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Current
Graduate students – MA program
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Eric D. Biesecker
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Eric is from Pittsburgh Pa. He taught high school social
studies and policy in Virginia and D.C. Eric lived in Bahia, Brazil
four months where he learned to play capoeira. He also enjoys playing guitar
and writing.
Eric is currently
working as a Research Assistant for The
Crusada, studying health issues in Latin
American populations. He is
interested in Capoeira Angola and identity.
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Heather Burmeister
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Heather is
interested in studying the effects of both natural and man-made disasters,
including what Kai Erikson terms “technological disasters.”
The threat of natural disaster is of particular interest to her,
as South Florida is prone to calamity
arising from hurricanes and associated weather phenomena. In
studying responses to such disasters she hopes to learn more about
social institutions and their ability or failure to function in times
of crisis, and the social changes that may ensue.
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Mance Buttram
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Courtney Dowdall
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Courtney grew up in St.
Charles, Missouri.
She earned her BA in a combined Sociology & Anthropology department
at Truman
State University.
After graduation she moved to Taiwan to teach English for
a year until SARS chased her home. In the following three years she
worked in St. Louis
City as
coordinator of an employment rehabilitation program helping students
with disabilities transition from high school into the working world. She
found FIU while following a paper trail on water privatization issues.
She was compelled by the department’s focus on applied studies
and wants to learn more about the innovative ways laborers negotiate
their own place in an increasingly global economy.
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Suzy Espinosa
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Suzy
is originally from South Florida but recently moved back to Miami after having lived in Tallahassee,
Atlanta, and Mallorca, Spain.
She formerly worked as a criminal investigator who worked with death
row inmates in Florida.
She also worked as a late-night radio personality in Tallahassee.
Suzy
is interested in the internet technology world and considers herself a
‘cyber-junkie’.
Her involvement with the internet began at a mainstream
publishing company in Atlanta and continued
in Spain
where she directed software engineers and web designers in the creation
and deployment of erotic entertainment websites for a telecom
company. Suzy currently works as a clinical data analyst at
Humana.
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Rebecca Garvoille
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Parvaneh Julian
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Parvaneh
Pulling Julian was born and raised in Miami, Florida.
Parvaneh received her Bachelor’s degree
in Journalism and Mass Communication from FIU. She received her
Master’s degree in Communication from Barry University,
and is currently enrolled in the Comparative Sociology Graduate
Program. Her current research interests include: social deviance,
identity formation, gender, and homelessness. She would ultimately like
to apply her insights to writing a book about media’s effect on
society.
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Safietou Kane
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Safietou was born and
raised in Senegal. She received her B.A. in
Sociology and Anthropology from the University of the District
of Columbia in Washington
D.C. and her M.A. in
African Studies from The African New World Studies Department at FIU in
May 2005. Her research interests are on Development in Senegal and Africa
at large as it relates to women, education and health. With her
doctorate degree, Safietou plans to work with
development organizations catering to Senegal
and Africa.
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Ryan Klotz
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Ryan is originally from St. Charles, Mo.
He received his undergraduate degree in Sociology and Anthropology from
Truman State
University (formerly Northeast Missouri State
University) in
June of 2002. He then moved to Taichung, Taiwan
where he taught English to elementary and junior high school students
while studying Mandarin Chinese. In 2003 he returned to Missouri where he held a teaching position at St. Charles County Community
College while also working in employment
rehabilitation for Metropolitan Employment Rehabilitation Services and
Goodwill Industries. His current academic interests are in
environmental anthropology, cultural ecology, sustainability, and
small-scale agrarian natural resource management.
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Suzana Mic
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Cali Ramsey
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Cali is originally from Hamiota,
a small town in western Manitoba, Canada.
She finished her undergraduate work at the University
of Montevallo, in Montevallo, Alabama,
in May of 2007. While on an athletic scholarship to play
volleyball, she received her Bachelor of Science with majors in
Sociology and Psychology. Cali’s
current academic interests include gender, immigration, and deviance.
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Angela Roe
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LéTania Severe
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LéTania Severe earned her B.A. in Anthropology and
Film from the University of Notre Dame. Her research interests include
educational inequality, school choice, and school composition. Her
doctoral research will focus on charter schools and student
achievement.
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Victor Christian Vila
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Chris is a native of Miami,
Florida and is very
grateful for having grown up in such a rich diverse cultural region.
Chris received a BA in sociology/ anthropology from FIU in the Spring
of 2006 and is delighted and honored to be enrolled in the comparative
sociology graduate program at FIU. Chris' focus is on issues of
intolerance in society and seeks to find strategies, through education
and advocacy to help dismantle factors of bigotry that affect minority
groups and marginalized people. Specific interest includes issues
related to homophobia, misogyny, racism, xenophobia and religious
intolerance.
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