DOCTORAL STUDENTS
Rediet Lewi, Rethinking Mental Health and Migration with Ethiopians in the Diaspora, Department of Anthropology (chair of doctoral committee).
Hannah Ali, Ethical Life in the Impossible Drug Crisis: Somali Canadians and Harm-reduction Workers rethinking suffering, harm, and imagined possibilities, Department of Anthropology (chair of doctoral committee).
Iris Luo, Barkcloth: Artists, Pluriversal Epistemologies, Place-Based Learning, and Trans-Local Community, Department of Human Centered Design, College of Human Ecology (member of doctoral committee).
Jeremy Faulk, Department of Human Centered Design, College of Human Ecology (member of doctoral committee).
Aparjita Majumdar, 2024, Planting Recalcitrance: Nature, Knowledge and Heritage in a South Asian Borderland. Department of History (member doctoral committee). Currently, Assistant Professor at Brown University.
Lisa Lehner, 2023, The Liminal Cure: Living with Hepatitis C, Its Treatment, and the Welfare State in Austria, Department of Science and Technology Studies (member of doctoral committee) Currently, PostDoc and Lead Researcher at the University of Vienna and the Health Matters Research Group, Department of Social & Cultural Anthropology.
Rebekah Ciribassi, 2022, Temporalities of Sickled Cells: Bodily Inheritance, Genetic Medicine, and Intergenerational Time in Tanzania, Department of Anthropology (chair of doctoral committee) Currently, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Oslo.
Charis Boke, 2018, Ecologies of Friendship: Learning North American Practices of Care with Western Herbalists, Department of Anthropology (chair of doctoral committee). Currently, Research Associate and Lecturer at Dartmouth.
Hayden Kantor, 2016, Daily Bread: Agrarian Futures and the Caring Family in Bihar, India. Department of Anthropology. Funded by AIIS and Wenner-Gren. Winner of the Guilford Essay Prize from the Cornell English department (chair of doctoral committee) Postdoctoral Associate for Engaged Learning in Anthropology. Currently, Lecturer in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric at Stanford University.
Jason Blaesing, “Ontology of Number in Peruvian Healing” Department of Anthropology (chair of MA committee).
Amy Levine, 2011, The Hope and Crisis of Pragmatic Transition: Politics, Law, Anthropology, and South Korea, Department of Anthropology (member of doctoral committee). 2013-2017 Assistant Professor and from 2016 chair of the department, Pusan National University, Korea. Currently, Adjunct Assistant Professor, University of Victoria, Canada.
Ashley Elizabeth Smith, 2017, Re-Membering Norridgewock: Stories and Politics of a Place Multiple, PhD Anthropology, Cornell University (member of doctoral committee). Postdoctoral Fellowship at Carleton College. Assistant Professor of Native American Studies and Environmental Justice at Hampshire College.
Danya Glabau, 2016, Morality in Action: Risking Death and Caring for Life in American Food Allergy Worlds, Department of Science and Technology Studies (member of doctoral committee). Assistant Professor, NYU Tandon School of Engineering.
Saiba Varma, 2013, Many Lives of Suffering: Human Rights and Psychiatry in Practice in Kashmir. Department of Anthropology (member of doctoral committee) Post-doctoral Fellowship in Duke University’s Writing Program. Currently, Associate Professor of the Psychological/Medical Anthropology subfield and the Vice Chair of Undergraduate Studies, Department of Anthropology UC San Diego.
Thomas Archibald, 2013, Participation and Power in African Youth Development: Non-Formal Literacy Education in Senegal. Department of Education (member of doctoral committee). Executive Director for the Center for International Research, Education, and Development at Virginia Tech.
Jennifer L. Hale Gallardo, 2013, Conjuring Equity: Nahua Healers and the Cultural Politics of Institutionalizing Traditional Medicine in Mexico, PhD, University of Florida (co-chair of doctoral committee with Faye Harrison) Anthropology. Funded by the American Philosophical Society and Wenner-Gren Foundation Dissertation Fieldwork Grant. 2010 Derrick K. Gondwe Scholar at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. Currently at the Center of Innovation on Disability and Rehab Research (CINDRR) US Department of Veterans’ Affairs.
Scott Sorrell, Queer Experiences of the Expansion of Public and Private Urban Infrastructure in Bangalore, India, Department of Anthropology (member of doctoral committee). Currently, Knight Institute Outreach Coordinator and Visiting Lecturer in the Writing Workshop, John S. Knight Institute Cornell University.
Erin Mahaffey, 2012, Public-Private Partnerships and Social Marketing around AIDS Prevention in Tanzania. PhD, UC Berkeley (member of doctoral committee).
Julia Zenker, 2011, The Modernization of Traditional Healing in South Africa: Healers, Biomedicine and the State, Doctorate of Philosophy, Institute of Social Anthropology, Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany (member of doctoral committee). Currently, Associate at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology.
MASTER’ STUDENTS AT KILIMANJARO CHRISTIAN MEDICAL COLLEGE IN TANZANIA
Patience Mwose Chumah, 2024, Dermatology, Tumaini University Makumira/ Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College, Tanzania. “Photoprotection and Clinical Outcomes of Persons with Albinism in Northern Tanzania: Outreach Program vs non-Program Participants” (External supervisor for Master of Medicine Dermato-venereology).
Bwanali Jereni, 2014. Dermatology, Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College/Tumaini University, Tanzania. “Prevalence of Atopic Eczema and Treatment Seeking Preferences in Kilimanjaro Tanzania” (co-supervisor for MA committee).
MCNAIR MENTOR AT CORNELL
Ami Tamakloe, Women Political Participation, Festivals and Storytelling in Anlo-Ewe ethnic group in Western Africa, McNair Scholar mentor.
RECENT MENTORSHIP OF STUDENTS AT WEILL CORNELL
Toni Liwa, 2012-2015, Committee member for his Master of Science in Clinical Epidemiology at Weill Cornell Medical. Hypertension and Traditional Medicine in Tanzania. Tony is currently Senior Lecturer in the Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Institute of Allied Health Sciences (IAHS), Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences, Mwanza. Tanzania.
Claire Isabelle Catherine Verret, 2018, supervisor for Summer Elective Research at KCMC, evaluating Albinism Outreach Program. MD degree candidate class of 2019, Weill Cornell Medicine. Currently, Orthopedic Surgeon, Katz Women’s Hospital at Long Island Jewish Medical Center.
Duncan Hau, Social Science Mentor for CTSC Master’s Degree in Clinical & Translational Investigation, Weill Cornell Medical. Duncan is an MD, FAAP, Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, Weill Cornell Medicine, Director Pediatric Hospitalist Program – New York Presbyterian/Lower Manhattan Hospital; Associate Medical Director Newborn Nursery – New York Presbyterian/Lower Manhattan Hospital + Weill Cornell Medical Center; Rotation; Director Global Health Elective Pediatric Residency Program – New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
RECENT UNDERGRADUATE HONOR’S THESES
Lucy Friedman, 2025, Psychodynamics vs. Psychopharmacology: Rethinking the Mental Health Crisis in University Settings, Department of Psychology, Cornell University (reader on thesis committee).
Bianca Ysabel Garcia, 2023, “The Molo Story” and Other Narratives about Healing with Food, Honors Thesis, Bachelor of Arts, Anthropology (advisor and chair of thesis committee). Went on to get a Master’s in media, medicine, and health from Harvard and a graduate certificate in Radio and Podcasting. Currently, American Association for the Advancement of Science 2025 Mass Media Science and Engineering Fellow @WUNC.
Mehria Nessar, 2023, Melodies of the Mundane: Migration, Rhythms, and Disruptions of Daily Living, Honors Thesis, Bachelor of Arts, Anthropology (advisor and chair of thesis committee).
Grace Olivia Staes, 2023, A Sister’s Hope: Finding Peace at the Intersection of Murals and Police Brutality, Honors Thesis, Anthropology, Cornell University (chair of thesis committee).
Lindsay (Lou) Vinarcsik, 2018, Caring int eh Landscape of Biomedicine: Rethinking Citizen Science in Alzheimer’s Disease, Honors Thesis, Biology and Society, Cornell University (member of thesis committee).
Hillary Drexler, 2011, Good Things Come to Those Who Wait: The Allocation of Expanded Criteria Donor Kidneys in the United States, Honors Thesis, Bachelor of Arts, Biology and Society (member of thesis committee).
Elena Romana Siani, 2011, Rhythm and Relief: Music for Health. Department of Music (member of thesis committee).
Yorkio Nakamura, 2011, The Sociological Consequences of Pharmaceutical Marketing on Doctor-Patient Relationships. Biology and Society (member of thesis committee).
