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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Chang He
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 -
Connor Staggs
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 -
Manuel Moscoso
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 -
Geetika Nagpal
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 -
Karolina Dos Santos
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 -
Emilia Brito
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 -
Shunsuke Tsuda
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 -
Diego Gentile Passaro
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 -
Alexander Yarkin
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 -
David Herrera
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 -
Stephanie Kang
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 -
Juan Pedro Ronconi
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 -
Eva Rios
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 -
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 precedence over democracy for... Read more -
Madison Paulk
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 -
Ji Soo Hong
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 -
Ike Uri
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 -
Katie Duarte
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 -
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 Bennouna
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 -
Nicolas Taccone
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 -
Samsun Knight
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 -
Hsu Huang
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 -
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 -
Nabila Islam
I received my BA in history and political science at York University in Toronto, Canada. I completed my MA work at the Department of Political Science at McGill University, the Center for Public Policy at the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore (where I was a Queen Elizabeth II Scholar), and... Read more -
Haoming
I am a PhD student in the Sociology Department. My research interests lie in the overlapping areas of family studies and inequality. Particularly, I am interested in the recent changes in family structures and relationships as well as how they contribute to the reproduction and transmission of different forms of... Read more
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Aaron
I am a third-year PhD student in the Economics Department, specializing in Urban Economics and Development Economics. My current work focuses primarily on urban disasters, rebuilding, and the resulting shifts in long-run city outcomes. My other research interests focus on slums, property... Read more
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Amy Jo-Shin Wang
I am a first year PhD student in the Political Science Department. My interest in political science is rooted in the confluence of ethics and science. I intend to focus my research in the field of International Political Economy with an emphasis on development, climate change, and inequality in the... Read more -
Jonathon
I am a PhD student in sociology. I earned my BA in Political Science (Theory tract) and Ethnic Studies at Brown University. As an undergraduate, I was a research assistant for Kay Warren, an anthropologist, studying human trafficking, prostitution, and labor migration in Latin America and East... Read more
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Shanelle
I am a PhD student in the Sociology Department. I’m interested in socio-economic inequality, social policy, international organizations, transnational populations, and socio-economic remittances. I hold a master’s degree in Sociology from Brown University, a master's degree in Community Development from Vanderbilt University and a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Spelman... Read more
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Daniel
I am a first-year PhD student in the Political Science Department. I am particularly focused on the politics of Turkey, Russia, and Eastern Europe. My research interests include ethnopolitics, conflict, secularism, religion in politics, and nationalism. I hold a BA in History and Literature (Russian) from Harvard College... Read more
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Jocelyn
I am a PhD student in Sociology. My research interests are organizations, gender, and political sociology. I focus on questions related to anti-human trafficking, transnational social movements, women’s empowerment, and the role of organizations in advocacy and collective action. I hold an MA in ... Read more
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Megan
I am a first year sociology PhD student. I obtained my BA at the College of the Holy Cross (right down the road!) in Political Science and French and studied abroad in Strasbourg, France for a year, taking classes at the Institut Robert Schuman. After graduation, I spent a few months... Read more
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Keenan
I am a PhD student in the Sociology Department. My research is in political and comparative historical sociology. I’m interested in labor movements and political change in the Middle East and North Africa and I am currently working on the emergence and organization of unions in Tunsia. I received my... Read more
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Danielle
I am a PhD student in the Sociology Department. I focus on environmental sociology and critical development with a specific emphasis on climate change. My research looks at the intersections of climate change and development policies in Bangladesh and the multi-scalar inequalities revealed in their... Read more
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Samee
I am a PhD student in the Anthropology Department. My research interests include disability studies, citizenship, sovereignty, political movements, violence, war, medical anthropology, secularism, sectarianism, and Islam in Lebanon, Palestine, and the broader Middle East. I am currently researching the... Read more
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Kaustav Chakrabarti
I am a third year graduate student in the Department of Political Science. I am interested in understanding the development of political order during civil wars. I want to explore variation in the use of violent and non-violent repertoires by states to generate social control during violent conflict. I have... Read more -
Amanda
I am a PhD student in the Sociology Department. My research interests are in urban and political sociology. I focus on questions related to ethnic conflict, displacement, urbanization, urban social movements, and the social and political use of space by urban refugees. I hold a BA in Sociology and Peace... Read more
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