Degree Pursued: MPS

Anticipated Degree Year: 2026

Committee Chair/Advisor: -

Discipline: Global Development

Research Countries: Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Philippines, Vietnam

Degree Pursued: MA

Anticipated Degree Year: 2027

Committee Chair/Advisor: Shaoling Ma

Discipline: Asian Studies

Primary Countries: Cambodia, Las, Myanmar, Vietnam

Research Interests: Cultural capital flow, Chinese-Cambodian interaction, creative industries

Degree Pursued: PhD

Anticipated Degree Year: 2030

Committee Chair/Advisor: Eli Friedman

Discipline: Industrial & Labor Relations

Primary Countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore

Research Interests: Labor and technology

Degree Pursued: PhD

Anticipated Degree Year: -

Committee Chair/Advisor: Juno Parreñas

Discipline: Anthropology

Primary Countries: Thailand

Research Interests: How Karen communities in Northern Thailand understand their socioecological entanglements and how they translate those understandings in their encounters with the state, NGOs and tourists

Degree Pursued: PhD

Anticipated Degree Year: 2026

Committee Chair/Advisor: Chiara Formichi

Discipline: Asian Studies

Primary Countries: Indonesia, Japan

Research Interests: Urbanism, Architecture, Technology, Diplomacy, Japan–Southeast Asia Relations, Transpacific Studies

Upasana Singh is a J.S.D. candidate at the Cornell Law School. She is also working as a research assistant with Carl Marks Professor of International Studies at Cornell University, Dr. Kaushik Basu. She holds an LL.M. from Cornell Law School with a focus on conflict resolution and restorative justice. She serves on the review board of the Indian Law Institute Law Review. 

Prior to this, she served as an Assistant Professor of Law in India and practiced as an advocate in the Supreme Court of India and the High Court of Delhi. 

Sebastian Restrepo is a PhD student in the Department of City and Regional Planning. His research interests focus on the institutional arrangements to improve the implementation of peace agreements in conflict or post-conflict regions. He has more than fifteen (15) years of experience designing and implementing regional development programs.

Or Aroch is a PhD student in the Department of Anthropology. His research focuses on education and childhood in the context of Israel/Palestine. He examines how educational processes and children’s experiences in conflict-ridden Israel transform amid war, political instability, and civic upheaval, with attention to processes of militarization and nationalization, negotiations over future visions and collective memory, and the role of democratic and peace education in these circumstances.

Kyaw Hsan Hlaing is a PhD student in the Department of Government. He studies comparative politics and international relations with a focus on political violence, insurgency, authoritarianism, and regime change, exploring dynamics of civil conflict and post-war transitions.