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UCSD Graduate Student Affiliates

Below are the current UCSD Graduate Student Affiliates.

  • To become a UCSD Graduate Student Affiliate with CCIS, please send an email to ccis@ucsd.edu with the following information: Color photo, Name, PhD student/candidate of _____, contact email, a sentence or two listing your research focus/specialty

  • Jesús Ayala-Candia

    Jesús Ayala-Candia

    Ph.D. Student of Sociology

    Email:  jayalacandia@ucsd.edu

    Research Focus:  International Migration Systems, Border Enforcement/Borderland Policing
    Systems, Law and Society, Qualitative Methods.

  • Morgen A. Chalmiers

    Morgen A. Chalmiers

    MD/PhD Candidate of Anthropology

    Email:  Morgen.Chalmiers@gmail.com

    Research Focus:  Explores reproductive decision-making in the context of displacement through person-centered ethnographic research with Syrian refugees in Jordan. Her fieldwork and clinical practice are informed by the paradigm of reproductive justice and a commitment to addressing health disparities through an intersectional framework. She is passionate about integrating anthropological insights into clinical practice and health policy through interdisciplinary collaboration.

  • Melina Economou

    Melina Economou

    Ph.D. Student of Anthropology

    Email: meconomo@ucsd.edu

    Research Focus: Transnational Migration, Refugee and Asylum Policy, Well-being and Health.

  • Precious P. Fasakin

    Precious P. Fasakin

    Ph.D. Student of Economics

    Email: pfasakin@ucsd.edu

    Research Focus: The socioeconomic consequences of climate-induced migration and displacement, spatial economics, economic and environmental refugees, the political economy of borders, global indigeneity and disarmament

  • Armand Gutierrez

    Armand Gutierrez

    Ph.D. Student of Sociology

    Email:  arg055@ucsd.edu

    Research Focus:  The economic, political, and social lives of first- and second-generation migrants. His latest work utilizes quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the economic prospects for those in the U.S. and in their countries of origin. 

    Twitter: @ArmandGutz29

  • Doreen Hsu

    Doreen Hsu

    Ph.D. Student of Sociology

    Email:  dohsu@ucsd.edu

    Research focus:  My research interests include race and ethnicity, immigration, gender, education, Asian American and East Asian studies.

    Website: https://doreenhsu.wordpress.com/

    Twitter: @doreen_hsu

  • Hee Eun Kwon

    Hee Eun Kwon

    Ph.D. Candidate of Sociology

    Email:  hekwon@ucsd.edu

    Research Interest: Hee Eun's research interests include international migration, culture, gender, and qualitative methods. Her dissertation employs an intersectional approach to understand the everyday practices of belonging among temporary migrants in the Gulf. 

    Website: https://www.hekwon.com/

  • Karen Le

    Karen Le

    Ph.D. Student of Sociology

    Email:  kal081@ucsd.edu

    Research Interests:  Immigrant political integration, immigration detention, criminality, and race

  • Dasom Lee

    Dasom Lee

    Ph.D. Student of Sociology

    Email:  dal257@ucsd.edu 

    Research Interests: Labor Migration, Race, Class and Gender in East Asia, Migrant Illegality, Citizenship, Global Ethnography

  • Jiaqi Liu (Mars)

    Jiaqi Liu (Mars)

    Ph.D. Student of Sociology

    Email:  jil1202@ucsd.edu

    Research interests: Emigration policy, return migration, citizenship politics, refugee migration, political sociology, law and society

    Website: https://sites.google.com/ucsd.edu/jiaqi-liu/

    Twitter: @JiaqiLiuUCSD

  • Ana Lopez-Ricoy

    Ana Lopez-Ricoy

    Ph.D. Student of Sociology

    Email:  alopezri@ucsd.edu

    Research interests:  Social movements, transnational feminism, femicide, social violence and gender-based violence, globalization, political sociology, migration

  • Angela Y. McClean

    Angela Y. McClean

    Ph.D. Candidate of Sociology

    Email:  aymcclean@ucsd.edu

    Research Interests:  Angela's research interests include international migration, forced migration, social movements, and Asian and Asian-American studies. In her dissertation, Angela explores refugee reception and resettlement in South Korea by examining some of the most influential domestic actors participating in Korea's politics of asylum – the public, political and bureaucratic elites, and civil society.  

  • Benjamin Merrill

    Benjamin Merrill

    PhD Student of Psychological Anthropology

    Email:  bmmerrill@ucsd.edu

    Research Interests:  Medical Humanitarianism, Public Health, and Global Mental Health; Border Governance as it pertains to Refugee and Asylum Seeker Reception and Resettlement; Political Subjectivity and Critical Phenomenology.  

  • Connor Redpath

    Connor Redpath

    PhD Candidate in Economics

    Email: credpath@ucsd.edu

    Research Interests: How immigrants form same-sex couples and how policies affecting same-sex marriage affects immigrants coupling patterns with citizens. In more general terms, my research focuses are: Couple Formation and Marriage, Race and Gender Inequality.

  • Sevin Gulfer Sagnic

    Sevin Gulfer Sagnic

    Ph.D. Student of Sociology

    Email:  ssagnic@ucsd.edu and gssagnic@gmail.com

    Research Interests:  International migration, Refugee and Asylum Policy, Citizenship,  Political Sociology

  • Karina Shklyan

    Karina Shklyan

    PhD Student of Sociology

    Email: kshklyan@ucsd.edu

    Research Focus:  Immigrant integration, immigration policy, local contexts of reception, federalism, and ethnic return migration

  • Jessica Wan

    Jessica Wan

    Ph.D. Student of Oceanography, SIO, UC San Diego

    Email: j4wan@ucsd.edu

    Research Interests: Climate change and human migration, socioeconomic responses to sea level rise, coastal vulnerability and adaptation, coupled modeling systems