Amar Mandavia
Doctoral Student, Clinical Psychology, Columbia University
Amar Mandavia is currently a second-year doctoral student pursuing clinical psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University from where he also holds a master’s degree in clinical psychology. In his current involvement with ELSI, Amar is assisting in a systematic review to identify genetic markers and subsequent variations among different racial and ethnicity groups to inform PMI research efforts. His master’s thesis focused on analyzing longitudinal epidemiological data to identify prospective psychosocial factors that impact transition to and recovery from homelessness among adults in the US.
Amar Mandavia
Graduate Student, Teachers College, Columbia University
Amar Mandavia is currently a second-year doctoral student pursuing clinical psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University from where he also holds a master’s degree in clinical psychology. In his current involvement with ELSI, Amar is assisting in a systematic review to identify genetic markers and subsequent variations among different racial and ethnicity groups to inform PMI research efforts. His master’s thesis focused on analyzing longitudinal epidemiological data to identify prospective psychosocial factors that impact transition to and recovery from homelessness among adults in the US. His current research examines the impact of the social environment and community participation among couples who were previously homeless and its impact upon their risk recurrent homelessness.
Working Group Affiliation
Lianna Marks
Doctoral Student, Global Health, Columbia University Medical Center
Lianna Marks is a Pediatric Hematology and Oncology Fellow at the Children's Hospital of New York and Columbia University Medical Center. She is a graduate of Columbia College and the Indiana University School of Medicine and completed her pediatric residency at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Her interest in Global Health has lead her to clinical work in Kenya, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic. Her research investigates using natural killer cell immunotherapy in the treatment of cancer.
Lianna Marks
Fellow, Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, Children's Hospital of New York and Columbia University Medical Center
Lianna Marks is a Pediatric Hematology and Oncology Fellow at the Children's Hospital of New York and Columbia University Medical Center. She is a graduate of Columbia College and the Indiana University School of Medicine and completed her pediatric residency at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Her interest in Global Health has lead her to clinical work in Kenya, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic. Her research investigates using natural killer cell immunotherapy in the treatment of cancer. She is also interested in how genetic sequencing can be used to identify targeted therapies and predict risk of relapse in patients with pediatric leukemia.
Working Group Affiliation
Bree Martin
Doctoral Student, Genetic Counseling, Columbia University
Bree Martin is from Los Angeles, CA, and received a bachelor’s degree in psychobiology with a minor in philosophy from UCLA. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree at Columbia University in Genetic Counseling. Bree has past research experience in genetic factors in schizophrenia, and was an active member of UCLA’s Bioethics Society. She hopes to be an advocate for equitable healthcare, specifically within genetic medicine.
Bree Martin
Graduate Student, Genetic Counseling, Columbia University
Bree Martin is from Los Angeles, CA, and received a bachelor’s degree in psychobiology with a minor in philosophy from UCLA. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree at Columbia University in Genetic Counseling. Bree has past research experience in genetic factors in schizophrenia, and was an active member of UCLA’s Bioethics Society. She hopes to be an advocate for equitable healthcare, specifically within genetic medicine.
Working Group Affiliation
Liza McIntosh
PhD Student, English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University
Liza McIntosh is a PhD student in the department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia. She is broadly interested in the culture and texts of the Early Modern period, with a focus on questions of gender, sexuality, and nature. She received her BA from Johns Hopkins University in English and Art History.
Liza McIntosh
Liza McIntosh is a PhD student in the department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia. She is broadly interested in the culture and texts of the Early Modern period, with a focus on questions of gender, sexuality, and nature. She received her BA from Johns Hopkins University in English and Art History.
Working Group Affiliations
Sarah McLaughlin
Graduate Student, Narrative Medicine, Columbia University
Sarah McLaughlin is a first-year graduate student in the Narrative Medicine Program at Columbia University. She is interested in prioritizing stories of marginalization in the clinical encounter, employing storytelling to better care for individuals in underserved communities, and understanding patients’ stories in the context of identity, community and society.
Sarah McLaughlin
Graduate Student, Narrative Medicine, Columbia University
Sarah McLaughlin is a first-year graduate student in the Narrative Medicine Program at Columbia University. She received her B.A. from Williams College earlier this year, where she completed a dual major in English Literature and Chemistry, with a concentration in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. She was also on the pre-health track at Williams, and looks forward to pursuing a career in the medical field. She is interested in prioritizing stories of marginalization in the clinical encounter, employing storytelling to better care for individuals in underserved communities, and understanding patients’ stories in the context of identity, community and society. In her free time, she enjoys field hockey and weightlifting, playing and writing music, and exploring new places with friends and family.
Working Group Affiliation
K. Melodi McSweeney
Graduate Student, Genetics and Development, Columbia University
K. Melodi McSweeney is a fourth year PhD candidate in Genetics whose research focuses on modelling the effect of mutations that cause neurological disorders. Melodi is originally from Belize City, Belize and moved to Chicago, IL in 2008 to finish her Bachelor’s Degree in Molecular Biology at Loyola University Chicago. Melodi went on to complete a Post-Baccalaureate Research Education Program at the University of Michigan in the Human Genetics department where she studied atypical progeria and DNA damage due to hydroxyurea, a treatment for sickle cell anemia.
K. Melodi McSweeney
Graduate Student, Genetics and Development, Columbia University
K. Melodi McSweeney is a fourth year PhD candidate in Genetics whose research focuses on modelling the effect of mutations that cause neurological disorders. Melodi is originally from Belize City, Belize and moved to Chicago, IL in 2008 to finish her Bachelor’s Degree in Molecular Biology at Loyola University Chicago. Melodi went on to complete a Post-Baccalaureate Research Education Program at the University of Michigan in the Human Genetics department where she studied atypical progeria and DNA damage due to hydroxyurea, a treatment for sickle cell anemia. Melodi started her PhD in 2012 through the University Program in Genetics and Genomics at Duke University and then joined Dr. David Goldstein’s lab in 2013. Melodi relocated to Columbia University with Dr. Goldstein’s group in 2015 and is currently continuing her PhD research on the effect of microRNA manipulation on neuronal activity and the functional consequences of mutations in the ATP1A3 gene.
Working Group Affiliation
Laura McTighe
Graduate Student, Religion, Columbia University
Laura McTighe is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Religion at Columbia University. She comes to her doctoral studies through nearly twenty years of grassroots activism to end state violence and advance community healing. Her research examines the co-constitution of race and religion, of gender and governance, in the American and Global South today by ethnographically centering women’s geographies and archives of struggle.
Laura McTighe
Graduate Student, Religion, Columbia University
Laura McTighe is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Religion at Columbia University. She comes to her doctoral studies through nearly twenty years of grassroots activism to end state violence and advance community healing. Her research examines the co-constitution of race and religion, of gender and governance, in the American and Global South today by ethnographically centering women’s geographies and archives of struggle. Her dissertation project, “This Day, We Use Our Energy for Revolution”– Black Feminist Ethics of Survival, Struggle, and Renewal in the new New Orleans, has been supported by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, and the Institute for Religion, Culture, & Public Life. She is also completing a book-length project on HIV, gender, and Islam with South African scholar/activist Farid Esack. To date, her writings have been published in Beyond Walls and Cages: Bridging Immigrant Justice and Anti-Prison Organizing in the United States (2012), the International Journal for Law and Psychiatry (2011), Islam and AIDS: Between Scorn, Pity and Justice (2009), and a variety of community publications. McTighe is the Co-Founder of the Front Porch Research Strategy in New Orleans, and serves as a Board Member to Men & Women In Prison Ministries in Chicago and Reconstruction, Inc. in Philadelphia.
Working Group Affiliation
Sonia Mendoza-Grey
PhD Student, Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Sonia Mendoza-Grey is a PhD student in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences at Mailman School of Public Health. Mendoza-Grey employs her human biology, sociology, and qualitative research training to her dissertation research that examines precision medicine implications for the Latinx population. Specifically, her work investigates how recruitment and analysis of the Latinx population shapes and informs understandings of Latinidad, and how researchers’ work with Latinx populations illuminates the assembled connections among genetics, ethnicity, and race through contemporary bioscience.
Sonia Mendoza-Grey
PhD Student, Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Sonia Mendoza-Grey is a PhD student in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences at Mailman School of Public Health. Mendoza-Grey employs her human biology, sociology, and qualitative research training to her dissertation research that examines precision medicine implications for the Latinx population. Specifically, her work investigates how recruitment and analysis of the Latinx population shapes and informs understandings of Latinidad, and how researchers’ work with Latinx populations illuminates the assembled connections among genetics, ethnicity, and race through contemporary bioscience. This project engages science and technology literature, critical ethnic and race theory, as well as with health disparities research among minorities.
Working Group Affiliation
Ariel Merkel
Sociology, The New School for Social Research
Ariel Merkel is a Sociology PhD candidate at the New School for Social Research, with a focus on disability studies. She earned her MA at NSSR in May 2011, and holds a BA (cum laude) in Cultural Anthropology from Wells College, a small women’s college in the Finger Lakes region of New York State. Upon graduation in 2005, she was awarded the Carter A. Woods Prize for her thesis, which analyzed the strategies of Kanaka Maoli (indigenous Hawaiian) activists involved in the Cultural Revitalization Movement.
Ariel Merkel
Sociology, The New School for Social Research
Ariel Merkel is a Sociology PhD candidate at the New School for Social Research, with a focus on disability studies. She earned her MA at NSSR in May 2011, and holds a BA (cum laude) in Cultural Anthropology from Wells College, a small women’s college in the Finger Lakes region of New York State. Upon graduation in 2005, she was awarded the Carter A. Woods Prize for her thesis, which analyzed the strategies of Kanaka Maoli (indigenous Hawaiian) activists involved in the Cultural Revitalization Movement. Ariel supplemented this research with a six-week ethnographic study in O’hau and the Big Island where she conducted interviews with “houseless” Kanaka Maoli, who reside in beach-tents as a result of the land-struggle throughout the islands. Prior to returning to graduate school, Ariel worked for People Inc., a non-profit agency that serves the developmentally disabled, where she spent four years administrating and managing residential facilities (IRA and SIRA) and served as a Medicaid Service Coordinator (MSC) for the northern region of Buffalo, NY. She was also involved in Deaf Adult Services during her time in Buffalo, and enrolled in several American Sign Language courses and is able to have basic conversations in ASL. Her current research stems from her previous nonprofit work with people with disabilities, specifically feminist disability theory. She is fascinated by how disability, a malleable identity which shifts spatially and temporarily and yet is so deeply rooted to the body and literally embedded in bone, intersects with other identities that are typically conceptualized as socially constructed performances.
Working Group Affiliation
John Michalczyk
Sociology, The New School for Social Research
John Michalczyk is a doctoral student in Sociology at the New School for Social Research, currently working on a project exploring disability in virtual worlds. His other interests include social interaction, ethnography, and identity formation. John combines his academic research in Sociology on disabilities, hidden and visible, with his interest in documentary filmmaking.
John Michalczyk
Sociology, The New School for Social Research
John Michalczyk is a doctoral student in Sociology at the New School for Social Research, currently working on a project exploring disability in virtual worlds. His other interests include social interaction, ethnography, and identity formation. John combines his academic research in Sociology on disabilities, hidden and visible, with his interest in documentary filmmaking. His work includes a short documentary on Keith Jones, a musician and disabilities advocate (Keith Jones: Un-Rapping Disability) and a nearly completed documentary on the artist, Edwina Sandys (Recreating Life in Art). His current film project focuses on music and disabilities.
Guilherme Estermann Meyer
Ph.D. candidate, Department of English, New York University and SSHRC
I’m a PhD candidate and teaching assistant in the Department of English at New York University. My dissertation project deals with prophetic utopianism, which is a mode of utopianism that engages in prophetic denunciation-annunciation as a means to sustain revolutionary praxis.
Ph.D. candidate, Department of English, New York University and SSHRC
I’m a PhD candidate and teaching assistant in the Department of English at New York University. My dissertation project deals with prophetic utopianism, which is a mode of utopianism that engages in prophetic denunciation-annunciation as a means to sustain revolutionary praxis. I turn to the work of Paulo Freire to theorize this mode of utopianism as one that took shape in the context of the development of liberation theology in Latin America and to explore the continued relevance of a prophetic-utopian impulse in practices of artists and social movements in Brazil from the 1970s to the present. I’m a co-chair of the Marxism working group in the Department of English and an organizer in the union for graduate workers at NYU, GSOC-UAW Local 2110.
Working Group Affiliations
Zip Code Memory Project: Practices of Justice and Repair, Social Engagement Project
Shazia Mitha
PhD Student, Columbia University School of Nursing
Shazia Mitha, MSN, AG-ACNP-BC, RN is a Robert Wood Johnson Future of Nursing Scholar, who is currently a second year PhD student in Nursing. She is an exceptional student, leader, clinician and scholar interested in engaging in ethical, cultural and political conversations about precision medicine to improve the next generation of health care delivery in the world. She believes that as technology and science advance towards precision in health, clinicians must engage in these conversations to ensure the ethical, cultural, and social domains of precision medicine.
Shazia Mitha
PhD Student, Columbia University School of Nursing
Shazia Mitha, MSN, AG-ACNP-BC, RN is a Robert Wood Johnson Future of Nursing Scholar, who is currently a second year PhD student in Nursing. She aims to develop phenotypic risk identification and predictions models of high-risk breast cancer patients experiencing treatment-related cardiotoxicity, using natural language processing and other informatics approaches at Columbia University. She is an exceptional student, leader, clinician and scholar interested in engaging in ethical, cultural and political conversations about precision medicine to improve the next generation of health care delivery in the world. She believes that as technology and science advance towards precision in health, clinicians must engage in these conversations to ensure the ethical, cultural, and social domains of precision medicine.
Working Group Affiliation
Erin V. Moore
Post Doctoral Research Scientist, Heilbrunn Department of Population & Family Health at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health
Erin V. Moore is a postdoctoral research scientist in the Heilbrunn Department of Population & Family Health at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health. A, sociocultural and medical anthropologist, Moore’s research focuses on the role of gender and sexuality in international development and global health at multiple scales – from global intervention campaigns to national policy and program implementation to the lives of girls and women.
Erin V. Moore
Post Doctoral Research Scientist, Heilbrunn Department of Population & Family Health at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health
Erin V. Moore is a postdoctoral research scientist in the Heilbrunn Department of Population & Family Health at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health. A, sociocultural and medical anthropologist, Moore’s research focuses on the role of gender and sexuality in international development and global health at multiple scales – from global intervention campaigns to national policy and program implementation to the lives of girls and women. Her multi-sited research has taken her from United Nations to NGO offices around the world to the slums of Kampala, Uganda’s capital city, where she has been working intensively with a cohort of young women and their families since 2012. At Mailman, Moore joins an interdisciplinary team of researchers investigating how social transitions to adulthood shape HIV/AIDS risk in Rakai, a rural district in Uganda. Moore’s research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, the Society for Psychological Anthropology, the Society for Research on Adolescence, the Buffett Institute for Global Studies at Northwestern, and the American Association for University Women, among others. She received her PhD from the University of Chicago in 2016.
Working Group Affiliation
Sean Murray
Musicology, CUNY Graduate Center
Sean Murray is a doctoral student in musicology at the CUNY Graduate Center. He has presented numerous conference papers on race and gender in American music, and published on the relationship between the nineteenth century piano industry and the African ivory and slave trades. His dissertation examines the intersection of race and disability in American music. Sean was the recipient of a graduate student fellowship at the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution.
Sean Murray
Musicology, CUNY Graduate Center
Sean Murray is a doctoral student in musicology at the CUNY Graduate Center. He has presented numerous conference papers on race and gender in American music, and published on the relationship between the nineteenth century piano industry and the African ivory and slave trades. His dissertation examines the intersection of race and disability in American music. Sean was the recipient of a graduate student fellowship at the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution.
Katherine Neimeyer
Doctoral Student, Narrative Medicine, Columbia University
Katie Neimeyer is a graduate student in the Narrative Medicine program at Columbia University, where she also works as a research coordinator in the Taub Institute and Sergievsky Center on several neurogenetic studies. As an intern in the Summer Internship for Indigenous Peoples in Genomics Canada (SING Canada) 2019 program at the University of Alberta, she participated in a dialogue about Indigenous bioethics and approaches to genomic sciences. She plans on pursuing a career in genetic counseling after she completes her M.S. in Narrative Medicine.
Katherine Neimeyer
Graduate Student, Narrative Medicine, Columbia University
Katie Neimeyer is a graduate student in the Narrative Medicine program at Columbia University, where she also works as a research coordinator in the Taub Institute and Sergievsky Center on several neurogenetic studies. As an intern in the Summer Internship for Indigenous Peoples in Genomics Canada (SING Canada) 2019 program at the University of Alberta, she participated in a dialogue about Indigenous bioethics and approaches to genomic sciences. She plans on pursuing a career in genetic counseling after she completes her M.S. in Narrative Medicine.
Working Group Affiliation
May Niiya
Graduate Administrative Fellow
Media Production and Marketing
May Niiya
May Niiya is a second-year MA student in American Studies at Columbia University. She is interested in the history of U.S. empire and Asian settler colonialism in her home state of Hawaiʻi. In addition to serving as the Graduate Coordinator for the “Refugee Cities: Urban Dimensions of Forced Displacement” Working Group, sponsored by the Columbia Center for the Study of Social Difference, she is also the Rapporteur for the Columbia University Seminar in American Studies.
Akemi Nishida
Doctoral Student, Social Personality Psychology, CUNY
Akemi Nishida is a doctoral student in the social personality psychology PhD program and an adjunct lecturer in Psychology and Disability Studies at City University of New York. Using frameworks of social justice studies and critical disability studies, her work focuses on the politicization of disabled people and community building in relation to intersecting oppression and privilege. She is also a performer in a project ‘GIMP’ by Heidi Latsky Dance and a starting member of DISLABELEDtv, a media organization by disabled youth/young adults.
Akemi Nishida
Social Personality Psychology, CUNY
Akemi Nishida is a doctoral student in the social personality psychology PhD program and an adjunct lecturer in Psychology and Disability Studies at City University of New York. Using frameworks of social justice studies and critical disability studies, her work focuses on the politicization of disabled people and community building in relation to intersecting oppression and privilege. She is also a performer in a project ‘GIMP’ by Heidi Latsky Dance and a starting member of DISLABELEDtv, a media organization by disabled youth/young adults. Through her activism-oriented scholarship and art, she works toward disability justice and larger social justice.
Christie Oliver
Doctoral Student, Biomedical Science, Columbia University
Christie Oliver will be starting at Columbia University, School of Professional Studies, as a graduate student in the Bioethics program in Fall 2017. She is from Edinburgh, Scotland and has a Bachelor’s degree with honors in Biomedical Science (Anatomy) from University of Aberdeen. Her thesis focused on fetal testosterone and the role it plays in the development of autism spectrum disorders. She is fascinated by the differences in health care systems globally and is passionate about the development of emerging medical fields. She is an active runner and loves to do yoga.
Christie Oliver
Graduate Student, School of Professional Studies, Columbia University
Christie Oliver will be starting at Columbia University, School of Professional Studies, as a graduate student in the Bioethics program in Fall 2017. She is from Edinburgh, Scotland and has a Bachelor’s degree with honors in Biomedical Science (Anatomy) from University of Aberdeen. Her thesis focused on fetal testosterone and the role it plays in the development of autism spectrum disorders. She is fascinated by the differences in health care systems globally and is passionate about the development of emerging medical fields. She is an active runner and loves to do yoga.
Working Group Affiliation
Isin Önol
Curator, Oral History and Art, Elgiz Museum of Contemporary Art Istanbul
Işın Önol is a curator and writer based in New York. She has been working as an independent curator (predominantly in the USA, Austria and Turkey) since 2009. Before that, she led the Elgiz Museum of Contemporary Art Istanbul as its director and curator. (2006-2009). Her curatorial research focuses on interconnecting archival information with oral histories to create platforms for collective memory through collaborative art practices
Işın Önol
Curator, Educator, and Writer - New York, NY
Işın Önol is a curator and writer based in New York. She has been working as an independent curator (predominantly in the USA, Austria and Turkey) since 2009. Before that, she led the Elgiz Museum of Contemporary Art Istanbul as its director and curator. (2006-2009). Her curatorial research focuses on interconnecting archival information with oral histories to create platforms for collective memory through collaborative art practices. She is a research scholar at the Center for the Study of Social Difference, Columbia University, and a lecturer at Montclair State University, Department of Art & Design. Önol co-founded and directs the Nesin Art Village, an independent art school in Turkey. Her recent exhibitions include Thinking Food Futures (New York), Women Mobilizing Memory (Istanbul, Vienna, New York, Madrid), and When Home Won’t Let You Stay (Vienna). She curated the International Sinop Biennial in 2012 and 2014. She has produced more than 50 exhibitions internationally, and published on the intersection of social justice and art. Önol holds an MFA from Sabanci University, Istanbul, a MAS from Zürich University of the Arts, and is a PhD candidate at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna. Isin Önol has been elected to the Board of Directors of Roberto Cimetta Fund for the period 2018-2021 and 2021-2024. https://isinonol.com/
Working Group Affiliation
Zip Code Memory Project: Practices of Justice and Repair, Social Engagement Project
Ittai Orr
PhD Student, American Studies, Yale University
Ittai is a Ph.D. candidate in American Studies. His dissertation is an intellectual history of intelligence and intellectual ability in 18th- and 19th-century America with a focus on popular literary texts. His other areas of expertise include the history of race, sexuality and gender studies, disability studies, and the history of capitalism. He has been a tutor for the undergraduate non-fiction writing course “Daily Themes,” a writing instructor, and an LSAT-prep tutor and instructor. His work has been published in American Quarterly and Public Books, and he has presented at the Modern and Contemporary Studies Initiative, American Studies Association and the Modern Language Association.
Ittai Orr
PhD Student, American Studies, Yale University
Ittai is a Ph.D. candidate in American Studies. His dissertation is an intellectual history of intelligence and intellectual ability in 18th- and 19th-century America with a focus on popular literary texts. His other areas of expertise include the history of race, sexuality and gender studies, disability studies, and the history of capitalism. He has been a tutor for the undergraduate non-fiction writing course “Daily Themes,” a writing instructor, and an LSAT-prep tutor and instructor. His work has been published in American Quarterly and Public Books, and he has presented at the Modern and Contemporary Studies Initiative, American Studies Association and the Modern Language Association.
Working Group Affiliation