GPD Trainees and Fellows
The Graduate Program in Development is home to over 50 trainees. All GPD trainees are pursuing PhDs in anthropology, economics, history, political science, or sociology, while also receiving advanced interdisciplinary training in the area of development and inequality. Between 2010 and 2016, many of our GPD trainees were supported by generous fellowships from the National Science Foundation’s Integrated Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT).
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Patrick Shaw
Patrick is a PhD student in the Sociology Department. He is broadly interested in using quantitative methods to study social problems. He plans to situate his research at the intersection of education, labor, migration, and the environment with a focus on emerging economies, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Patrick holds a... Read more -
Sergei Pankratev
I am Sergei Pankratev, PhD in Economics student at Brown. My research interests are Economic Growth and Development, Cultural Economics, Political Economy and Behavioral Economics. Currently, I am working on the projects of Historical Gender Gap and Agriculture, and on Deep Roots of Preferences for Redistribution. Before Brown, I graduated... Read more -
Sara Spaziani
I am a PhD student at the Economics Department and I am specializing in Development and Public Economics. Broadly, I am interested in policy design and evaluation. My current research deals with the effectiveness of gender quotas systems to promote female empowerment in Italy and the design of coaching systems... Read more -
Giulia Buccione
I am Giulia Buccione, PhD student in Economics. I am specializing in the fields of Development Economics and Comparative Growth. My research interests include issues concerning migration, conflict, and political polarization, with a focus on MENA countries. I am also interested in long-run development issues on the effects of the Arab slave... Read more -
Subadevan
Subadevan is a graduate student in Brown’s PhD program in sociology with interests in processes of urban and environmental change unfolding around the world. More specifically he is interested in the political and economic motivations behind these changes, their impacts on various societal groups, and the cultural frames that enable... Read more -
Nomaan Hasan
I am a PhD student in the Department of Anthropology. My research interests revolve around sovereignty, law, violence and religion. I focus on the historical and contemporary constructions of mass political subjects in Uttar Pradesh, India. I hold a Master’s degree in Sociology from Delhi School of Economics a Bachelor’s... Read more -
Fred Shaia
I am a Ph.D. student in the Political Science Department, concentrating in International Relations. My research interests broadly include the international politics of climate change, the geopolitics of energy, and U.S. foreign policy. Before Brown, Fred earned a Master in Public Policy from Harvard and spent several years working for international... Read more -
Radhika Moral
Radhika Moral’s research is based in Assam, in Northeast India. The research focuses on lives of a migrant community and how its interfaces with the social and cultural dynamics of water in the Brahmaputra valley. Central to this, are issues of representation and claims to indigeneity in regional formations tied to more contemporary debates... Read more -
Aarushi
I am a second year PhD student at the Economics Department. My research interests include Public and Development Economics. I am interested in studying applications of collective action problems in Developing countries. My current research deals with the causes and effects of residential segregation in Indian cities. Prior to Brown,... Read more
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Alex
I am a PhD student in economics, focusing on development economics and urban economics. My current research interests are issues concerning infrastructure, health, and gender. I’m particularly interested in impacts of infrastructure and growing cities on different aspects of life in developing countries, including health and gender equality. I hold... Read more
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Santiago
I am a PhD student in Economics at Brown University. I obtained my MA at Universidad del CEMA and my BA at Universidad de Buenos Aires ((both in Argentina). I am interested in applied microeconomics and data science, particularly in issues relating to human capital, labor markets and inequality. In the past, I have worked... Read more
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Marlon Jimenez Oviedo
Marlon Jiménez Oviedo is a PhD student in Theatre Arts and Performance Studies and a master's student in Development Studies through Brown's Open Graduate Education Program. As an artist/scholar, Marlon is interested in movement traditions, both embodied practices and social movements that live outside systems of authorship... Read more -
Suvina
I am a doctoral student in the Sociology Department, with research interests in the fields of social and family demography, gender, social policy and inequality. I hold a BA in Economics from Delhi University, a Masters in International Development (with concentrations in global health and research) from Sciences Po, Paris,... Read more
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Chang
I am a PhD student in Anthropology. My primary research interest lies in operating NGOs and foundations in China. I use multi-sited ethnography to explore how professionals in the nonprofit sector understand and pursue development and how they negotiate resources with corporations and the government. I obtained my BA in... Read more
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Connor
I am a PhD student in Department of Political Science, specializing in comparative politics. My research interests center around politics in South Asia, particularly voter behavior, ethnic & religious politics, and public service provision. I am also interested in the politics of globalization and international trade, as well as electoral... Read more
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Manuel
Manuel is a Fulbright scholar at Brown University pursuing his Ph.D. in Political Science with a special interest in comparative politics and political economy. He received his B.S. in Economics with an emphasis on economic theory and his M.S. in Economics from Javeriana University, Colombia. He is primarily interested in... Read more
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Geetika
I am a PhD student in the Economics Department, with research interests in the fields of Urban and Development Economics. I hold a BA in Economics from Delhi University and an MSc in Economics for Development from the University of Oxford. Before starting my PhD at Brown, I worked as a... Read more
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Karolina
Karolina is a PhD student in the department of sociology. Her interests include: international migration, development, and Latin American and Caribbean studies. Currently, she is working on a project about international migration in the Global South, using the recent Haitian and Venezuelan migration to Chile as a case study.... Read more
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Katyayni Seth
I am a PhD student in the Anthropology Department. My research interests include public health systems, medical and healing practices, labor and care-giving professions. My current research focused on medical practice in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. I hold a masters degree from Harvard School of Public Health and and I obtained my BA in Economics and International Studies from Colby College.... Read more -
Emilia
I am a PhD student at the Economics Department. Broadly, my research interests lie within applied economics, focusing on education and labour markets. Specifically, I study the interaction between gender and economic and public institutions. My current projects analyse the formation of gender disparities in self-confidence and expectations, as well... Read more
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Shunsuke
I'm a PhD student in economics. My research fields are development microeconomics, political economy, and spatial economics. My current work focuses on economic geography and agricultural development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Another research focuses on conflicts, insurgency, and terrorism in the developing world, theoretically and empirically. I hold B.S. in agriculture... Read more
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Diego
I am a PhD student in the Economics Department specializing in Applied Microeconomics, Policy Evaluation, and Data Sciences. My interests include Labor, Health, and Urban Economics. My current work explores the effects of improved access to safe abortion on labor market and health outcomes both in Uruguay and the United States; the labor market effects of internal migration due... Read more
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Alexander
I am a 2nd-year Ph.D. student in economics. My research interests are in the broad fields of growth and development economics, with a focus on inequality, political economy of non-democratic regimes, cultural impediments to development and historical origins of contemporary performance. I am working at the intersection of economics, history,... Read more
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David
I am a Ph.D. student in Political Science. My research interests include Latin American Politics, the Political Economy of Development and Natural Resources, Decentralization, and Environmental Politics and Policy. I would like to study contemporary problems of informal and formal resource extraction, environmental sustainability, and public goods provision to identify... Read more
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Stephanie
I am a PhD student in the economics department. I would like to specialize in political economy and comparative development. My interest spans over different topics in migration, both international and domestic, and inequality. I have an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics and a BCom in Finance... Read more
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Juan
I am a PhD student in Economics at Brown. I obtained my MA at CEMFI (Spain) and my BA at Universidad de San Andres (Argentina). My research interests lie within development, labor and political economics. In the past I have worked on the effect of labor unions on inequality and... Read more
Pedro Ronconi -
Eva
I am a PhD student in Political Science. My research focuses broadly on criminal governance. I am interested in the relationship between non-state armed groups, the state, and citizens. Specifically, how the presence of criminal organizations can effect how citizens interact with the state. I have a regional focus on... Read more
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Muhammad Omar Afzaal
I am a Ph.D. student in Political Science, focusing on International Relations and Security. My research engages civil-military relations vis-à-vis interstate conflict and security institutional design. I’m particularly interested in the paradox of nuclear proliferation, how territorial conflict influences civil-military relations, and where national security takes... Read more -
Madison
I am a PhD student in the Department of Anthropology. My primary focus is urban anthropology and public art in South Africa. Specifically, I am interested in the ways in which visual artistic practice transforms and transects multiple experiences of the city. As South Africa moves into its twenty-fifth year... Read more
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Ji Soo
I’m a PhD student in the Department of History, working on Soviet Union and modern Russia. My interest lies in the intersection between ideologies and practices of modern development. I am particularly interested in transnational development of Soviet space after the second world war, focusing on Siberian oil and gas. I... Read more
Hong -
Ike
I'm a PhD student in sociology. My primary focus is on environmental sociology, and I am also interested in political and economic sociology as well as development and inequality. I received a BA in sociology from the University of Kansas in 2017, and I was in Tajikistan on a Fulbright... Read more
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Katie
Katie Duarte is a Ph.D. student in the Sociology Department. After completing her bachelor's degree in Economics at Vassar College, she worked as a research assistant at the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute (DSI) under the tutelage of Dr. Ramona Hernández. As a research assistant, she focused on Dominicans who migrated... Read more
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Maria Lopez-Portillo
I am a PhD student in the Sociology Department. I focus on organizational change, political processes and subject-making in Latin America. I hold a BA in political science from El Colegio de México and an MA in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago. ... Read more -
Cyril
I am a doctoral student in political science. My research focuses on efforts to improve the wellbeing of populations affected by armed conflict. I am particularly interested in interventions aimed at preventing political, community, and family violence, strengthening civil society and local governance, and integrating forced migrants into their new... Read more
Bennouna -
Nicolas
I'm a Ph.D. student in Political Science (Comparative Politics). I received my M.A. in Political Science from Universidad Torcuato Di Tella and my B.A. from Universidad de San Andrés. My substantive interests are state-building and democratization processes, with a regional focus on Latin America. I'm also interested in the study of... Read more
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Samsun
I am a second-year Ph.D. student in the Economics Department. I intend to specialize in applied microeconomics, with a particular focus on labor and development economics. In addition, I'm interested in critical analysis of measurements, and how certain biases of measurements can change over time. I have an MA in... Read more
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Hsu
I am a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology. My research interests are anchored in comparative-historical sociology, with an emphasis on how modern states and complex organizations, especially in non-democratic contexts, exploit professional ideas for policy and governance update, and how professional communities survive organizational or normative lustration. In... Read more
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Alejandra Irene Cueto Piazza
I am a PhD student in the Sociology Department. My research broadly addresses the interface between political sociology, labor relations and sociology of professions. Specifically, I am interested in understanding state bureaucracies in relation to the informal economy and unions or workers organizations. Before arriving to Brown, I earned an MA in... Read more -
Deborah Frempong
I am a PhD student in the Anthropology Department. My research interests include religion, gender, transnationalism and race. I focus on the historical and contemporary constructions of womanhood in Ghanaian Christian communities. I hold a masters degree in theological studies with a focus on religion, politics and ethics from Harvard... Read more -
Jose Manuel Belmar Ahonzo
I am a PhD candidate in the Economics Department, specializing in Comparative Development and Urban Economics. My research interests are in long-run development, structural transformation and spatial inequality in Latin America. I am currently studying different cases of economic change in Argentina, Colombia and Mexico, during the 20th century. I... Read more
