.S.

Thesis: Gentrification and Legacies of Slavery: Are Place-based Tax Incentives Exacerbating Racial Economic Inequality?

Megan Martinez, M.S.

Thesis: Alleviating Procedural Frustration: How the 2006 Immigration Reform Protests Increased U.S. Latinos’ Trust in the Government.

Allison Rungeling, M.S.

Thesis: Employment during the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Avery Walter, M.S.

Thesis: Liberty and Justice for All?: The Limitations of a State-Centered Approach in Immigrant Advocacy.

Southern Coalition for Social Justice: Qualitative Researcher

Meghan Watts, M.S.

Thesis: Reacting to Rebellion: Sentiment Analysis of Tweets about Extinction Rebellion.

Alyssa Alexander, Ph.D.

Dissertation: The Price of Parenthood: Identity Mobilization and the Parenthood Wage Gap Among Paid Care Workers.

University of British Colombia: Lecturer

Laura Bray, Ph.D.

Dissertation: Dividing the San Juan: Settler Colonialism, Water Inequality, and Rural Injustice in the US Southwest.

University of Oklahoma: Research Scientist

Timothy Clark, Ph.D.

Dissertation: The Sea is Empty. Fisheries and the Global Seafood Sector in the Age of Capital. A Socio-Historical Analysis.

Institute for Oceans and Fisheries, University of British Colombia: Postdoc

Peter Knepper. Ph.D.

Dissertation: Does Racial/Ethnic Diversity, Racist Ideology, and Economic Hardship Shape Social Trust and Civic Engagement?: A Critique and Extension of Putnam’s “Hunkering Down” Thesis.

Abt Associates: Senior Data Analyst

Victoria Kurdyla, Ph.D.

Dissertation: Help-Seeking for Transgender and Nonbinary Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence.

UNC Pembroke: Assistant Professor

Blake Martin, Ph.D.

Dissertation: Perceptions of Body Image and Bodily Stigma Among Pre-Adolescent Children: A Photovoice Study.

Evoke MicroMass: Behaviorist

Josephine McKelvy, Ph.D.

Dissertation: Time of My Life: Managing Experiences of Time When Lives Get Stuck.

SHIFT NC: Evaluation Specialist

Adriana Mariana Szabo, Ph.D.

Dissertation: Environmental Threats and Economic Promises: The Treadmill of Production and Gold Mining in Roșia Montană, Romania.

Arizona State University: Teaching Faculty Associate

Andrew Smolski, Ph.D.

Dissertation: Growing (Un)Sustainable Structures. A Comparative-Historical Analysis of Cuba’s Agrarian Social Metabolic Order, 1898-2016.

Pennsylvania State University: Assistant Professor of Rural Sociology

Annika Wilcox, Ph.D.

Dissertation: Agentic Action Under Social Constraints: Diversity Meaning-Making in a High-Tech Organization.

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The following students were awarded a Master’s Degree en route to their Ph.D. at NCSU

Darien Dixon, M.S.

Thesis: Experiencing School in Black & White: Analyzing Race Consciousness during the Racial Integration of Schools.

Landen Gambill, M.S.

Thesis: Social Control and Environmental Grievances in a Risk Society: Coal Ash Contamination in North Carolina.

Danielle Lemite, M.S.

Thesis: Controlling Images in amerika’s Favorite Pornography.

Thomas Leppard, M.S.

Thesis: #GOALS: How Class Origins Affect the Creation and Realization of Career Goals.

Aston Patrick, M.S.

Thesis: Sounding Like You Belong: How Shared Dialect Creates Community in Academia.

Sierra Satterfield, M.S.

Thesis: ‘I Aint Tryna Die:’ Intersections of Race and Gender, Legal Estrangement and Student Support for Campus Carry.

NC State University: Survey Research Analyst

Martha Gathings, Ph.D.

Dissertation: Justice, Equity, and Raising the Age of Juvenile Jurisdiction: A North Carolina Case Study of Race, Ethnicity, and Youthful Defendants in Criminal Courts.

Janelle Perez, Ph.D.

Dissertation: Climate Change, Risk, and Resiliency in Benguet Province, Philippines.

Tessa Permut, Ph.D.

Dissertation: Urban Planning, Revitalization, and the Reproduction of Inequality.

Triangle Men’s Therapy: Licensed Psychotherapist

Virginia Riel, Ph.D.

Dissertation: When Charters are the Choosers: A Supply-Side Analysis of Charter School Choice.

North Carolina State University: Assistant Teaching Professor

Karen Wirth, Ph.D.

Dissertation: The Career Cost of Children: A Life Course Perspective of the Gender Gap in Occupational Status.

Elon University: Lecturer in Sociology

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The following students were awarded a Master’s Degree en route to their Ph.D. at NCSU

Alexandra Bailey, M.S.

Thesis: Fatherhood Under Fire: How Men of the Father’s Rights Movement Establish Themselves as Creditable Men and Victims.

Taurean Brown, M.S.

Thesis: Adopting The Black Radical Perspective: An Analysis of Autobiographical Accounts.

Alivia Canter, M.S.

Thesis: Shame and Obedience: Religion and the Management of Unruly Emotions.

Osborn Gambale Beckley & Budd: Injury Paralegal

Brooke Graham, M.S.

Thesis: Queer-ly Unequal: LGBT+ Students’ Experiences with Social Support and Resiliency in Education.

Grace Wichham, M.S.

Thesis: Emerging Contaminants, Environmental Health and Activism: The Case of PFAS Contamination in NC

3C Institute: Project Coordinator

Tyler Flockhart, Ph.D.

Dissertation: Emotion Work in an Age of Incomplete Acceptance: How Parents and LGBs Manage and Maintain Familial Relationships

Viterbo University: Assistant Professor, Criminal and Community Justice, Sociology School of Human Behavior

Riku Kawaguchi, Ph.D.

Dissertation: Spatial-Temporal Dynamics of Neighborhood Contexts: Considering Time of Day and Types of Neighborhoods in Linking Social Disorganization, Criminogenic Places, and Crime.

Mercer University: Assistant Professor of Sociology

Jennifer Lutz, Ph.D.

Dissertation: Condemning the Criminal Corporation: Corporate Sentencing, Focal Concerns, and the Effects of Dodd-Frank on Sentencing Outcomes.

DHS Science and Technology Directorate: Science and Technology Lab Utilization Manager

Lisa McManus, Ph.D.

Dissertation: Exploring Writing Reviews and Dining Out as Acts of Prosumption: A Qualitative Study of Online Restaurant Reviews.

Wake Tech Community College: Lecturer in Sociology

Mari Kate Mycek, Ph.D.

Dissertation: Reaching Across the Table: An Investigation of Social Ties, Commensality, and Community in Two Food Justice Organizations.

New Growth Innovation Network: Advisor, Inclusive Economic Development

Caroline Myrick, Ph.D.

Dissertation: Language and Gender Ideologies in Higher Education: An Examination of Faculty Discourses.

Wikimedia Foundation: Senior Analyst

Lynn Plummer, Ph.D.

Dissertation: Women in the United States Military Negotiating Work and Family Conflicts in the Republic of Korea.

Nicholas Richardson, Ph.D.

Dissertation: To Arrest (or not): An Examination of Race and Sexual Orientation on the Likelihood of Arrest in Domestic Violence Encounters.

Michele Scott, Ph.D.

Dissertation: Consumed by Health: How Extreme Health Practices Shape Identities.

Sarah Williamson, Ph.D.

Dissertation: Toward an Integrated Theory of Human Trafficking: Unraveling the Role of Global Economic Policies in Shaping Macro-Level Conditions Cross-Nationally.

University of West Georgia: Associate Professor of Criminology

Marie Gualtieri, Ph.D.

Dissertation: The Golden Years or an Age of Insecurity?: The Experiences of Food Insecurity among Grandfamilies.

U.S. House of Representatives: Senior Policy Advisor

Danny Hamrick, Ph.D.

Dissertation: How Markets Shape Geographic Indicators: A Global Value Chain Analysis of Pisco.

Duke University: Senior Program Coordinator

Chris McDaniel, Ph.D.

Dissertation: Parental Incarceration, Depression and Crime: An Examination of Incarceration Timing, Parental Closeness and Parent-Child Gender.

Oregon State University: Instructor of Sociology

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The following students were awarded a Master’s Degree en route to their Ph.D. at NC State

Heather Johnson, M.S.

Thesis: Building a Better Back of the House: North Carolina Women Chef-Restaurant Owners Crafting Identities and Organizations via Carework.

Yuanyuan Liu, M.S.

Thesis: Blue Lives Matter?: An Analysis of Blue Lives Matter News Comments.

Leslie Pierce, M.S.

Thesis: The Gendered Framing of Weight Loss Surgery.

Kelsey Mischke, M.S.

Thesis: Body Dissatisfaction, Body Projects, and Efficacy-Based Self-Esteem: Paths into Bodybuilding.

Marissa Personette, M.S.

Thesis: What Makes a Guardian Capable?: A Routine Activities Approach to Sexual Victimization.