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People

More than 350 faculty from across Cornell come together at the Einaudi Center to imagine and conduct global research. Over 150 graduate and undergraduate students find resources, inspiration, and a global scholarly community through Einaudi's eight regional and thematic programs and minors.

Senior Lecturer, Tagalog

Maria Theresa C. Savella teaches all levels of Tagalog (Filipino). She is co-author with John Wolff and Der-Hwa Rau of Filipino Through Self-Instruction (1991, rev.

Program Manager
Associate Professor, City and Regional Planning
Stephan Schmidt's research interests concern land-use policy, patterns, and processes.
Assistant Professor, History

Casey Schmitt is a historian of early America and the Caribbean, with particular interests in human trafficking, colonization, and illicit economies over the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Assistant Professor, Sociology
Landon Schnabel's research focuses on the intersection of inequality, gender, sexualities, religion, public opinion, and social change. He is a 2021–22 Global Public Voices fellow.
Samuel B. Eckert Professor of Computer Science

Fred Schneider's research supports the construction of concurrent and distributed systems for high-integrity and mission-critical settings. 

Horace White Professor in Biology, Professor Emeritus
Thomas Seeley, College of Arts and Sciences, teaches courses on animal behavior and does research on the behavior and social life of honey bees.
FLAS Fellow

Degree: PHD, Architecture

Language: Bengali

Research interests: environmental history, agrarian studies, the built environment, land use and regulation, South Asian diasporic networks, and architectural and agricultural expertise 

Graduate student

Trishna is a PhD candidate in the department of Anthropology. Her research interests include carceral institutions as well as practices of prison reform and rehabilitation in India. 

Graduate Student

Degree Pursued: PhD

Anticipated Degree Year: 2025-26

Committee Chair/Advisor: Arnika Fuhrmann & Nick Salvato

Discipline: Performing and Media Arts (PMA)

Graduate Student

Degree Pursued: PhD

Anticipated Degree Year: 2024-25

Committee chair/advisor: Filiz Garip, Shannon Gleeson

Discipline: Sociology

Associate Professor, Science and Technology

Suman Seth works on the social, cultural, and intellectual history of science and medicine. His interests include the history of medicine, race, and colonialism, the physical sciences (particularly quantum theory), & gender and science.

Graduate Student

Payal is a Ph.D. candidate in the field of Applied Economics and Management. Her work is primarily focused on development economics and applied econometrics.

Visiting Scholar

 Devika Singh Shekhawat is a writer, educator and researcher from India. Her research interests lie at the intersection of gender and labor studies, public health, migration studies, and developmental issues.

Assistant Professor, City and Regional Planning

Linda Shi's research and professional practice focus on urban environmental governance and advancing planning policies to manage the urban climate transition in ways that improve social equity.

Graduate Student

Bruno Shirley is a PhD student in Asian studies. He focuses mainly on Pali Buddhist depictions of kings and kingship in Southern Asia, particularly Sri Lanka. He holds an MA in religious studies from Victoria University of Wellington.

Committee chair…

Professor Emeritus, Anthropology and Asian Studies

James Siegel retired from full-time teaching in 2007. He is the last of the second-generation SEAP faculty to retire. Like other emeritus SEAP faculty, he retains an office at the Kahin Center and is available to help mentor future scholars of Southeast Asia.…

Associate Professor, German Studies

Elke Siegel's research is in German literature from 1900 to the present, literary theory, and psychoanalysis.

Editor, Cornell East Asia Program

Alexis came to Cornell University Press in June 2019 as the new acquisitions assistant and Mellon University Press Diversity Fellow. Alexis has a PhD in History, with a focus on the history of Chinese law, and works in both Chinese and Japanese.

Professor of Practice, Systems Engineering

Semida Silveira is a Professor of Practice in the Systems Engineering Program and a member of the CEET Council of Engineers for the Energy Transition.

Graduate Student

Degree Pursued: PhD

Anticipated Degree Year: 2027

Committee Chair/Advisor: Steve Grodsky

Discipline: Natural Resources

Primary Language:…

Executive Director, Center for Islam in the Contemporary World (CICW), Shenandoah University

Ermin Sinanović is the executive director of the Center for Islam in the Contemporary World (CICW) at Shenandoah University, where he is also a Scholar in Residence.

Senior Lecturer, Asian Studies

Geographic Research Area: India

Teaching/Research Interests: All levels of Hindi language

Graduate Student

Degree Pursued: PhD

Anticipated Degree Year: 2023-2024

Committee chair/advisor: Arnika Fuhrmann

Discipline: Asian Studies

Primary Language…

Director, Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies
Rebecca Slayton is an associate professor of science and technology studies in the College of Arts and Sciences. Her research and teaching focus on international security, governance, and cooperation since World War II.
Administrator and HR Manager
Judy Small supports the Einaudi Center and Office of the Vice Provost for International Affairs. She has worked at Cornell since 1985 in administration and human resources positions.
Professor, Integrative Plant Science, Plant Breeding and Genetics Section

Since August 2020, Margaret Smith has served as the director of the Cornell Agricultural Experiment Station and associate dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Her research is primarily on field corn, but also includes work on sweet corn.…

Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences in Anthropology

The central preoccupation of Adam Smith's research and writing is the role that the material world—everyday objects, representational media, natural and built landscapes—plays in our political lives.  

Professor Emeritus, Chemistry

Dotsevi Sogah's research covers the design and synthesis of new polymers, preparation of protein-based polymers, and application of living polymerization methods to surface functionalization of nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes.

LACS Graduate Fellow ‘23-‘24

Waleska Solórzano is a Ph.D. student of Hispanic Studies in the Department of Romance Studies. Waleska primarily researches aesthetic manifestations of the Venezuelan diaspora, or what she terms the Venespora, vis-à-vis queer artistic practices.

Associate Professor, Asian Studies

Suyoung Son is a literary and cultural historian of early modern China (1500-1900). Her research focuses on the narrative tradition and social practice of writing and reading in the historical conditions of print culture, commercialization, and urbanization.

Senior Lecturer, Asian Studies
Meejeong Song has experience teaching all levels of Korean at Cornell. Her research interests include Second Language Acquisition, web-based teaching material development, interactive student group project development, and technology-aided teaching methodology.
Associate Professor, Literatures in English

Derrick Spires is an associate professor of literatures in English and affiliate faculty in American, visual, and media studies. He specializes in early African American and American print culture, citizenship studies, and African American intellectual history.…

Professor, SUNY Polytechnic Institute

Kathryn Stam is a professor of anthropology at SUNY Polytechnic Institute. She serves as the coordinator of the online master’s program in information design and technology, and she teaches undergraduate anthropology.

Associate Professor of Playwriting, Department of Theatre Studies, Ithaca College

Saviana Stanescu is a Romanian-born poet and writer, and an award-winning playwright and ARTivist based in NY. She is the winner of New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Script, Samuel French OOB Festival, Best Romanian Play of the Year UNITER Award, and…

Professor and Department Chair, Natural Resources and the Environment

As a faculty member in resource policy and management, Richard Stedman’s teaching, outreach, and research focus on the interaction between social and ecological systems.

Professor, Biological and Environmental Engineering

Tammo Steenhuis’s research is carried out over a trillion-fold scale range, from the transport of micro particles in soil pores to the effect of human interventions in the landscape on transport of water and sediment in large river basins.  He…

Faculty Associate in Research

Emiko Stock is a visual and historical anthropologist. Working with Chams (Cambodian Muslims) and Sayyids (descendants of the Prophet Muhammad), she traces passages between Sunnism and Shi’ism and Cambodia and Iran as a practice of history refracted in still and…

Senior Domestic Policy Advisor, Oxfam America
Patricia Stottlemyer is a human rights lawyer specializing in advocating for the U.S. to uphold its human rights obligations. She is a 2021–22 Global Public Voices fellow.
Professor, History and Classics
Associate professor of History

Peidong Sun is a social and cultural historian of the post-1949 period in China.

Postdoctoral Fellow
Aichiro Suryo Prabowo (Chiro) is a postdoctoral fellow in the Southeast Asia Program (SEAP). His research integrates sustainability and resilience issues into public finance and budgeting.
IES Graduate Fellow
Senior Lecturer, Asian Studies

Misako Suzuki is a senior lecturer in the Department of Asian Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Visiting Fellow

Sara A. Swenson (she/her) is an Assistant Professor in Religion at Dartmouth College. Her research focuses on contemporary Buddhism in Vietnam. During her time at SEAP, she will be completing her first book…

Graduate Student

Degree Pursued: PhD

Anticipated Degree Year: 2026

Committee chair/advisor: Kathryn Fiorella & Bruce Lauber

Discipline: Natural Resources, Political…

Director, Comparative Muslim Societies Program

Eric Tagliacozzo is the John Stambaugh Professor of History at Cornell University. He is the director of the Einaudi Center's Comparative Muslim Societies Program and a core faculty member of the Southeast Asia Program and South Asia Program.

Assistant Director, Casa della Regina Carolina (CRC) Project

Kaja Tally-Schumacher’s research interests include ancient Mediterranean gardens and landscapes, comparative environmental history, and issues pertaining to sustainability and resiliency in the ancient Mediterranean world and in contemporary archaeological practice…

Graduate Student

Degree Pursued: PhD

Anticipated Degree Year: N/A

Committee Chair/Advisor: Durba Ghosh

Discipline: History

Primary Language: …

Emeritus Maxwell Upson Professor of Government and Adjunct Professor, Cornell Law School

Department of Government, College of Arts and Sciences.

IES Graduate Fellow
Professor Emeritus, Asian Studies

Keith Taylor became interested in Vietnam as a result of his U.S. Army service in the Vietnam War. He earned his PhD in 1976 at the University of Michigan. He subsequently taught in Japan and Singapore for several years before returning to the United States in 1987…

Assistant Professor, Landscape Architecture

Maria C. Taylor is a historian and theorist of landscape design, environmental relations and international urban planning.

Graduate Student

Degree Pursued: PhD

Anticipated Degree Year: N/A

Committee Chair/Advisor: Ted O'Donoghue

Discipline: Behavioural Economics

Senior Lecturer, Asian Studies

Felicia Qiuyun Teng teaches intermediate and advanced Chinese language and literature. She previously served as an editor at Beijing Publishing House and as a journalist and editor for Beijing Publishing House's University Students magazine.

Professor, Cornell Brooks Public Policy
Sharon Tennyson’s primary research focus is the impact of laws and government regulations on the well-being of consumers in markets. She coordinated Einaudi's disasters research team.
Senior Lecturer, Spanish Language

Brisa Teutli's areas of interest include web-enhanced and computer-assisted instruction, material development, teaching methods, learning strategies, language lab operation, teacher training, and study abroad.

Professor, Law
Chantal Thomas directs the Clarke Initiative for Law and Development in the Middle East and North Africa at Cornell Law School. She is a 2021–22 Global Public Voices fellow.
LACS Graduate Fellow ‘23-‘24

Amandla Thomas-Johnson is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Literatures in English, focusing on the literary activism and global solidarity that coalesced around the Grenadian revolution in the Caribbean.

Visiting Scholar

Sarah Thompson is a Ph.D. Candidate in political science at Stanford University. Her research leverages causal inference methods in the study of traditional governance and the political agency of women, with active projects in Pakistan, India, and Mexico.

Senior Extension Associate and Assistant Director, Cornell Cooperative Extension

Keith Tidball conducts integrated research, extension, and outreach activities in the area of ecological dimensions of human security. Tidball's work is focused on the interactions between humans and the rest of nature in the aftermath of disturbances such as…

Graduate Student

Degree Pursued: PhD

Anticipated Degree Year: 2024

Committee Chair/Advisor: Imane Terhmina

Discipline: Romance Studies

Primary Language:

Graduate Student

Praveen is a PhD student at the Department of Comparative Literature. His work focuses on modern South Asian literary and intellectual history (with an emphasis on 20th century Sri Lanka), psychoanalytic theory, Buddhist modernist thought, and postcolonial studies…

Professor, Historic Preservation Planning

Geographic Research Area: Asia, the Middle East, and Central and South America

Teaching/Research Interests: Relationships between museums and the public, and preservation, planning, and religion 

Professor, Le Moyne College

Tooker, Deborah E., (Ph.D.

LACS Graduate Fellow '19-'24

Rafael Torralvo is a violinist and musicologist whose academic research focuses on the intersection between music, literature, and politics to analyze the construction of national identity in Brazil during the military dictatorship (1964-1985).

Senior Lecturer, Vietnamese

Thuy Tranviet has been teaching Vietnamese in the Department of Asian Studies since 2000. She teaches Vietnamese at all levels, including advanced courses in newspaper reading and Vietnamese contemporary literature.

Associate Professor, History

Geographic Research Area: India and Pakistan

Teaching/Research Interests: British Empire, legacy of Indo-Persian politics in colonial era, history of political and economic ideas, and the history of global interconnections…

Susan and Barton Winokur Professor in the Humanities

Enzo Traverso is a historian of modern and contemporary Europe. His research focuses on the intellectual history and the political ideas of the twentieth century.

Professor, Public and Ecosystem Health

Alexander Travis is director of ithe Master of Public Health program in the College of Veterinary Medicine. His research explores a diverse set of subjects related to one health: interdisciplinary work that links the functions and well-being of people, animals, and…

Assistant Professor, Romance Studies

Irina Troconis’s areas of specialization include: Memory Studies, Venezuelan Studies, Politics and Performance, Affect Theory, and Digital Humanities.

John and Dyan Smith Professor of Management and Family Business

Margarita Tsoutsoura is an associate professor and Smith Family Business Professor of Finance at the SC Johnson Graduate School of Management.

Associate Director, Global Development

Terry Tucker is a Professor of the Practice in the Department of Global Development. He serves as Co-Director of Graduate Studies for the MPS – Global Development program. His teaching and outreach work focuses on smallholder agriculture, especially…

Research Professor, Global Development
Hale Ann Tufan is interested in building gender-responsive agricultural research systems through curriculum development. She is a 2021–22 Global Public Voices fellow.
Administrative Assistant and Funding Coordinator

Sydni Tung is the Administrative Assistant in the East Asia Program. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in East Asian Studies and Political Science from Mount Holyoke College.

Graduate Student

Degree Pursued: PhD

Anticipated Degree Year: Spring 2024

Committee Chair/Advisor: Mason Peck

Discipline: Aerospace Engineering

Primary Language…

Graduate Student

Degree Pursued: MPH

Anticipated Degree Year: 2025

Committee Chair/Advisor: N/A

Discipline: Infectious Disease Epidemiology

Primary…

Professor Emeritus, Government and International Agriculture

Geographic Research Area: India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Bhutan

Teaching/Research Interests: development administration, irrigation management, local participation, agroecology, and …

Program Manager

Luke Urbain (they/them, él/ellx) received their Ph.D. from UW-Madison, where they focused on art, literature, and visual culture of Cuba and the Cuban diaspora and were an affiliated graduate student in the Latin American, Caribbean, and Iberian Studies…

Graduate Student

Palashi is a PhD student in the Information Sciences department at Cornell. Her research interests are located in technology policy, design and cultures. She works at the intersection of Information Science, Science and Technology Studies, and Anthropology.

Regional Scholar Affiliate

Judith Van Allen is a Regional Scholar Affiliate at the Institute for African Development at Cornell University and a long-time activist-scholar. She received her B.A from Stanford University and her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in political…

Professor, School of Integrative Plant Science Soil and Crop Sciences Section

Harold van Es is a Professor of Soil and Water Management with extension, research and teaching duties.

Professor, SUNY-Buffalo State

Vida Vanchan is a professor at SUNY-Buffalo State. She holds a doctorate in international economic and business geographies and a master’s degree in international trade from University at Buffalo.

Assistant Professor, Information Science
Aditya Vashistha's research focuses on creating social computing technologies that empower underserved communities worldwide. He is a 2021–22 Global Public Voices fellow.
Assistant Professor, Anthropology 

Matthew Velasco is an anthropological bioarchaeologist who studies ancient populations of the Peruvian Andes through the analysis of their skeletal remains.

Visiting Fellow

Matthew Venker is a cultural anthropologist studying the historical intersections of race, religion, and citizenship in Burma.

Assistant Professor, History

Stephen Vider is assistant professor of history and director of the Public History Initiative at Cornell University.

LACS Graduate Fellow ’23-‘24

Amanda Mayte Vilchez is a Peruvian biologist focused on studying science communication and participatory research in Latin America.

Frederic J. Whiton Professor of Humanities, Performing and Media Arts

Amy Villarejo has published widely in cinema and media studies, with research on feminist and queer media, documentary film, Brazilian cinema, Indian cinema, American television, critical theory, and cultural studies. 

Associate Professor, Anthropology

Sofia A. Villenas is interested in how people teach and learn across home, school and community contexts, and how difference is constituted and made consequential in these endeavors. 

Professor, English

Helena María Viramontes is the author of The Moths and Other Stories and two novels, Under the Feet of Jesus and Their Dogs Came with Them. A recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the John Dos Passos Award for Literature…

FLAS Fellow

Degree: MPS, Global Development

Language: Hindi

Research interests: social-ecological systems, equitable conservation, and sustainable agriculture

Visiting Fellow

Hew Wai Weng is a research fellow at the Institute of Malaysian and International Studies, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (IKMAS, UKM). His research interests include the intersections between ethnicity, religiosity, class and politics in Malaysia and Indonesia.…

Assistant Professor, Department of Global Development

Kurt Waldman is an assistant professor in the Department of Global Development at Cornell University. He studies judgment and decision making related to environmental sustainability, climate adaptation and food security.

Director of Collections, Cornell Library

Kizer Walker is Director of Collections for Cornell University Library and serves as managing editor of Signale: Modern German Letters, Cultures, and Thought, an electronic and print book series co-published by Cornell…

Director, East Asia Program and Professor, Government

Jeremy Wallace is a professor in the Department of Government. He is the director of the East Asia Program for the term 2022-2025.

Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Government

Nicolas van de Walle's primary field is comparative politics. His teaching and research focuses on the political economy of development, with a special focus on Africa, on democratization, and on the politics of economic reform.

Graduate Student

Darren Wan is a PhD student in the History Department. His research focuses on the ways South Chinese and South Indian migrant workers articulated claims to citizenship in the early postcolonial states of Burma and Malaya.

Degree Pursued:

Professor Emeritus, Economics

Henry Wan's research focuses on development under globalization, the economics of East Asia, industrial policy, and welfare economics of international trade. 

Professor of Human Development, Psychology, and Cognitive Science

Qi Wang is professor of human development, psychology, and cognitive science at Cornell University. She is the past associate director of the Cornell East Asia Program and former department chair of human development.