Lewis Rubin Thompson
Doctoral Student, Medicine, Columbia University
Lewis is a student associate of On the Frontlines: Nursing Leadership in Pandemics. He completed Columbia University’s post-baccalaureate pre-medical program in May 2019, and is currently in the process of applying to medical school.
Lewis Rubin Thompson
Lewis is a student associate of On the Frontlines: Nursing Leadership in Pandemics. He completed Columbia University’s post-baccalaureate pre-medical program in May 2019, and is currently in the process of applying to medical school. Prior to beginning his pre-medical studies at Columbia, Lewis graduated with a degree in Piano Performance from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, Washington and worked professionally as a pianist. He also spent several semesters studying harpsichord and is a proponent of early music performance. Lewis maintains an active life as a pianist and harpsichordist.
Working Group Affiliation
Fern Thompsett
Fern Thompsett is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at Columbia University. Her dissertation research explores the Anti-Civilization Movement, an anarchist environmental movement that coheres around an anti-colonial, anti-capitalist critique of mass agriculture.
Photo Credit: Hudson Gardner
Fern Thompsett is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at Columbia University. Her dissertation research explores the Anti-Civilization Movement, an anarchist environmental movement that coheres around an anti-colonial, anti-capitalist critique of mass agriculture. Fern conducts ethnographic fieldwork in the US Pacific Northwest, where the movement originated, to investigate how those inspired by anti-civilization ethics put these ideas into practice. Much of this work is oriented around people's relationships with plant species, whether in terms of foraging wild edibles, exploring animist and Pagan modes of relationality, or reckoning with the effects of climate change. Fern has previously published work on anarchist and egalitarian pedagogies, in the context of the free university movement.
Working Group: Seeds of Diaspora
Solomon Torres
Doctoral Student, Genomic Medicine, Columbia University
Solomon Torres currently works at the Columbia University’s Institute for Genomic Medicine as the Operations Manager for the All of Us Research Program. In the present-day where big-data and genomics are shaping the future of medical care and public health, he is interested in gaining the skills in epidemiological research methods and biostatistical analysis to contribute to the advancement of biomedical and public health research. Through the PMEPC project, he hopes to gain additional insight as to the research that will make use of the precision medicine approach to address health disparities, inequalities, and emerging diseases nationally and globally with an emphasis in Latin America.
Solomon Torres
Operations Manager, All of Us Research Program, Institute for Genomic Medicine, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
Solomon Torres currently works at the Columbia University’s Institute for Genomic Medicine as the Operations Manager for the All of Us Research Program. In the present-day where big-data and genomics are shaping the future of medical care and public health, he is interested in gaining the skills in epidemiological research methods and biostatistical analysis to contribute to the advancement of biomedical and public health research. He has worked in research over the past 10 years in areas such as pulmonary medicine, epidemiology, pediatrics, and neurology; working closely with UBR participants in the research. He has been particularly interested in the incorporation of genomic data into healthcare. In addition, he has an MS in Biochemistry from City College of New York and currently pursuing an Executive MS in Epidemiology at Mailman School of Public Health. Through the PMEPC project, he hopes to gain additional insight as to the research that will make use of the precision medicine approach to address health disparities, inequalities, and emerging diseases nationally and globally with an emphasis in Latin America.
Working Group Affiliation
Kate Trebuss
Doctoral Student, English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University
Kate Trebuss is a fourth-year doctoral student in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. Her dissertation, entitled "Critical Care: Medical Life Writing, Memory, and the Politics of Health," investigates how contemporary autobiographical stoies of illness and medical care facilitate the remembering and forgetting of certain histories and current conditions of violence, oppression, invisibility and inequality, as well as the connections between them.
Kate Trebuss
English and Comparative Literature
Kate Trebuss is a fourth-year doctoral student in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. Her dissertation, entitled "Critical Care: Medical Life Writing, Memory, and the Politics of Health," investigates how contemporary autobiographical stoies of illness and medical care facilitate the remembering and forgetting of certain histories and current conditions of violence, oppression, invisibility and inequality, as well as the connections between them. HEr work focuses on intersections between medicine and literature, in particular the ways in which illness narratives shape health policy and how literary knoweldge can contribute to the clinical and ethical training of medical professionals. Kate is currently a Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellow and the rapporteur for Columbia University's Cultural Memory Seminar. She holds a B.A. Hon. and an M.A. in English Language and Literature from the University of Toronto.
Working Group Affiliation
Brendane Tynes
Ph.D. Candidate, Anthropology, Columbia University
Brendane Tynes is a queer Black feminist scholar and storyteller from Columbia, South Carolina. She received her Bachelor of Arts with Distinction in Cultural Anthropology with a minor in Education from Duke University. She is a Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology at Columbia University, where she studies the affective responses of Black people to multiple forms of violence within the Movement for Black Lives. Her scholarship receives generous support from the Ford Foundation and Wenner-Gren Foundation.
Brendane Tynes
Ph.D. Candidate in Anthropology, Columbia University
Brendane Tynes is a queer Black feminist scholar and storyteller from Columbia, South Carolina. She received her Bachelor of Arts with Distinction in Cultural Anthropology with a minor in Education from Duke University. She is a Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology at Columbia University, where she studies the affective responses of Black people to multiple forms of violence within the Movement for Black Lives. Her scholarship receives generous support from the Ford Foundation and Wenner-Gren Foundation. She is co-host of Zora’s Daughters Podcast, a Black feminist anthropological take on popular culture and issues that concern Black women and queer and trans people. Outside of academe, you can find Brendane dancing, singing, writing poetry, and creating healing spaces for survivors of interpersonal violence, who sit at the center of her commitment to Black feminist anti-oppression work.
Working Group Affiliation
Transnational Black Feminisms, Research Assistant
Alanna Valdez
Doctoral Student, Philosophy, CUNY
Alanna Valdez is a Master’s student in philosophy at the City University of New York, Graduate Center. She also holds a Master’s degree in Ethics, Peace, and Global Affairs from American University’s School of International Service, where she wrote her thesis on how the recently ratified UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities shifts disability rights to a human rights perspective. Her philosophical interests include: personhood, agency, and non-rational justifications for human rights.
Alanna Valdez
Philosophy, CUNY Graduate Center
Alanna Valdez is a Master’s student in philosophy at the City University of New York, Graduate Center. She also holds a Master’s degree in Ethics, Peace, and Global Affairs from American University’s School of International Service, where she wrote her thesis on how the recently ratified UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities shifts disability rights to a human rights perspective. Her philosophical interests include: personhood, agency, and non-rational justifications for human rights. She is particularly interested in the intersections between the opposing models of disability and exploring possible ways for their compatibility.
Stephanie Valentinetti
Doctoral Student, Behavioral Cardiovascular Health, Columbia University
Stephanie Valentinetti is a Project Coordinator at the Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health at Columbia University Medical Center and a graduate student in Columbia's Master's in Bioethics program. She studies ethical issues related to mHealth technology, wearable devices, and data ownership. Stephanie's thesis will focus on the ethics of professional athletes' use of wearable and biometric technologies. Prior to CUMC, she spent four years at Major League Baseball working in anti-doping for the Department of Investigations.
Stephanie Valentinetti
Graduate Student, Columbia University
Stephanie Valentinetti is a Project Coordinator at the Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health at Columbia University Medical Center and a graduate student in Columbia's Master's in Bioethics program. She studies ethical issues related to mHealth technology, wearable devices, and data ownership. Stephanie's thesis will focus on the ethics of professional athletes' use of wearable and biometric technologies. Prior to CUMC, she spent four years at Major League Baseball working in anti-doping for the Department of Investigations. Stephanie received her BA in Biology from Southampton College, Long Island University.
Working Group Affiliation
Ife Salema Vanable
Ph.D. Candidate, Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University
Ife Salema Vanable is an architect, theorist, and historian who holds professional and post-professional degrees in architecture from Cornell and Princeton Universities. Ife is founder and leader of i/van/able, a New York based architectural workshop and think tank. She is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of the Cooper Union and a Ph.D. candidate in architectural history and theory at Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation (GSAPP).
Ife Salema Vanable
Ph.D. Candidate, Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University
Ife Salema Vanable is an architect, theorist, and historian who holds professional and post-professional degrees in architecture from Cornell and Princeton Universities. Ife is founder and leader of i/van/able, a New York based architectural workshop and think tank. She is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of the Cooper Union and a Ph.D. candidate in architectural history and theory at Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation (GSAPP). Her scholarly work asks questions of and seeks to unearth complex and seemingly banal relationships between the design of multi-family housing, municipal government machinations for its development, conceptions of racial difference, geography, finance, program, and family composition. This work engages histories of the private development of low-moderate income housing in the form of high-rise residential towers in 1970s New York under the program known as Mitchell-Lama. In this context, Ife studies modes of black subjectivity and dwelling in tall buildings, the performance of domesticity and respectability, and the politics, aesthetics, and materiality of the making of home.
Working Group Affiliation
Naazanene Vatan
Doctoral Student, Health, Medicine and Society, University of Cambridge
Naazanene Vatan is a medical student at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Her interests include the intersections of literature and medicine; pregnancy and childbirth; and philosophies of scientific progress. Naazanene graduated with a B.A. from Columbia College in Biology and Medicine, Literature, and Society.
Naazanene Vatan
MPhil Candidate, Health, Medicine and Society, University of Cambridge
Naazanene Vatan is a medical student at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Her interests include the intersections of literature and medicine; pregnancy and childbirth; and philosophies of scientific progress. Naazanene graduated with a B.A. from Columbia College in Biology and Medicine, Literature, and Society. She earned her M.Phil from the University of Cambridge, where she wrote her dissertation on obstetric epidural anesthesia use in the U.K. in the 1980s.
Working Group Affiliation
Ayesha Verma
Ayesha Verma is a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate at Columbia University. She has a bachelor's in Biology and a prior master's in Gender and Sexuality. She has been a Commonwealth Youth and British Council Fellow [2013] for her work with sex workers in the red light district of Delhi. Ayesha is currently writing her dissertation on "Performing Stage Corpses in Early Modern British Drama" in which she particularly navigates the existing construction of binaries between subject/object, player/property, and how the stage corpse constantly defies, destabilizes, and dismantles these binaries.
This study, she feels, offers a way of reading early modern plays that are both feminist and queer; one that allows a re-reading of early modern histories as we re-read such plays.
Working Group Affiliation:
Emmanuel Von Schack
Doctoral Student, Art History, Hunter College
Emmanuel von Schack is a deaf art history graduate student at Hunter College; his master's thesis focuses on German artists who were veterans of the First World War and the works of art they created during and after the War. By interweaving disability theories with Foucauldian feminist and queer theories, he explores the complex relationship between masculinity and disability as conveyed in Weimar culture and art. He works as an educator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Solomon R.
Emmanuel Von Schack
Art History, Hunter College
Emmanuel von Schack is a deaf art history graduate student at Hunter College; his master's thesis focuses on German artists who were veterans of the First World War and the works of art they created during and after the War. By interweaving disability theories with Foucauldian feminist and queer theories, he explores the complex relationship between masculinity and disability as conveyed in Weimar culture and art. He works as an educator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and he is the director of ArtASL, a project he founded to develop art lexicon in American Sign Language. He also collaborates with European and American professionals on other projects intended to increase museum access for deaf people.
Working Group Affiliation
Amy Weissenbach
PhD Student, Sociology, Columbia University
Amy Weissenbach is a first-year PhD student in sociology at Columbia University. She is interested in the sociology of knowledge and expertise, cultural sociology, and law and society. She aims to understand dynamics among individuals and institutions shaping notions of social responsibility in tech, and in biotech in particular. She holds an MPhil in History and Philosophy of Science, Technology and Medicine from Cambridge University and a B.A. from Stanford University.
Amy Weissenbach
PhD Student, Sociology, Columbia University
Amy Weissenbach is a first-year PhD student in sociology at Columbia University. She is interested in the sociology of knowledge and expertise, cultural sociology, and law and society. She aims to understand dynamics among individuals and institutions shaping notions of social responsibility in tech, and in biotech in particular. She holds an MPhil in History and Philosophy of Science, Technology and Medicine from Cambridge University and a B.A. from Stanford University.
Working Group Affiliation
Glenn Wolther
Doctoral Student, Neuroscience, Biobehavioral Sciences, Columbia University
Glenn Wolther is a Master of Science candidate in Neuroscience within the Biobehavioral Sciences Department. His diverse research interests include the interrelated genetic, transcriptional, and proteomic changes involved with short- and long-term synaptic potentiation; ways of better integrating research in neurobiology at the molecular, cellular and systems level with cognitive and affective neuroscience and neuropsychology; and the relationship of neuroscience to the law.
Glenn Wolther
Graduate Student, Neuroscience, Biobehavioral Sciences Department, Columbia University
Glenn Wolther is a Master of Science candidate in Neuroscience within the Biobehavioral Sciences Department. His diverse research interests include the interrelated genetic, transcriptional, and proteomic changes involved with short- and long-term synaptic potentiation; ways of better integrating research in neurobiology at the molecular, cellular and systems level with cognitive and affective neuroscience and neuropsychology; and the relationship of neuroscience to the law. Glenn holds a B.A. in English Literature from Boston University and a J.D. from B.U. School of Law. While in law school, he served on the Advisory Committee to the A.C.L.U. of Massachusetts, and worked for the A.C.L.U.'s voting rights project, at their Southern Regional Office in Atlanta. In private practice Glenn has concentrated on Constitutional Law/ Civil Rights, Criminal Defense and other litigation. He is admitted to the bars of N.Y., N.J., U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, U.S. District Courts for the Southern, Eastern, Northern Districts of NY, and the District of New Jersey. He has taken on litigation and trials as a member of the Pro Bono Panel for the U.S. District Court, S.D.N.Y. Glenn’s personal pursuits have included extensive acting in theatre and independent/student films, studying, living and traveling in various European cities, and teaching himself to play guitar.
Working Group Affiliation
Alexa Woodward
Doctoral Student, Bioethics, Columbia University
Alexa Woodward is a newly accepted graduate student in the Bioethics program at Columbia University School of Professional Studies. She graduated with honors from California State University Chico with a B.S. in Cellular and Molecular Biology in 2015, having also competed an Honors Thesis focused on autonomy, futility, and end of life issues. After graduate school, she plans on attending medical school or pursuing a Ph.D. program. Outside of academia, Alexa is an ardent fitness enthusiast, artist, and vocalist.
Alexa Woodward
Graduate Student, Bioethics, Columbia University
Alexa Woodward is a newly accepted graduate student in the Bioethics program at Columbia University School of Professional Studies. She graduated with honors from California State University Chico with a B.S. in Cellular and Molecular Biology in 2015, having also competed an Honors Thesis focused on autonomy, futility, and end of life issues. After graduate school, she plans on attending medical school or pursuing a Ph.D. program. Outside of academia, Alexa is an ardent fitness enthusiast, artist, and vocalist.
Working Group Affiliation
Lee Xie
Ph.D. Candidate, Spanish & Portuguese, New York University
Lee Xie is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese at New York University. She holds a B.A. in Spanish (high honors) and Journalism (double major) from New York University. She works at the intersections of diaspora studies and feminist aesthetics: her dissertation considers how Chinese diasporas are remembered in contemporary feminist aesthetic practices in Latin America and the Caribbean
Lee Xie
Ph.D. candidate, Department of Spanish & Portuguese, New York University
Lee Xie is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese at New York University. She holds a B.A. in Spanish (high honors) and Journalism (double major) from New York University. She works at the intersections of diaspora studies and feminist aesthetics: her dissertation considers how Chinese diasporas are remembered in contemporary feminist aesthetic practices in Latin America and the Caribbean. Her most recent essay, "Mapping Covid-19’s Transnational Implications for Women Workers," was published in CUNY FORUM's special issue, Corona Conversations: East & West. She is a grant awardee and lab member of the 2021-2 Cross/Currents H-Lab, funded by the NYU Center for the Humanities.
Working Group Affiliations
Zip Code Memory Project: Practices of Justice and Repair, Social Engagement Project - Project Manager
Armanc Yıldız
PhD Student, Anthropology, Harvard University
Armanc Yildiz is a PhD student in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University. His current research interests are sexuality, race, labor, political economy, colonialism, migration, Germany, and the anthropology of Europe. He received his master’s degree (with Distinction) in International Performance Research at the University of Warwick. He has a bachelor’s degree (with Honors) in Cultural Studies with a minor on Art Theory and Criticism at Sabanci University.
Armanc Yıldız
Armanc Yildiz is a PhD student in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University. His current research interests are sexuality, race, labor, political economy, colonialism, migration, Germany, and the anthropology of Europe. He received his master’s degree (with Distinction) in International Performance Research at the University of Warwick. He has a bachelor’s degree (with Honors) in Cultural Studies with a minor on Art Theory and Criticism at Sabanci University.
Working Group Affiliation
Jon Zaikowski
Doctoral Student, Bioethics, Columbia University
Jon Zaikowski is the co-founder of CapCell Biologics, a NASA-spinout biotechnology startup developing implants to treat rare diseases. He is a graduate student in Bioethics at Columbia University, having previously graduated cum laude from Wake Forest University with a BA in History and Philosophy.
Jon Zaikowski
Graduate Student, Bioethics, Columbia University
Jon Zaikowski is the co-founder of CapCell Biologics, a NASA-spinout biotechnology startup developing implants to treat rare diseases. He is a graduate student in Bioethics at Columbia University, having previously graduated cum laude from Wake Forest University with a BA in History and Philosophy.
Working Group Affiliation
Rafia Zaman
Doctoral Student, Political Science, Jawaharlal Nehru University,
Rafia Zaman is presently pursuing her doctoral thesis in Political Science at Jawaharlal Nehru University, India under the supervision of Prof. Gurpreet Mahajan. She is interested in the intersectionality of gender and identity politics represented by Muslim women. As part of her M.Phil, she wrote a dissertation on the topic “ ‘Islamic Feminism’: A Critical Appraisal”. Her current research focuses on Muslim women’s activism in India from the period following the Shah Bano controversy till the present.
Rafia Zaman
Rafia Zaman is presently pursuing her doctoral thesis in Political Science at Jawaharlal Nehru University, India under the supervision of Prof. Gurpreet Mahajan. She is interested in the intersectionality of gender and identity politics represented by Muslim women. As part of her M.Phil, she wrote a dissertation on the topic “ ‘Islamic Feminism’: A Critical Appraisal”. Her current research focuses on Muslim women’s activism in India from the period following the Shah Bano controversy till the present. A research paper, “(Re) Framing the Issues: Muslim Women’s Activism in Contemporary India” has been accepted for publication in the January, 2013 issue of ASIEN. Rafia has previously taught the Bachelor’s in Education program at Jamia Millia Islamia and GGSIP University, both in New Delhi.
Helen Zhao
PhD Candidate, Philosophy, Columbia University
Helen Zhao is a PhD candidate in Philosophy at Columbia University, specializing in the philosophy of science and medicine. As the inaugural Graduate Fellow in Medical Humanities, she is the Network Administrator for the CHCI Health and Medical Humanities Network.
Helen Zhao
PhD Candidate in Philosophy, Columbia University
Helen Zhao is a PhD candidate in Philosophy at Columbia University, specializing in the philosophy of science and medicine. As the inaugural Graduate Fellow in Medical Humanities, she is the Network Administrator for the CHCI Health and Medical Humanities Network.
Working Group Affiliation