Governance / Democracy

Research Interest

Elena Amaya

Graduate Student
Sociology

Elena Amaya is a PhD Student in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. She studies antisemitism, gendered violence and law with a historical focus on war and genocide.

Chai Peddeti

Graduate Student
Nuclear Engineering

Chai Peddeti is a first year PhD student in the Nuclear Engineering Department at the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in Nuclear Materials. His work involves analyzing irradiated material using various laser-based spectroscopy techniques. Peddeti is interested in non-proliferation, nuclear policy relating to nuclear materials, global relations, and nuclear security.

Anthony Morreale

Graduate Student
History

Anthony Morreale is a Ph.D. Candidate in History at the University of California, Berkeley, focusing on Southeast Asia.. His dissertation researches the history of Vietnamese nationalism and Sinophobia. His interests span Southeast Asian political and social history, and he also translates Vietnamese literature into English.

Meiqing Li

Graduate Student
City and Regional Planning

Meiqing Li is a PhD student in City and Regional Planning at University of California, Berkeley. She studies the intersection of sustainable transportation planning, travel behavior, and built environment in the US and Asia.

Lisa Ng

Graduate Student
Ethnic Studies

Lisa Ng is a PhD student in the Ethnic Studies Department at the University of California, Berkeley. She is interested in exploring the shifting dialectic between race, waste, and technology. Her research examines how trash is used as a confrontational political tool in various social movements against local and global neoliberal economic policies.

Vanessa Navarro-Rodriguez

Graduate Student
Political Science

Vanessa is a Ph.D. student in political science at the University of California, Berkeley, studying gendered violence and international relations. Her research currently examines the prevalence of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) by peacekeepers during UN peacekeeping operations.

Varsha Venkatasubramanian

Graduate Student
History

Varsha Venkatasubramanian is a graduate student in the History Department at the University of California, Berkeley. She studies the history of dams in the United States and the World as it relates to foreign policy, policy history, environmental movements, and legal history. Her dissertation focuses on U.S.-India relations and infrastructure projects during the 1950s to the 1980s.

Priscila Coli

Graduate Student
City and Regional Planning

Priscila Coli is a PhD candidate in City and Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research interests are modes of urbanization, informal governance, and democracy in the global south.

Carlos Schmidt-Padilla

Graduate Student
Political Science

Carlos Schmidt-Padilla is a doctoral candidate in Political Science at the University of California at Berkeley. His research interests encompass the political economy of development of Latin America and of sub-Saharan Africa. In particular, he studies questions concerning crime, human capital, immigration, and policing under weak institutional settings.

Irene Farah

Graduate Student
City & Regional Planning

Irene Farah is a PhD student in City and Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley, interested in analyzing the structural inequities in the labor market. In particular, she studies street vendors in Mexico City and how their physical and political positions impact their health by analyzing their commuting behaviors and access to healthy food.