Degree: PhD, Near Eastern Studies

Language: Persian

Research interests: Jewish and Muslim diasporas, Sufism, and Persian literature

Michael Dekhtyar is a senior in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, minoring in International Trade and Development. On campus, he served as Vice President of The Cornell Diplomat and Managing Editor for the Cornell International Affairs Review. Currently, Michael is spending his summer interning at the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs in DC, where he hopes to build a career in global trade, infrastructure and industrial policy, and international affairs.

Molly Goldstein is a rising junior in the School of Arts & Sciences, double majoring in Government and Near Eastern Studies and minoring in dance. Throughout her studies, Molly has become passionate about the intersection of international relations, human rights, and conflict resolution, taking classes in areas that help her understand how countries cooperate to advance shared goals. She hopes to continue exploring foreign policy initiatives and innovative ways to build bridges between countries across the globe. 

Degree Pursued: PhD

Anticipated Degree Year: 2029

Committee Chair/Advisor: Juno Parreñas

Discipline: Science & Technology Studies

Primary Language: Tagalog/Filipino

Research Countries: Philippines, United States

Ainav Rabinowitz was a Laidlaw Scholar and the Founder of the publication Women of MENA, Cornell’s premiere gender studies publication that focused on gender and culture studies of the Middle East and North Africa Region.

Patrick J. Mehler is an M.S. candidate in Industrial and Labor Relations. He graduated with a B.S. with Honors in 2023. Patrick assists in teaching law, graduate, and undergraduate students about mediation and restorative justice and has served as Cornell's longest student-mediator through the Campus Mediation Practicum. As an undergraduate, Patrick's work in peace studies included research in Vietnam, the Hopi Nation, and the Navajo Nation, which culminated in graduating as an ILR Global Scholar.

Yingyun ‘Aurora’ Zhang is a graduating senior at Cornell University. She is a double major in Government and Information Science, with a minor in Law & Society. Raised on the China-Myanmar border, she has been exposed to rich ethical and religious diversity, along with the complexities of ongoing conflicts in the neighboring region.

Henry Cheng (he/they) is a first-year Ph.D. student at Cornell's history department. As a social historian in training, Henry focuses on the history of radicalism in the global 1960s-70s with a specific concentration on the cases of China and Asian American communities. Before joining Cornell, Henry graduated from the University of California, San Diego, in 2020 and the University of Chicago in 2022.

Kaitlin Findlay is a doctoral candidate in the Cornell History Department. Her current research examines forced displacement, humanitarianism, liberal internationalism, and memory in the mid-twentieth century.

Yulin Li is a student in the MA Historic Preservation Planning program. Her research focuses on the value of informal practice as a participator in urban development and collective memory and heritage for people’s everyday life. She looks into the degrading industrial cities in China and USA and explores how collective memories are being destroyed with the industrial buildings, and discusses how to regenerate past industrial cities with the preservation of industrial memories.