Congratulations to our MA Graduates!
Mona Ashour graduated with an MA in Women’s Studies in the Spring of 2024. Thanks to the mentorship and care of Dr. Hina Shaikh, she successfully defended her thesis titled, “Comparative Analysis of Gender-Based Violence in Climate Fiction: Global North versus Global South” During her time in the program, she presented her work at the UNA Chapter of Gainesville and Gators for UNICEF. She is excited for her post-academic future and opportunities. She thanks department faculty, cohorts, and Donna Tuckey for continued support throughout her MA.
Rose Capo (she/her) graduated with her MA in Women’s Studies in Spring 2024. She successfully defended her MA project, “Living Queer, Loving Florida: a Film on Identities, Sex Education, and Pleasure” which is now accessible for viewing on YouTube. Rose is excited to continue working for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a Social Media Associate to promote HIV testing and treatment services to #StopHIVTogether. She thanks department faculty, her friends, and her family for their continued support.
Ecem Ece graduated with their MA in Women’s Studies in Spring 2024. Their MA project, titled “‘Be on the Side of Your Child from Now On’: Activist Mothers of LGBTQ+ Children in Turkey and Their Interlocking Transformations,” encapsulates their research into the gender and sexuality identity transformation processes of mothers with gay, lesbian, and trans children in Turkey. After successfully defending their project, Ecem now aims to complete their PhD in Sociology while also exploring academic job opportunities to further contribute to queer and feminist scholarly discourse.
Ceci Luna graduated with an MA in Women’s Studies in the Spring of 2024. Thanks to the mentorship and care of Dr. Jillian Hernandez, they successfully defended their thesis titled, “Pendejx Pleasure Praxis: Playing with -X and -E as Queer Latinx Performance.” During her time in the program, she presented her work at the 2024 Association for Jotería Arts, Activism and Scholarship (AJAAS) Conference and served as the commissioned artist for several queer and Latinx projects such as book talks, the AJAAS annual conference and the Latinxxx Sexual Economies Symposium at Yale. She is excited for her post-academic future and opportunities to continue her thesis work. She thanks department faculty and cohorts for continued support throughout her MA.
Angel McGee successfully defended her MA thesis titled, “Black Joy Matters: #blackboyjoy in Western Europe,” which included an immersive art exhibit mainly created from artifacts that she acquired during her fieldwork. She is presenting her work at two conferences this summer. This Fall 2024, Angel will become two times a Gator, beginning her PhD at UF in Youth Development and Family Science. She was generously awarded a McKnight Doctoral Fellowship and will continue her work with the Black Joy and Restorative Justice Collective that she co-created. Lastly, she plans to continue spearheading the “Black Joy” archive that she created at UF’s own Samuel Proctor Oral History Program.
Tegan Smith graduated with her MA in Women’s Studies in Spring 2024. Under the supervision of her committee, Dr. Hina Shaikh and Dr. Anita Anantharam, she successfully defended her thesis titled, “Ecofeminist and Counterhumanist Imaginings: Rethinking Knowledge and Being.” She thanks department faculty, cohorts, Donna Tuckey, and her Gainesville family for continued support throughout her MA.
Updates on our continuing MA students
Sonbol Bahramikamangar, who recently completed her first-year as an MA student, has already embarked on an exciting journey within the department. Under the guidance of Dr. Coy, she has laid the groundwork for her thesis, focusing on violence against Kurdish women in Iran. Sonbol plans to conduct interviews with Kurdish individuals who have moved out from Iran. This summer, she is thrilled to participate in an internship alongside Dr. Coy, contributing to ongoing research on violence against women.
Mary Kate DiFresco (she/they) is a rising 2nd year MA candidate in the department. They have begun collaborating on the core leadership team for Gainesville’s up and coming Climate Cafe. They will continue working on their research on community gardens, focusing on ecomemory work, decolonizing our futures, and fostering intergenerational bonds and justice. They plan to begin their data collection this summer in Harlem, New York.
Amya Ellison (they/she) is a rising second-year MA student in the department. They are continuing to work on their non-thesis project titled “Misogynoir in a PWI Context.” They will be examining Black women and femme’s experiences with misogynoir while aiming to provide a healing space for embodied knowledge to flourish in a retreat style dialogue series. Amya is excited to collect data during late summer/early fall of this year.
Alexandria Gibson is a rising second-year MA candidate in the Department. She is currently working on her research project tentatively titled “Sitting at the Feet of Elders” that will trace the prevalence of traditional healing among women in the Afro-Caribbean diaspora. During the summer, she will be conducting oral histories with participants under the supervision of Dr. Olivia Adams. Alexandria was selected to receive the American Association of University Women (AAUW) Gainesville Branch Grant and will be hosting a period positive art workshop titled “The Period is Political.” Alexandria has been invited to attend the 2024 Summer Session on Gender/Sex/uality In/Justice “Black Feminisms and Sex/uality Studies.”
Whitney Rodríguez Minda is a rising second-year MA candidate in the Department. She is currently working on her M.A. project on Black sexualities and other types of sex work and labor, and on archival research on Sinnamon Love’s career as a professional sexual performance artist. Her project will be supervised by Dr. Jillian Hernandez and Dr. Anita Anantharam.
Zuzu Tadeushuk is a rising secondyear MA candidate in the Department. She is currently working on her thesis examining theories of embodiment and aesthetics as they intersect with an autoethnographic account of her experience in the fashion world. During the summer, she will be conducting research under the supervision of her co-chairs Dr. Jillian Hernandez and Dr. Hina Shaikh.