Presenters

Hussain Al-Ismail has a Bachelor of Science in Geology (Texas A&M University, '14), Master of Liberal Arts (Johns Hopkins University, '19) and is working on a Master of Arts in History (University of Birmingham, '21)

Michael Breger is a Master of Liberal Arts candidate at Stanford and a graduate of the University of Virginia, where he studied history and astronomy. He works at Stanford's Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies and enjoys enjoys reading, painting, music, and the outdoors.

Marcia Brewer is a recent graduate from Mount St. Mary's University from the Humanities Program (History emphasis) with a Master’s Degree. She currently lives in Los Angeles, CA and works for a non-profit organization in accounting/finance administration. She enjoys traveling, shopping, hiking, and spending time with family and friends. She also enjoys reading, learning about history, social & cultural studies and visiting museums. One of her favorite leisure time activities is watching the History Channel and PBS American Experience and other TV documentaries.

David Brewer is a 2020 Graduate from Mount St. Mary's University Humanities Graduate Program. He has worked in the field of Information Technology for the past twenty years. He enjoys reading, traveling, hiking, biking, and spending time with my family.

Stacey Bryant is workforce education coordinator and a student in the Doctor of Liberal Studies program at Southern Methodist University. Stacey decided to focus her doctoral degree on human trafficking after meeting several inspirational trafficking survivors through volunteer assignments with Catholic Charities Refugee Resettlement program and the Fort Worth Police Department's Clergy and Police Alliance. After graduation, she plans to develop workforce training programs to empower trafficking survivors and people at risk of being trafficked.

Susie Callahan is a student in the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies program at Reed College. She holds a MA Ed from Washington University in St. Louis. Her professional focus has been on education and literacy.

Jen Companik is a fiction editor at TriQuarterly. Her literary accomplishments include: first prize, The Ledge’s 2014 Fiction Awards; and a Pushcart Prize nomination. Her writing has appeared in: The Evansville Review; Bryant Literary Review; Glassworks; and Another Chicago Magazine. Her personal accomplishments include: making bureaucrats laugh and stopping a baby from screaming on an airplane using only a red carabiner. By listening to her work you are participating in one of her wildest dreams.

Aneeq Ejaza is a writer and editor currently pursuing a Master's degree in Cultural Studies at Dartmouth. With South Asia Studies as his domain, and History and Literature as his tools, he is interested in pursuing questions pertaining to the Muslim experience in South Asia from the eighteenth century onward, and how these historical experiences inform the cultural and religious tensions pervading Muslim communities in contemporary India and Pakistan, and their diasporic counterparts in the West.

Michele Elchlepp lives and works in Texas. She is a high school teacher and department chair at Jesuit College Prep in Dallas. She spends her off time in Colorado. Colorado is her happy place where she goes to reenergize at the end of the school year and hike in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. She is married, has one child, and a herd of pups. Her degrees are: SMU - BA - History and Anthropology, University of Dallas - Master of Theological Studies and SMU - Masters of Liberal Studies.

Ivan Fernandez, aka Afroxander, is a writer, photographer, and graduate student researcher at San Diego State University with nearly 20 years experience working as a journalist, writer, and photographer. His research at SDSU focuses on the ethnography of association football (soccer) fandoms/fans through the complex and interrelated relationship between the sport, art, culture, history, and politics as a means of creating and influencing such fandoms.

"A veteran of the U.S. Navy, Bryon L. Garner earned his Master of Liberal Arts from Johns Hopkins University and is currently pursuing his PhD at the Union Institute and University. Bryon has presented and written about intersectionality, masculinity and patriotic identity. Bryon was the subject of a Christian Science Monitor article on black patriotism and published ""Asymmetry and Duality: Black Veterans in America"" in Black & Magazine.

Angela Giron is the Director of the MLS Program at Arizona State University. She presented her paper "The Missing - Geriatric Female Sexuality in Film Content & Cinematography" at the Film-Philosophy conference at St. Anne's College, Oxford University, England. Ms. Giron has worked in film out of Los Angeles, New York, Montreal and Toronto. She portrayed Alice B. Toklas in the film, The Moderns, directed by Alan Rudolph. Her authored play, "Nitza - A Cuban Flavor" was recently self-performed at the United Solo Festival, NYC. The anthology, "Fearless: Women's Journey to Self-Empowerment," was published in 2019, containing a short story by Ms. Giron.

Supriya Goswami teaches courses in literature (with special focus on Africa and South Asia), culture, and politics at Georgetown University. She is the author of Colonial India in Children's Literature (Routledge, 2012). She is currently working on her second book, Colonial Wars in Children's Literature. She has also published in such scholarly journals as the Children's Literature Association Quarterly, South Asian Review, and Wasafiri.

J.T. Hill is a United States Army veteran and [MLS] Human Rights, Social Justice, & Global Studies graduate of Southern Methodist University (SMU). Currently, J.T. is pursuing a graduate certificate in American Studies through the Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies (CAGS) program within SMU's Annette Caldwell Simmons school of education and human development. While attending SMU, J.T.'s interdisciplinary scholarship can be circumscribed to the following theoretical fields: Postcolonial Studies, Black Studies, and American Studies.

Jessica Ingle specializes in nineteenth and twentieth-century American art with a particular emphasis in contemporary Texas art, photography, gendered representations, and transculturalism. She has presented her research at major institutions and conferences throughout Texas. She obtained a dual B.A. in Art History and Business Administration from Trinity University, her M.A. in Art History from University of North Texas and is currently enrolled as a Ph.D. student in Aesthetic Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Before pursuing a graduate degree, Alicia Johnson worked as a writer and planner of cultural events and community outreach for the North Carolina Office of the Governor focusing on Black history and heritage in North Carolina. Her current research focuses on the efforts of Blacks to uplift the race and demand equal access, rights, and treatment as part of U.S. society through the Black lens.

David Knight earned both a BA and MA in Integrated Studies from the University of Oklahoma. Recently retired from the private sector, where he was employed as a Corporate Trainer. He is currently enrolled in the University of Notre Dame's on-line certificate program in Theology; maintaining a problematic home garden of ornamental corn, pumpkins, and gourds; and reading any non-fiction while watching The Weather Channel.

Kristina Kwacz completed her MALS degree in 2017, with her final project quite literally a study in history, heritage and identity. Since then, she has continued to present her work as an independent scholar to academic and general audiences locally, nationally, and internationally. Her areas of interest include Polish and Eastern European Studies, the history of Poland during WWII, the Polish diaspora in the United States, documentary photography, and memory work with family photos.

Simona Laiu is an MLA student at Stanford University set to graduate this Summer. She has a BA in History and Psychology from York University, Toronto, Canada and a BEd form Toronto University. She worked as historian in a series of museums and associations in Canada before becoming a high school history teacher. Simona is an avid Romanian textiles researcher and collector.

Dr. Jill LeRoy-Frazier is Professor of Liberal Studies at East Tennessee State University, where she teaches gender studies, cultural theory, and social justice. She also serves as Assistant Dean in the College of Graduate and Continuing Studies, serving post-traditional and first-generation students in the Division of Cross-Disciplinary Studies. Her areas of research interest include Southern and Appalachian literature and culture, African-American modernism, ecofeminism, and speculative fiction.

Carolyn Luttrell is an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Delaware who teaches technical writing and writing in the sciences. She comes to the University after 39 years as a professional writer in corporate America. She plays the oboe and English horn in a community orchestra, and is the granddaughter of immigrants who came to this country for a better life.

Michele Lynn is a graduate student at North Carolina State University, where she is studying toward a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies. She received her bachelor of arts degree in political science from Barnard College and is a graduate of the Coro Foundation Fellows Program in Public Affairs. Michele is the principal of Michele Lynn Communications, a consultancy specializing in communications for community-based organizations and institutions of higher education.

Barbara Drozdowski Mackey received the degree of Master of Liberal Studies from Rice University in 2016. Trained as a Clinical Social Worker, Barbara gave up her private psychotherapy practice in early 2000 when her late husband's Alzheimer's disease required her full time attention, as his primary caregiver. Since giving up her practice Barbara has continued to pursue her avocation as a writer.

Katelyn May is a graduate of San Diego State University twice-over; she received her B.A. in English with a minor in Film and Media in 2017 and an M.A. in Liberal Arts and Sciences in 2019. Two of her areas of emphases during her graduate career were Film Studies and Rhetoric, ultimately culminating in her Master's thesis entitled Challenging the Culture Industry and Escapist Fantasy: An Examination of the Subversive Power of Film.

Kehan Mei, a Ph.D. candidate, a student in Literature Studies in Art & Humanities in the University of Texas at Dallas. She got her master degree in East Asian Studies at St. John’s University in 2014. The fields which she is interested in are modern Chinese literature and modern American literature. For the dissertation, she focuses on the comparative study of Chinese Tibetan literature and Chinese American literature. 

Taqdees Mahmood Mela is a first year MALS graduate student at Dartmouth College from Lahore, Pakistan. She was working as a journalist in her home country and has been published on issues related to human rights, gender and culture.

Diane R. Miles is a candidate for a Doctor of Liberal Studies degree from Southern Methodist University. As an educator and community leader, her years as a teacher and administrator in the second largest school district in Texas has provided her first-hand knowledge of the plight of Black and Brown families in urban America. Her passion for understanding and seeking to assist in making sure families are treated with respect and acceptance continues to keep her grounded in focusing on civil and human rights. Believing that all humanity deserves to be recognized and accepted with dignity as members of the human family, is enveloped in her mission to make this a reality. Through study and participation, she continues in the struggle.

Emmeline Miles is a doctoral candidate in Liberal Studies at Southern Methodist University (SMU) and an Adjunct Professor of English at Richland College. She holds degrees in Creative Writing, English, Liberal Arts, and Music from SMU, Texas Christian University, and Scripps College. She hopes her research in creative expression and trauma prevention will have a positive, lasting impact. In her free time, she is a performing artist and a proud mom to her dog, Chloe.

Dana is the author of "The Storytelling Code" and the founder of the Story Club franchise. Dana has an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Northwestern University and an MA in Religious Studies from The University of Chicago. She produces and hosts Story Club Cleveland and teaches at Literary Cleveland. You may see her upcoming performance schedule and sign up for her email list at www.danastories.com.

Tobi Oloyede is an international graduate student from Nigeria in the Gender and Diversity program at East Tennessee State University with a background in English and Literature. Her choice of study emanates from personal experiences in the Nigerian society where patriarchy, inequality, class among others is the order of the day. A young woman trying to use her education to alleviate the social menace by being a voice in the society, and bringing about change in her own little way. She is currently working on a research about women's resilience and domestic violence.

Ashlea Palladino is an MLS student at SMU pursuing a dual concentration in Human Rights/ Social Justice and Gender Studies (expected graduation December 2020). Ashlea is also employed by SMU as their Director of Property Management with purview over the University's real estate portfolio. She is the co-author of Changes: One Family's Journey with a Transgender Teen, and Ashlea also paints and speaks publicly on personal topics as detailed on her website: www.ashleapalladino.com.

Jeanine Powell teaches English at the Early College High School of Carrollton-Farmers Branch. The school recruits students who are underrepresented in college and works to support them as they earn both an associate's degree and a high school diploma. Ms. Powell is pursuing a Doctorate of Liberal Studies degree at Southern Methodist University. Her interest is in the interdisciplinary interpretation of literature and the translation of that information into creativity and critical thinking for students.

Neil Ramiller completed his Master of Arts in Liberal Studies at Reed College in May 2017, shortly after retiring from a career as a professor of management (preceded by careers in software development and archaeology). Neil's particular interest in the subject of his AGLSP 2020 presentation, the relationship of hi-fi to the identity of "dads" in mid-century America, arises from witnessing his stepfather, some time around 1959, wrangling with a large, mysterious reel-to-reel tape recorder.

Geoffrey Ramirez is a Public History graduate student at the University of West Florida. He has spent his graduate career focusing on local and community histories and developing skills to help communicate history with more general audiences. He spent a year working with Dr. Jamin Wells on the Gulf Coast Digitization Project and has contributed to local projects such as Achieve Escambia's 32505 Project, which is focused on a poverty-stricken area in Pensacola.

Ashley Riley is a second year graduate student from Northfield, New Hampshire, completing the Master’s of Arts in Liberal Studies program at Dartmouth College. Her concentration is in Globalization studies, and she is interested in exploring the working class experience in America, and how this has changed since the end of WWII.

Clare Shaffer is a prize-winning poet and Master of Liberal Arts student at TCU. She is also a professional freelance theatre director specializing in contemporary musicals and new play development, as well as a human simulation specialist working at the new TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine.

A second-year DLS student, Ann Walton Sieber is writing a family memoir that combines creative writing, history, anthropology, music, art, and liberal studies. A native Texan, she had a 25-year career as a magazine journalist, covering subjects from homelessness to GLBT concerns to quincenearas. Ms. Sieber studied the Great Books at St. John's College, journalism at the master's level at the University of Missouri, and earned a MALS in 2015 from the University of Memphis.

Trisha Spence is the assistant editor of TCU Magazine in Fort Worth, Texas, where she oversees alumni and sports coverage. She graduated from TCU's Master of Liberal Arts program in 2019 and from the University of Iowa with a bachelor's degree in journalism and mass communication in 2012. She believes the MLA program sharpened her critical thinking skills and enhanced her curiosity, thus making her a better journalist and human being.

Milannee E. Kamo'ilani St. Hill is a native Hawaiian student at NC State University's Master of Arts in Liberal Studies program, where she is exploring climate change and its environmental impacts on communities of Black, indigenous, and people of color. She also serves as an Outreach Coordinator for NC State's Waste Reduction & Recycling department where she develops and oversees waste diversion programs for students, faculty, and campus departments.

Caroline Stasulat holds a bachelor's degree in Native American Studies from UC Davis and a Master of Liberal Arts from Stanford University. Her master's thesis investigates the manifestation of settler colonialism and consequent indigenous genocide in Gold Rush California. Following graduation from Stanford, Caroline spent two summers in Ireland examining archaeological evidence of the English-Irish colonial encounter. She continues to explore how indigenous and colonial groups understand their respective identities and reconcile their often-painful histories.

Lori is a recent graduate of North Carolina State University completing a Master of Liberal Arts in combination with a graduate certificate in GIS. She received her Bachelor in Anthropology with a concentration in Archaeology from Appalachian State University. During her graduate career, she completed an internship with the Wake Forest Historic Preservation Commission and worked as a university tutor and graduate TA. After graduation, she accepted a position with the NC Historic Preservation Office.

Mary Tribble graduated from Wake Forest in 1982 with a degree in Art History and completed her MA in Liberal Arts Studies in 2019. A sixth generation Wake Forester, Tribble manages the university's alumni engagement office. She also oversees the Wake Forest Historical Museum at the original campus in Wake Forest, NC. She is a member of the Slavery, Race and Memory Project, an initiative to reexamine the university's history with regard to slavery and its legacies.

Angela Turpin is a Graduate student at Indiana University South Bend and her interest in Hawaiian studies is due to the lack of education and false information in schools as well as a misconception of Native Hawaiian language, identity, and culture on the main land. The purpose of this application and presentation to bring awareness to these issues in an academic setting.

Antoinette von dem Hagen has a BA from Carleton College; JD from UC Hastings; and a MLA from Stanford University. She is currently studying for a MA in Religious Studies at Rice University, focusing on religious philosophy and paranormal consciousness.

Dr. Gina Weber is a graduate of the first cohort of the Doctor of Liberal Arts Program at SMU. She is an Adjunct Professor at University of North Texas, and is a consultant working with artists, art and performance organizations to improve their administration. Serves on the Board of Cara Mia and Prism Movement Theaters, and volunteers for Human Rights Initiative of North Texas, Teatro Dallas, Artstillery, RAICES, and is a Docent at the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum. She had a successful career at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency where she managed environmental programs such as Environmental Justice and Federal Facilities. Dr. Weber also conducted international diplomacy, and the effective allocation of a multi-million-dollar budget to address environmental and public health issues along the U.S. - Mexico border. As a member of the Latinx community, she is passionate about diversity and inclusion to drive innovation.

Lynette Yetter is a permanent resident of Bolivia, musician, artist, poet, and scholar passionate about understanding the clash of Western and indigenous cultures through a Buddhist feminist lens. You can learn more at http://LynetteYetter.com/ and https://reed.academia.edu/LynetteYetter.