"Our graduate students are distinguished by their intellectual creativity, hard work and scholarly accomplishments. They are central to the teaching and research mission of the university, and their impact is felt across campus. Join me in supporting the next generation of researchers and innovators."
—E. Scott Adler, PhD
Dean of the Graduate School and Vice Provost for Graduate Affairs
Professor of Political Science
My research examines the phenomenon of domestic human trafficking utilizing and intersectional criminological framework. Within this research, I focus on the experiences of Black individuals as both victims and perpetrators of trafficking and how their intersecting identities of race, class, gender, and sexuality may interact with their experiences of exploitation and navigating the criminal legal system. My research methods include interviewing Black women survivors of trafficking, field observations of anti-trafficking events, and a historical analysis of the evolution of slavery, sexuality, and race. I love dogs, getting coffee with friends, and reading anything I can get my hands on. I hope be employed as a tenure-track professor at a historically Black college/university (HBCU) or at a criminology/criminal justice department where I can mentor undergrads and graduate students.
Carol B. Lynch Memorial Fellowship Fiona Bell received a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Santa Clara University in 2019. She has a passion for designing and creating both in her engineering labs and art classes. As a CTD master’s student, she hopes to further explore the intersection between engineering and fine art, ideally creating beautiful, functional and sustainable products that bring value and joy to people.
I study how humans alter the way closely-related species interact and the evolutionary consequences of those altered interactions. Specifically, I explore how when humans build cities, they can cause the species that live there to interbreed and produce hybrids. Combining genomics and field studies, I investigate how disturbance modifies interactions between chickadees to promote hybridization. My work focuses on establishing a long-term study, the Boulder Chickadee Study, as an experimental framework and community science network.
Elspeth Schulze is from south-central Louisiana, where water has as much hold as land. She holds a BA in Literature from Loyola University New Orleans and an AAS in Fashion Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. She has worked over the years as an artist assistant, pattern maker, production manager, and most recently, as Gallery Director at Adrian College in Michigan. Recent exhibition venues include Oklahoma Contemporary in Oklahoma City, The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, RedLine in Denver, and Calico in Brooklyn, New York.
Winner of the Jenny Kate Collins Award
I am a third year Doctor of Musical Arts candidate in Violin Performance and a Graduate Teaching Assistant. As a TA, I have assisted with undergraduate music appreciation courses, performed in the CU Symphony Orchestra, and currently meet with Masters and Undergraduate violin students for weekly private lessons to assist in their technical and musical development. In addition to my studies at CU, I perform with several regional orchestras, including the Boulder Chamber Orchestra, Boulder Philharmonic, Fort Collins Symphony, Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra, and Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra. I also maintain a private studio of 15 violin students ranging from ages 5-75 and run a wedding and event music business. I am honored to receive the Jenny Kate Collins award to support my dissertation project, The Maud Powell Project. The Maud Powell Project celebrates the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment and Women's Suffrage with five new works for solo violin inspired by and dedicated to Maud Powell, the first great American violin soloist. The works, commissioned from American composers Lauren Bernofsky, Elisabeth Blair, Stephanie Ann Boyd, Jessica Meyer, and Hilary Purrington, will be premiered and professionally recorded in the Summer of 2020. The works will subsequently be performed in a variety of contexts, including solo violin recitals, lecture recitals, and outreach performances with dancers from Life/Art Dance ensemble for children and for senior citizens living in low income housing communities in the Denver Metro area. Visit my site if you are interested in learning more about the project.
Winner of the Ray Hauser Award
My research focuses on environmental history and political ecology in the Caribbean. My current project examines a series of hurricanes in Puerto Rico in the 1920s and 1930s and the environmental and political changes that followed. I'm specifically interested in natural hazard events, agriculture, land reform, and political movements.
