Our PhDs

Josephine Chaet
Critical Liaisons: The Politics of Women’s Organizational Activism in Jordan (T. Bedi, Chair)

Alexandra De Leon
Funerary Practice and Community Identities in the Bacong Region of Negros Island, Central Philippines (M. Hendrickson, Chair)

Caitlyn Knecht Dye
Green Expectations: Politics of the Environment in Pink Tide Bolivia (M. Doane, Chair)

Themal Indula Ellawala
The Art and Torment of Living in a World that Kills You: A Queer-Trans Hermeneutic of Liberalism in Lanka (G. Reddy, Chair)

Aldo Foe
Negara dan Masjid: Mosque Architecture and Religious Change in Early Modern Period Java, Indonesia (M. Hendrickson, Chair)

Kendall Hills
Set in Stone? A Landscape and Material Approach to Provincial Power in the Khmer Empire (M. Hendrickson, Chair)

Lakshita Malik
All Made-up: The Labor Story of Platform Driven Beauty Work in India (T. Bedi and M. Liechty, Co-Chairs)

Shilpa Menon
Seeing the State with Transgender People: Gender, Caste, and Neoliberal Development in Kerala, India (G. Reddy, Chair)

Caitlin Monesmith
Infection and Complexity Embodied on Enamel: Oral Health and Dental Pathology at Ancón, Peru (S. Williams, Chair)

Dipti Sherchan
The Art of Nation-Building: Cultural Politics and Artistic Practices in Nepal, 1950-2025 (M. Liechty, Chair)

Do Yeon Shin
Taxi Industry in Korea: Understanding the Shifts and Working Environment in Platform Economy (T. Bedi, Chair)

Susan Monge
Between Culinary and Consecrated—The Introduction and Management of Turkeys in Greater Nicoya, Costa Rica (S. Williams, Chair)

Benjamin Schaefer
Under the Empire’s Eye: The Psychosocial Stress of Chimú Human Sacrifice (1100–1450 CE) (P.R. Williams, Chair)

Sarah Shepherd Manandhar
Fashioning Futures, Designing Dreams: Gender, Class and Dress in Kathmandu (M. Liechty, Chair)

Kevin Suemnicht
There is No Name for What We Must Become: Autonomous Social Movement in Southern Illinois (M. Doane, Chair)
Recipient the 2025 UIC Outstanding Dissertation Award (Behavioral and Social Sciences Division)

Ashley Vance
Cataloging the Precontact Andes: A Comprehensive Material Study of Spondylus, the Sacred Shell (P.R. Williams, Chair)

Aditi Aggarwal
Pleasure, Pain, and Profits: How Women Vendors Live and Thrive in Mumbai’s Locals (T. Bedi, Chair)

James Meierhoff
Where Voices are Heard: Historic Archaeology at the 19th Century Refugee Village at Tikal, Guatemala (J. Monaghan, Chair)

Aikaterini Psoma
Lithics as Markers of Social Change in the Prehistoric Aegean (W. Parkinson, Chair)

Rory Dennison
Firing and Feasting: Examining Porcelain Production and Consumption of Early Second Millennium East Asia (L. Junker, Chair)

Elizabeth Obregon
Narratives of Race and Ancestry: In Cuba and in the U.S. Diaspora (S. Williams, Chair)

William Ridge
Sociocultural and Demographic Change in Village on the Great Hungarian Plain, c. 4500-3600 BCE (W. Parkinson, Chair)

Neslihan Sen
Vaginismus: Tracing the Politics of a Sexual (Dis)order in Contemporary Turkey (G. Reddy, Chair)

Larissa Smith
Towards a Re-Interpreting of How We Understand Dynamic Regional Forager Resiliency (A. Roosevelt, Chair)

Pamela Whyms
Mediation of the Oral Microbiome Between Obesity and Oral Health in Chicago Children (S. Williams, Chair)

Ana Luiza Morais Soares
Surviving the Concrete Jungle: Indigenous Children in the Brazilian Amazon (1860-1910) (A. Roosevelt, Chair)

Alize Arican
Figuring It Out: Inhabiting Urban Transformation in Tarlabaşı, Istanbul (T. Bedi, Chair)

Kimberly A. Parish Garza
Real Lives True Stories: Peer Interactions and Stress Among Middle School Girls (S. Williams, Chair)

Marie Elizabeth Grávalos
Tracking Recuay Traditions: A Materiality Approach to Ceramic Production and Political Economy in Ancient Peru (P.R. Williams, Chair)

Ellen K. Kang
The Non-profit, Community Gardeners Market: Food Production and Distribution in a Chicago Food Desert (A. Roosevelt, Chair)

Caleb Kestle
One Foot Out The Door: Late Postclassic Zooarchaeology of Lake Mensabak, Chiapas, Mexico (J. Monaghan, Chair)

Wenpeng Xu
Export-Oriented Porcelain Economy in Song-Yuan China: Production Strategies, Interactions, and Networks (L. Junker, Chair)

David Reid
Networks of Empire: The Role of Infrastructure in Wari State Expansion in Arequipa, Peru (AD 600-1000)  (P.R. Williams, Chair)

Patrick M. Knight
From Maintenance to “Recovery”: Mental Health Care and “Necessity” in the Age of Assessment (M. Liechty, Chair)

Benjamin Linder
Mobility, Cosmopolitanism, and the Productions of Place in Kathmandu: A Spatial Ethnography of Thamel (M. Liechty, Chair)
Recipient of the 2020 UIC Outstanding Dissertation Award (Behavioral and Social Sciences Division)

Zachary Blair
Machine of Desire: Race, Space, and Contingencies of Violence in Chicago’s Boytown (G. Reddy, Chair)

Michael Armand Paredes Canilao
Ethnohistorical Archaeology, GIS Analysis, and Satellite Remote Sensing of Five Gold Networks in Luzon (L. Junker, Chair)

Douglas K. Smit
Mercury and the Making of the Andean Market: An Archaeological Study of Indigenous Labor in Colonial Peru (B. Bauer, Chair)

Madeleine Halac-Higashimori
Diet and Ancient Maya Socioeconomic Status at Xcambó, in Yucatán, Mexico. (J. Palka, Chair)

Alexander Marković
Gypsy Fingers are Unique! Identity Politics and Romani Musical Performance in Vranje, Serbia (M. Liechty, Chair)
Recipient of the 2017 UIC Outstanding Dissertation Award (Behavioral and Social Sciences Division)

Stephen P. Davis
Strangers and Priests: Latino Activists and Contested Communities in a Movement for Immigration Reform (J. Monaghan, Chair)

Dylan Thomas Lott
From Interiority to Inner Territory: Tibetan Buddhism, Neuroscience, and the Politics of Representation (M. Liechty, Chair)

Laura Nussbaum-Barberena
Repossessing Democracy: Nicaraguan Women Migrants Constructing a Culture of Participation (M. Doane, Chair)

Danielle J. Riebe
Interaction and Socio-Cultural Boundaries During the Late Neolithic on the Great Hungarian Plain (W. Parkinson, Chair)

Rebecca Mears Seifried
Community Organization and Imperial Expansion in a Rural Landscape: The Mani Peninsula (AD 1000-1821) (W. Parkinson, Chair)
Recipient of the 2016 UIC Outstanding Dissertation Award (Behavioral and Social Sciences Division)

Sofía Chacaltana Cortez
Regional Interfaces between Inca and Local Communities in the Colesuyo Region of Southern Peru (P.R. Williams, Chair)

Paul Andrew LaKosky
Contexts of Sex-Based Exchange: A Cultural Analysis of Risk Perception and Behavior (M. Lieber, Chair)

Erin Joy Peregrine Antalis
Belonging in the Margins: Mothering as Citizenship Among Resettled Refugees in Chicago, Illinois (C. Patil, Chair)

Christopher Sean Davis
Archaeoastronomy of Terminal Pleistocene Rock Art on the Amazon River at Monte Alegre, Pará, Brazil (A. Roosevelt, Chair)

Matthew Piscitelli
Ritual is Power? Late Archaic Small-Scale Ceremonial Architecture in the Central Andes (J. Haas, Chair)

Evin Rodkey
Life After Deportation: Surviving as a Dominican Deportee (M. Liechty, Chair)

Cecilia Alaina Smith
Haven Geographies and the Indigenous Prestige Economies of Spanish Colonial Philippines (L. Junker, Chair)

John Michels
Where Do We Go From Here? Rural Development and Gentrification in the Almaguin Highlands, Ontario (M. Doane, Chair)

Ken Batai
Effects of Female Gene Flow and Effective Population Size on Old and New World Mitochondrial DNA Patterns (S. Williams, Chair)

Jeff Buechler
Maya Socio-Political Interaction and Domestic Archaecture in the Petexbatun, Guatemala (J. Palka, Chair)

Deirdre Guthrie
Friction and Flow in a Dominican Tourist Town (M. Liechty, Chair)

Lisa C. Niziolek
Ceramic Production and Craft Specialization in the Prehispanic Phillipines, A.D. 500 to 1600 (L. Junker, Chair)

Nicola Sharratt
Social Identities and State Collapse: A Diachronic Study of Tiwanaki Burials in the Moquegua Valley, Peru (R. Williams, Chair)

Mark Golitko
Warfare and Alliance Building during the Belgian Early Neolithic, Late Sixth Millennium BC (L. Keeley, Chair)
Recipient of the 2010 UIC Outstanding Dissertation Award (Behavioral and Social Sciences Division)

Debra K. Green
Geoarchaeology of Prehispanic Agricultural Landscapes in the Bais-Tanjay Basin Negros, Oriental (L. Junker, Chair)

Nam C. Kim
The Underpinnings of Sociopolitical Complexity and Civilization in the Red River Valley of Vietnam (L. Keeley, Chair)

William J. Pestle 
Diet and Society in Prehistoric Puerto Rico: An Isotopic Approach (A. Curet, Chair)

Russell S. Quick
Refuge Fortifications and Linienbandkeramik Site Clustering in the Hesbaye Region of Belgium (L. Keeley, Chair)

Tarini Bedi
Shiv Sena Women and the Gendered Politics of Performance in Maharashtra, India (M. Liechty, Chair)

Ruth Gomberg-Munoz
Hiding in Plain Sight: Labor and Legality in a Mexican Immigrant Network (A. Wali, Chair)
Recipient the 2010 UIC Outstanding Dissertation Award (Behavioral and Social Sciences Division)

Rosa M Cabrera
Beyond Dust, Memories and Preservation: Roles of Ethnic Museums in Shaping Community Ethnic Identities (A. Wali, Chair)

Rahul Chandrashekar Oka
Resilience and Adaptation of Trade Networks in East African and South Asian Port Polities, 1500-1800 CE (C. Kusimba, Chair)

Andrew R. Wyatt
Gardens on Hills: Ancient Maya Terracing and Agricultural Production at Chan, Belize (J. Palka, Chair)
Recipient of the 2009 UIC Outstanding Dissertation Award (Behavioral and Social Sciences Division)

Kara Babrowski
Ethnogenesis and Genetic Identity among the Taita and Mijikenda of Kenya: A Mitochondrial DNA Case Study (S. Williams, Chair)

Marisa Fontana
Of Walls and War: Fortification and Warfare in the Mississippian Southeast (L. Keeley, Chair)

Judy Kemp
Sharing Space with Tourists: A Sicilian Case (J. Phillips, Chair)

Kathleen Forgey (deceased)
Investigating the Origins and Function of Nasca Trophy Heads Using Osteological and Ancient DNA Analyses (S. Williams, Chair)

Vania Smith
Nation Policies, Local Knowledge: Women’s Health and Political Ecology in an Indigenous Mexican Village (A. Roosevelt, Chair)

Thomas J. Loebel
The Organization of Early Paleoindian Economies in the Western Great Lakes (L. Keeley, Chair)

Mary R. Vermilion
The Loyd Site (11 MS 74): A Prehistoric Moorehead Phase Nodal Site (J. Phillips, Chair)

Laura R. Waterbury
In A Land With Two Laws: Spanish and Indigenous Justice in Eighteenth Century Oaxaca, Mexico (G. Feinman, Chair)

Patricia Williams Lessane
Tell My Feet I’ve Made It Home: African-American Imaginings of Home and To Find the Orixas (M. Lieber, Chair)

David K. Wright
Environment, Chronology and Resource Exploitation of the Pastoral Neolithic in Tsavo, Kenya

Ellen R. Quinn
Excavating “Tapajó” Ceramics at Santarém: Their Age and Archaeological Context (A. Roosevelt, Chair)

Kathleen A. Rizzo
The Socioecology of Alouatta pigra at the Calakmul Archeological Zone and Biosphere Reserve, Mexico (J. Prost, Chair)

Edward F. Maher
Food For the Gods: The Identification of Philistine Rites of Animal Sacrifice (J. Phillips, Chair)

Sharon M. Peniston
Women’s Knowledge: An Examination of How Traditional Cultural Practices Survive in Modern Societies (A. Wali, Chair)

Michael W. Hudson
The Black Paradox: The Role of Racism in Maintenance of Collective Identity (A. Wali, Chair)

Iman Nader Saca
Reconfiguring the Early Upper Paleolithic of the Southern Levant: The Bigger Picture (J. Phillips, Chair)