Spencer Hadley (he/him/his) is a PhD candidate in the Department of German Studies. His dissertation project carries the provisional heading “Jazz Poetry in German Keys: Race, Gender, Sound and Transnational Exchange Since 1945.” It involves 20th and 21st century German-language poetry, prose and performance and is informed by Literary and Cultural Studies, (Jazz and Popular) Music and Sound studies, and Black European Studies. 

Xinyu H. Zhang is a PhD candidate in the Department of Comparative Literature and holds an M.A. in Icelandic Literature from the University of Iceland. He is a reader of critical theories and Far North literature (Nordic-Scandinavian texts, especially those from Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Greenland). He seeks to learn from the poignant dialectics between literary history and natural history in narratives of uneasy settlement in the Far North.

Brume Dezembro Iazzetti is a PhD student in the Department of Science and Technology Studies. She is currently working on a proposal on early trans medicine in Brazil, amid the Military Dictatorship period, crossing discussions on futurity, ethnographies of (and beyond) violence, and paths to reparative justice. Her Ph.D. research moves into present-day controversies on emerging medical and digital technologies, and questions on body plasticity and extraordinary body transformations, including in right-wing movements.

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.

Saomai Phuong Nguyen (they/she) is a PhD student in the Department of History, focusing on Asian/American history. Their research examines refugee transits and passages after the war in Vietnam, particularly the in-waiting site of the refugee camp and how the children of refugees come to remember, understand, and embody their parents’ displacement and resettlement through memory work and cultural productions.

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.

Cassidy Fowler is a PhD student in the Department of Government. Her research focuses on international security, with a particular interest in nuclear weapons strategy and operations, IR theory, and security studies.

Anurag Koyyada is a JD candidate at Cornell Law School. He enjoys interpreting rules and designing technologies in defense, national security, and space contexts. Anurag is interested in how law, society, and technology interact in military and surveillance contexts. His work, as it relates to conflict and security, examines how emerging technologies both mirror and mold societal power, both constraining and enabling peace.