Human Rights / Norms

Research Interest

Ali Hasan

Undergraduate Student
Political Science
Rhetoric

Ali Hasan is in his third-year pursuing a B.A. in Political Science with a concentration in Comparative Politics and a minor in Rhetoric. His interests include constitutional law, failed states, postcolonial politics, political theory, and the intersection of rhetoric and politics. Hasan is also involved with the City of Berkeley’s Peace and Justice Commission, UC Berkeley’s model UN team, and political publications centered around international relations and human rights. After graduation, he hopes to pursue law school and learn more about criminal justice reform and public interest law...

Ariana Jessa

Undergraduate Student
Environmental Economics and Policy
Haas School of Business

Ariana is a senior studying Environmental Economics and Policy and Business Administration at UC Berkeley. Her prior research has been focused on climate change economics, and she is currently finishing up her thesis on modelling the migration of a Panamanian indigenous group due to climate change. She has worked with numerous professors as an undergraduate researcher on projects ranging from climate governance to peace deals and counterinsurgency in the Middle East. In her spare time, Ariana enjoys cooking and learning Arabic.

Valerie Hammer

Undergraudate Student
Conservation and Resource Studies
French

Valerie Hammer is a junior at University of California, Berkeley pursuing a B.S. in Conservation and Resource Studies and a B.A. in French. Her academic work focuses on global environmental politics, with particular interest in political ecology. She has previously interned for the Human Rights Foundation in New York/Oslo. On campus, she works at the Student Advocate's Office and within the environmental service community (Epsilon Eta, Herbicide Free Berkeley). She looks forward to applying her French and budding interest in coding to her CPD fellowship on Ethnic Inequalities in French...

Krish Gopalan

Undergraduate Student
Molecular and Cell Biology
Public Health
Global Poverty and Practice

Krish Gopalan is a fourth-year student at UC Berkeley from Southern California. He is pursuing a B.A. Molecular and Cell Biology and minoring in both Global Public Health and Global Poverty and Practice. His interests broadly include the politics of health and development in the Global South, especially in South Asia. His prior research includes analyses into the effectiveness of the Integrated Rural Development Program and the role of private-public partnerships in developing health infrastructure in India. At Berkeley, he was involved with the California Public Interest Research Group,...

Luis Hassan Gallardo

Undergraduate Student
Political Science
Ethnic Studies

Luis Hassan Gallardo is a senior from Los Angeles, CA, majoring in Political Science and Ethnic Studies. He is interested in how his fields of study intersect with issues of international affairs and migration policy. Luis is also currently working with Sociology Professor Cybelle Fox to conduct historical analyses of the United States Sanctuary Movement and the Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative to map immigrant health and legal clinics in California. After graduation, he hopes to continue his work on immigration advocacy, policy, and research before applying to law school....

Adrian Frias

Undergraduate Fellow
Geography
Ethnic Studies
Education

Adrian Frias (he/him) is a junior from Carson, California, pursuing a double major in Geography and Ethnic Studies with a minor in Education. His research interests include environmental justice, immigration, public transportation, energy policy, city planning, and race/ethnicity. Previously, Frias has gained experience doing research on his hometown's oil refineries. He has worked as a legal/communications intern for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and currently works as a peer academic counselor for Berkeley's Educational Opportunity Program (EOP). In the near...

Louise Curtis

Undergraudate Student
History

Louise Curtis is a senior majoring in History with a minor in French. She is interested in early modern intellectual history and the history of political thought, especially as it relates to common people. Since March 2019 Louise has worked as a research assistant to David Collier, Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus of Political Science, on his Critical Junctures project. She assists with research, editing, and writing on American electoral history and methodology in political science for his forthcoming book.

Oren Samet

Graduate Student
Political Science

Oren Samet is pursuing a PhD in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. His research interests include comparative politics and comparative democratization, with a particular focus on political transitions, parties, and elections in Southeast Asia. Before coming to Berkeley, he worked in various roles for non-governmental organizations in Thailand, including as Research and Advocacy Director for ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, a network of regional legislators. He previously worked as a Junior Fellow in the Democracy and Rule of Law Program at the Carnegie...

Levi Vonk

Graduate Student
Anthropology

Levi Vonk is a PhD candidate in the Joint Program in Medical Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley and University of California, San Francisco. His ethnographic research focuses on Central American migration through Mexico, with particular attention paid to how the migrant experience is explained in terms of violence, multiculturalism, asylum, and border externalization and militarization. His first book, which follows the journey of an undocumented migrant hacker, will be published by Bold Type Books (Hachette) in Spring 2022.

Vonk is the recipient of the 2021 IIS...

Emily Fjaellen Thompson

Graduate Student
Anthropology

Emily Fjaellen Thompson is a PhD student in socio-cultural anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. She earned her bachelor's degree in Latin American and Latino/a Studies from Vassar College, where she was awarded the Burnam Fellowship for work on the U.S.-Mexico border with unaccompanied minors seeking asylum and the Cornelisen Fellowship for extended fieldwork in the Peruvian Andes. She received her master's degree from the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at New York University, where she was granted FLAS awards to study Quechua in New York City and...