GSAS students regularly earn awards and fellowships, publish, and receive recognition for outstanding work. GSAS is proud to share their accomplishments. 

Celine Camps, PhD Candidate in History, was appointed member of the Renaissance Society of America’s first-ever Graduate Student Advisory Committee. Camps is studying the history of early modern science. Her research interests revolve around early modern artisanal culture and values and the ways in which these influenced not only the interpersonal relationships artisans had with other historical actors, but also what knowledge they communicated, and how.

Noni Carter, PhD Candidate in French and Romance Philology, was awarded the 2019 PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship, offered annually to an author of children’s or young adult fiction. It has been developed to help writers whose work is of high literary caliber and assist a writer in completing a novel-in-progress. In addition, Carter’s short story “Chained to Hope” was recently published in RSA Journal, the official journal of the Italian Association of North American Studies, and her short story “When the Bones Begin to Speak” will be published this fall inKweli Journal.

Cameron LaPoint, PhD Candidate in Economics, was awarded the C. Lowell Harriss Dissertation Fellowship from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. LaPoint’s work examines the role of land-use regulation and local tax regimes in contributing toward bubbles in commercial and residential real estate prices, with a focus on the causes and long-run consequences of the 1980s Japanese Asset Price Bubble. 

Elise Myers, PhD Candidate in Earth and Environmental Sciences, was named a NASA Future Investigator in Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST), which comes with three years of funding to complete dissertation research. Over the past few years, Myers studied urban microbial water quality using a combined approach of experiments and mathematical modeling. With her funding from NASA, Myers will incorporate satellite-based observations in her current work by modelling sewage microbe persistence in urban areas using satellite-derived water transparency. She hopes to mitigate human exposure risk to potential pathogens by developing more cost-effective and broadly applicable tools for predicting urban water quality.

Andrew Olenski, PhD Candidate in Economics, recently had a research letter published in JAMA Psychiatry, co-authored with Adam Sacarny, economist at the Mailman School of Public Health. Olenski is researching the economics of physician behavior using idiosyncrasies in practice styles to try to evaluate treatment efficacy. 

Dialika Sall, PhD Candidate in Sociology, published the article “Selective Acculturation Among Low-Income Second-Generation West Africans” in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. Sall’s research focuses on immigrant assimilation, race, and ethnicity in the context of America’s changing racial demographics. Her dissertation qualitatively examines the processes by which the children of West African immigrants integrate into American society and the racial and ethnic identity-work central to these processes. Drawing on 127 interviews with high school students and teachers in New York City, this study advances a more relational understanding of the pathways that the children of immigrants integrate into our society. It also provides theoretical insight into America’s changing racial order by highlighting how the arrival of African immigrants is redefining understandings of Blackness in America.

If you have been featured in the news, published, or received other recognition, or know a fellow GSAS student who has, please let us know! Please email us at gsas-communications [at] columbia.edu or fill out this form. 
 

On September 12, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences celebrated the official opening of the GSAS Writing Studio, a new space dedicated to supporting Arts and Sciences doctoral students in the process of writing the dissertation. Invited students and faculty joined those who made the Studio possible, from alumni donors to architects and contractors, University librarians and facilities staff, student consultants, and the inaugural Director of the Studio, Kate Daloz.  

The GSAS Writing Studio is more than a gleaming, renovated space on the third floor of Lehman Library. It is a hub of facilitated writing groups, workshops, retreats, drop-in hours, and one-on-one consultations offered so that students do not have to write their dissertation alone and without support.  

In his welcoming remarks, Dean Carlos J. Alonso explained, “When you look at the typical experience of doctoral students, particularly in the humanities and the social sciences, you realize that they come in as a cohort, take classes and comprehensive exams together, and prepare their prospectuses at around the same time. But then, they are all expected to go their separate ways to work on their dissertations. Students in the natural sciences, on the other hand, are more likely to continue their work as part of a shared collective.” 

The GSAS Writing Studio was created specifically to provide an opportunity for students writing their dissertation to connect with one another, within and across the disciplines.

“It’s fabulous to see this space and programming come to fruition,” said Lindsay Leard-Coolidge ’87, ’92GSAS, President of the GSAS Alumni Association Board of Directors. “I’m envious because this didn’t exist when I was a student!”

Kate Daloz, inaugural Director of the Studio, added, “The insight to renovate this space with such care and attention means that it can now serve many more students and can also host a range of programs. It is now a really lovely place to sit and write.”

Valerie Bondura, a doctoral Candidate in Archaeology, herself in the final stages of her PhD, is the inaugural GSAS Writing Studio Fellow responsible for co-designing many of the Studio’s most successful writing-support programs. In her view, the GSAS Writing Studio helps dissertation writers approach their writing as a collaborative effort and as a process. "In doing so,” she said, “the Studio represents a critical piece of graduate professional development, helping students develop meaningful writing practices that will sustain them throughout their intellectual lives."

The GSAS Writing Studio provides an environment that enhances not only the working conditions of dissertation writers, but also intellectual work itself.  
 

Where did you grow up? 
Palm Coast, Florida.

What drew you to your field? 
Having three family members, including my dad, all diagnosed with cancer in a short window several years ago drew me to oncology research right at a time when I was deciding which direction I wanted to pursue in biology.

How would you explain your current research to someone outside of your field? 
My research involves using genomics to study the heterogeneity and microenvironment of tumors. In other words, I use big data-approaches to understand how cancer cells form remarkably complex "communities" within a tumor and how the tumor interacts and is shaped by the body, such as with creation of defenses of the immune system.

What resources or opportunities that Columbia provides have been most valuable to you?
Without a doubt, the most valuable resource here has been the people I've had the opportunity to meet: from our amazing MA program director Dr. Lili Yamasaki to the wonderful faculty, research assistants, professors, TAs, and other students I've had the opportunity to engage in research with and take classes with. That said, the access to scientific papers and high-performance computing resources hasn’t hurt either!

Is there a common misconception about a topic in your field that you wish you could correct?
A cancer diagnosis is always serious, but thanks to the work of innumerable, incredible researchers, clinicians, and volunteers, there really is hope for fighting and even curing the disease. We are increasingly moving in a direction in which it would be a misconception to say that a cancer diagnosis is "the end of the line." By continuing to study how the disease works, we can understand how to better combat it, and I hope to continue to contribute to this process in any way I can. Additionally, it is my hope that the cutting-edge treatments available now or soon on the horizon become accessible to all patients based on medical need, rather than societal privilege.

Who are your favorite writers?
The work of authors like Stephen Jay Gould and Columbia alumnus Richard Lewontin ’1954PhD really fascinate me. Their contributions to evolutionary theory and population genetics have been critical, and their courage and reasoning countering some of the thinly veiled scientific perspectives regarding race and human genetics of their day have been very influential for me. Other writers I've learned from and look up to include John Bellamy Foster and Adam Hanieh; still others that I've really enjoyed more for fun reading include Gore Vidal, Frank Herbert, and Louis L'Amour.

Who is your hero of fiction?
I think Gendry Baratheon from Game of Thrones would make a fine king. Yeah, you read that right!

Who are your heroes in real life?
My mom and dad. They've been through so much adversity: from being immigrants from very different cultures, to dealing with economic hardships of all kinds, to handling my dad's diagnosis, to supporting my younger brother and me. I guess in light of this, they deserve a pass for their perpetual reminders to keep the sink free of dishes!

Who in your field do you consider to be a role model?
One role model I'm really glad to have actually met is Carol Prives, Da Costa Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. She is an incredible teacher and her contributions to studying the biological and genetic defenses the body has against tumorigenesis, and what happens when those defenses don't work properly, are amazing.

What music have you been listening to lately?
I'm a fan of vaporwave music, it's a nice subtle background for studying and programming. Telepath is one of my favorite artists.

What is your favorite blog or website?
Lior Pachter's blog is always interesting.

Where is your favorite place to eat on or around campus?
Oaxaca on Amsterdam and 123rd is great!

DISSERTATIONS DEFENDED

Anthropology
Mohaiemen, Naeem. Storming heaven with memories. Sponsor: David Scott.

Architecture
Kennedy, Hollyamber. Modernism's politics of land: Settlement colonialism and migrant mobility in the German Empire, from Prussian Poland to German Nambia, 1884-1918. Sponsor: Felicity Scott.

Shvartzberg-Carrió, Manuel. Designing "Post-Industrial Society": Settler colonialism and modern architecture in Palm. Sponsors: Reinhold Martin and Felicity Scott.

Art History and Archaeology
Espert, Yasmine. The cinema of social dreamers: Artists and their imaginations return to the Caribbean. Sponsor: Kellie Jones.

Fowler, Michael. Human sacrifice in Greek antiquity: Between myth, image, and reality. Sponsor: Ioannis Mylonopoulos.

Lima, Álvaro Luís. Art in Mozambique at the end of socialism. Sponsor: Zoe Strother.

Biological Sciences
Feng, Huizhong. Molecular approaches to targeting oncogenic KRAS and Ferroptosis. Sponsor: Brent Stockwell.

Biostatistics
Ling, Wodan. Quantile regression for zero-inflated outcomes. Sponsor: Ying Wei.

Zhu, Huichen. Robust statistical approaches dealing with high-dimensional observational data. Sponsors: Gen Li and Ying Wei.

Business
Allouah, Mohammed-Amine. Optimal auctions and pricing with limited information. Sponsor: Omar Besbes.

Cellular, Molecular, and Biomedical Studies
McGoldrick, Luke. Structural analyses of the transient receptor potential channels TRPV3 and TRPV6. Sponsor: Alexander Sobolevsky.

Chemical Engineering
Brady, Nicholas. Investigation of lithium ion battery electrodes: Using mathematical models augmented with data science to understand surface layer formation, mass transport, electrochemical kinetics, and chemical phase change. Sponsor: Alan West.

Chemistry
Howarth, Gary. Potassium channel KcsA and its lipids. Sponsor: Ann McDermott.

Zhang, Dongyu. Studies on the effect of anionic lipids on potassium channel KcsA by solid state NMR. Sponsor: Ann McDermott.

Computer Science
Pomonis, Marios. Preventing code reuse attacks on modern operating systems. Sponsor: Roxana Geambasu.

Spahn, Riley. New data protection abstractions for emerging mobile and big data workloads. Sponsor: Roxana Geambasu.

Earth and Environmental Engineering
Arellano Trevino, Martha. A study of catalytic metals and alkaline metal oxides leading to the development of a stable bimetallic Ru, Ni Dual Function Material for CO2 capture from flue gas and in-situ catalytic conversion to methane. Sponsor: Robert Farrauto.

Rasmussen, Daniel. The Aleutian arc through and through: Subduction dynamics and the generation, storage, and eruption of hydrous magmas. Sponsor: Terry Plank.

Uchida, Takaya. Seasonality in surface (sub)mesoscale turbulence and its impact on iron transport and primary production. Sponsor: Ryan Abernathey.

East Asian Languages and Cultures
Lei, Lei. Narrative power and the new human: Making the revolutionaires in China, 1937-1945. Sponsor: Lydia Liu.

Electrical Engineering
Baraani Dastjerdi, Mahmood. High-performance multi-antenna wireless for 5G and beyond. Sponsor: Harish Krishnaswamy.

Fazelnia, Ghazal. Optimization for probabilistic machine learning. Sponsor: John Paisley.

Ogundijo, Oyetunji. Topics in signal processing: Applications in genomics. Sponsors: John Paisley and Xiaodong Wang.

Zhong, Shan. Signal processing for wireless power and information transfer. Sponsor: Xiaodong Wang.

English and Comparative Literature
Amoretti, Valerio. The psychic work of reading: Form and unconscious affect in the wake of modernism. Sponsors: Stathis Gourgouris and Bruce Robbins.

Birch, Campbell. Legacies of violence in contemporary America. Sponsor: Marianne Hirsch.

Epidemiology
Bordelois, Paula. Internalizing and externalizing behavior problems in childhood and early development of cardiovascular and diabetes risk: A life course perspective. Sponsor: Katherine Keyes.

French and Romance Philology
McGuinness, Max. Modernism and mass press from Mallarmé to Proust. Sponsor: Elisabeth Ladenson.

Trumbo-Tual, Matthew. Proust and speech. Sponsor: Elisabeth Ladenson.

History
Allen, David. Every citizen a statesman: Building a democracy for foreign policy in the American century. Sponsor: Matthew Connelly.

Neubauer, Jack. Adopted by the world: China and the rise of global intimacy. Sponsor: Eugenia Lean.

O'Neil, Sean. The art of signs: Symbolic notation and visual thinking in early modern Europe, 1600-1800. Sponsor: Pamela Smith.

Italian
Pace, Matteo. Of poets and physicians: Medical and scientific thought from the Sicilian school to Dante, 1230-1300. Sponsor: Teodolinda Barolini.

Visco, Julianna. Dante and Baccaccio: A poetics of textiles. Sponsor: Teodolinda Barolini.

Latin American and Iberian Cultures
Colmenares, David. How the Aztecs got a Pantheon: The creation of an ancient religion in New Spain. Sponsor: Alessandra Russo.

Materials Science and Engineering
Wright, Christopher. Towards real time characterization of grain growth from the melt. Sponsor: Simon Billinge.

Mechanical Engineering
Ji, Xiaoqiang. New stable inverses of linear discrete time systems and application to iterative learning control. Sponsor: Richard Longman.

Wang, Bowen. Iterative learning control and adaptive control for systems with unstable discrete-time inverse. Sponsor: Richard Longman.

Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies
Marrewa Karwoski, Christine. Imprinted identities: A history of literature and communal selfhood in the Nath Sampraday. Sponsor: Allison Busch.

Subramaniam, Shiv. Poetry's afterthought: Kalidasa and the experience of reading. Sponsor: Sheldon Pollock.

Nursing
Murray, Meghan. Risk factors for emerging and reemerging infectious diseases in children. Sponsor: Elaine Larson.

Operations Research
Sun, Yunjie. Pricing analytics for reusable resources. Sponsor: Adam Elmachtoub.

Pathobiology and Molecular Medicine
Ahmad, Tiara. Investigations of bile acid signaling in intestinal organoids. Sponsor: Rebecca Haeusler.

Physics
Ren, Tianhao. Contributions to theory of few and many-body systems in lower dimensions. Sponsor: Igor Aleiner.

Shao, Yinming. Infrared electrodynamics of Dirac materials. Sponsor: Dmitri Basov.

Social Work
Chatfield, Karen. Three papers on the executive functions, reading and math outcomes of head start participants. Sponsor: Jane Waldfogel.

Sociology
Hagen, Ryan. The constant metropolis: Disaster risk managers and the production of stability in New York City. Sponsor: Peter Bearman.

TC / Educational Leadership
Smith, Phillip. Exploring the leadership of black male principals and heads of schools: A phenomenological study. Sponsor: Sonya Horsford.

TC / Intellectual Disabilities and Autism
SooHoo, Alyssa. Respite and well-being among families with children with autism spectrum disorder. Sponsor: Laudan Jahromi.

Theatre
Simon, Jessica. Mimetic sensations: Sensation genres, Victorian realism, and the transmission of feeling. Sponsor: Sharon Marcus.

DISSERTATION PROPOSALS FILED

Art History and Archaeology
Tamur, Erhan. Siteworlds: An account of material lives from Tello.

Biomedical Informatics
Mitchell, Elliot. Computational, conversational health coaching for diabetes self-management.

East Asian Languages and Cultures
Bensen, Nolan. The edge of the world drawn closer: A case study in globalization under the Pax Mongolica.

Kim, Yong-Ha. Rethinking unification: Ideology, standardization, and local accommodation.

Miyazaki, Maho. Female impersonation, gender, and age in Noh.

Yang, Yingchuan. Revolution on air: Radio technology, socialist culture, and China's global engagement.

History
Almukhtar, Amnah. Imagined futures: Political and social thought in Iraq, 1906-1930.

Khalifa, Nada. Commissions of enquiry in Egypt and greater Syria, 1914-1921.

Meberg, Justine. The paradox of protection: The US Army and enemy women in the second Seminole War and Mexican War, 1835-1848.

Mechanical Engineering
Finney, Nathan. Symmetry engineering via angular control of layered van der Waals heterostructures.

Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies
Rodrigues, Shaunna. Anchoring constitutionalism in Islam: Epistemic minorities and justificatory discourse in India.

Music
Ford, Mike. An agile musicology: Improvisation in corporate management and lean startups.

Urban Planning
Snidal, Michael. Opportunity zones: A baseline evaluation and theoretical investigation.