Fellowship Recipients 2023-24

Chandra Mallampalli is a historian of modern South Asia with interests in religious pluralism, nationalism, and the secular state. He comes to the Clough Center with an interest in examining challenges facing India’s multi-religious democracy, especially in light of the surging Hindu nationalism and violence against religious minorities.  This fall, he is researching the unfolding conflict in Manipur (northwest India), where conflict over the rights and privileges of tribal communities has assumed religious overtones, resulting in the destruction of churches and other religious structures.  He is the author of four books and many articles, which examine the intersection of religion, law, and society in colonial India. His scholarship and teaching span the fields of modern India, British Empire, World History, and Global Christianity.  His recent book with Oxford University Press (New York), South Asia’s Christians: Between Hindu and Muslim, describes how the lives of Roman Catholics, Syrian Christians , and Protestants have been shaped by centuries of interactions with Hindus and Muslims of the Indian subcontinent.  

Salim Çevik is a fellow at the Center for Applied Turkey Studies (CATS), established at the Berlin based think tank German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP). Prior to joining SWP, he held researcher and/or teaching positions at Columbia University, Istanbul Bilgi University, Ipek University, Lund University and the Free University of Berlin. He received his Ph.D from the Political Science Department of Bilkent University in 2015. His main areas of research are religion in politics, democratization, nationalism, and nation building. Dr. Çevik’s most recent publications are “A Comparative Approach to Understanding Regime Trajectories of Tunisia and Turkey” published by the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies (co-authored with Pelin Ayan Musil), and “New Turkey and Management of the Religious Realm: Continuities and Ruptures,” published by the European Journal of Turkish Studies.

Emily Dupuis is a second-year Ph.D. student in the History Department at Boston College. She received her B.A. from Brown University and M.A. from Providence College. Emily’s specialization is Irish history; more specifically, she seeks to examine the intersections between gender, colonialism, and religion, and how women both shaped and were shaped by the imperialist experience. As a Clough Doctoral Fellow, Emily’s research focuses on women and popular religion. Of particular interest is how women acted as intergenerational transmitters of belief systems, maintaining the strength of Catholicism in Ireland in the face of English suppression. Operating within an imperialist framework in which external values, beliefs, and lifestyles were unjustly imposed upon them, Irish women nevertheless maintained a certain degree of sovereignty which would ultimately lead to Ireland’s successful twentieth-century independence movement. Emily also seeks to understand women’s roles in creating the unique shape of Irish Catholicism. Questions of what constituted femininity, respectability, and devotion are at the forefront of her work. Emily’s aim is to illustrate the continuing importance of Irish women in the centuries-long effort of maintaining Irish culture.

Alexa Damaska is a second-year Ph.D. student in Sociology at Boston College. She earned a B.S. in Economics from Miami University in 2017 and an M.A. in Sociology and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies from Brandeis University in 2019. Alexa’s master’s research focused on the path to and impact of undergraduate major choices in the women’s studies field. Since completing her degree she has been working in the nonprofit sector serving persons who experience homelessness. As a Clough Doctoral Fellow, Alexa’s research interests exist within the subfield of economic sociology and include mixed method feminist analyses of mechanisms in governments, economies and education systems which work to maximize equitable resource distributions. She foresees her findings supporting the actors in these spaces to refine mechanisms and foster life-affirming experiences for individuals, particularly those most marginalized. She believes more equitable access to resources will enhance the health of societies via increased capacities for democratic engagement.

Junwoo Kim is a second-year Ph.D. student in Political Science at Boston College. Junwoo earned a B.A. in Political Science from Indiana University and an M.A. in International Relations from the University of Chicago. His current research interests include nuclear deterrence and proliferation, grand strategy, nationalism, and balance-of-power realism. More specifically, Junwoo’s current work focuses on studying the conditions under which a state with nuclear arms can make credible threats against an adversarial nuclear power. As a Clough Doctoral Fellow, Junwoo aims to investigate the internal politics of minor powers who are geographically located between nuclear-armed great powers, with a particular focus on how nationalism and competing interpretations of territorial integrity inform the threat perceptions of diverse domestic actors in those states.

Stephen de Riel is a first-year Ph.D. student in the History Department at Boston College. He received his B.A. in History from Hampshire College in 2022. Stephen’s interest is in 19th and 20th century American history, with a focus on how industry has shaped our environmental past and present. As a Clough Doctoral Fellow, he is exploring how social and cultural narratives of industrial change, especially decline, have influenced American ideas of class, race, and more broadly, power. Stephen is particularly interested in how this has occurred in response to the wide-scale environmental change bought on by industrial development and abandonment. By examining these ideas, Stephen aims to understand how to approach historic and modern environmental injustices, and, specifically, how current industrial projects can better account for historic injustices and address inequity through planning and outreach.

Barbara Anne Kozee is a second-year Ph.D student in Ethics in Boston College's Theology Department. Barb received a B.S. from Georgetown University in International Political Economy with a minor in Spanish.She completed her M.Div. at the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University with a certificate in Women's Studies in Religion. Valuing both academic scholarship and grassroots activism, Barb also serves on the Board of Directors for the Women’s Ordination Conference. As a Clough Doctoral Fellow, Barb’s research interests include the interactions between gender, sexuality, family, and politics. She hopes to use feminist and queer ethical methods to contribute to conversations on LGBTQ issues in the Catholic Church and society and is influenced by Catholic Social Teaching. Qualitative methodologies and the sociology of religion have also influenced Barb’s interdisciplinary approach to research questions such as how Queer Catholics imagine self-identity, sexuality, family, and marriage. She is eager to pursue data-informed and nuanced conversations at the intersection of religion, gender, and politics, conversations that have become increasingly critical in the current U.S. political climate.

Kelvin (Ka Ho) Li is a first-year Ph.D. student in the Philosophy Department. He received his B.A and M.Phil in Philosophy in the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he concentrated in the field of phenomenology, that is, the study of the structures governing human existence and experiences. His master’s thesis critically engaged with the individualistic conception of subjectivity prevalent in contemporary cultural and political paradigms, and its possible transformation by reimagining our relationships with others. As a Clough Doctoral Fellow, Kelvin’s research explores the multiple layers of attachment formation through human and inter-human vulnerability in the lived experience of diasporas, particularly in those facing political atrocities and displacement. While vulnerability is an integral part in the constitution of communal identities, it also embodies an essential ambiguity: though it can be employed to support generosity and hospitality to others, it can also promote violence and xenophobia in the name of self-defense. Kelvin’s aim is to better articulate the ethical significance of vulnerability and its implications in the debate between nationalism and globalism.

Trystan "Trys" Loustau is a second-year Social Psychology PhD student at Boston College working with Liane Young in the Morality Lab. Funded by the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship, Trys studies how the complexity of people's social identities and social networks influences their intergroup attitudes, moral judgements, intellectual humility, and wellbeing. As a Clough Doctoral Fellow, she is particularly interested in examining how individuals with identities that challenge stereotypes, such as Christian liberals, navigate social spaces with conflicting group norms. Trys is also a Research Fellow with Listen First, a non-profit coalition of organizations across the U.S. dedicated to promoting conversations across divergent groups. In this position, she leads the development of surveys and other resources for helping these organizations to measure the impact of their programs.

Meghan McCoy is a second-year Ph.D student in the History Department at Boston College. She received her B.A. from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and her M.A. from Boston College. Meghan studies US history from 1865 to the present, with a focus on reproductive and maternal health, pregnancy, race, state violence, and criminalization. She is especially interested in how pregnancy and maternity act as a conduit for the state to impose, control, or otherwise shape social, political, and economic goals both domestically and transnationally. Through her research as a Clough Doctoral Fellow, Meghan is exploring how white nationalism and domestic terror are linked with ideas of gender, race, and class specifically through the lens of reproduction, abortion, and motherhood. By studying these fields, Meghan aims to better understand how the state has criminalized, surveilled, and controlled the reproductive health of BIPOC and low-income women and how that affects the constitutional rights of all people. She Meghan hopes to help improve all people’s access to equitable reproductive health care and nuance the often dichotomous arguments surrounding public health and the role of the state.

Elijah Rockhold is a third-year law student at Boston College Law School. He received his B.A. in English and International Relations from Drake University. Elijah was a research grantee for the Center for Human Rights and International Justice and has done multi-country comparative research with the School for International Training. His honors thesis at Drake was a case study of a suburban shopping complex, and his research examined the effect of the "experience economy" and its relationship with civic engagement. Elijah will continue to focus on these trends as a Clough Doctoral Fellow. Specifically, he hopes to examine how economic and political forces disrupt traditional notions of "space" and "place,” and to explore the question: what spaces are necessary for democracy to function?

Casey Puerzer is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Political Science Department at Boston College, specializing in American Politics. He received his B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College in 2020, where he concentrated in Philosophy and Classics. Casey’s research interests lie at the intersection of non-governmental cultural associations (namely the media) and the formal institutions of our governance. In particular, he is fascinated by the political causes and eventual ramifications of conspiratorial patterns of thought and moral panic. As a Clough Doctoral Fellow, Casey intends to focus on  two  specific questions that implicate four inescapable facets of American political life: federalism, individualism, bureaucracy, and the role of experts in government. . First, why do Americans seem to be so uniquely disposed towards conspiratorial patterns of thought and moral panic? Second, how do these two impulses manifest themselves in public opinion, legislation, and the behavior of courts? Using Tocqueville as his guide, Casey seeks to situate his analysis of conspiratorial thought patterns and moral panic in a historical context, identifying what previous generations have done wrong, and done right, when dealing with these phenomena.

Shaun Slusarski is a fourth-year Doctoral Candidate in Theological Ethics. He graduated from Boston College in 2012 with a B.A. in Theology and from the University of Notre Dame in 2020 with an M.T.S. in Systematic Theology with a minor in Peace Studies. In his dissertation, Shaun is writing about the ethics of prison healthcare in the United States. The COVID-19 pandemic has helped to illuminate the unique health vulnerabilities of incarcerated people as well as the inequitable distribution of medical resources to the only population with a constitutionally guaranteed right to healthcare. As Clough Doctoral Fellow, Shaun hopes to explore bioethical issues surrounding organ donation in the prison context. Beyond clinical issues in prison, he is interested in analyzing mass incarceration as a public health issue that threatens the collective flourishing of our society. Shaun wishes to bring the insights of Catholic social teaching to contribute to a vision of criminal justice that promotes the holistic wellbeing of victims, offenders, and the larger community.

Marcus Trenfield is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Psychology Department at Boston College. He received his B.A. in Psychology from Harvard College. Marcus’s undergraduate thesis focused on a potential mechanism by which rationalization can improve humans’ ability to recall information. He has also studied how moral norms, charitable actions, and game theory principles influence our behavior and our perceptions of others. As an incoming Clough Doctoral Fellow, Marcus is broadly interested in studying the factors that promote and inhibit cooperative and prosocial behavior, particularly when addressing collective action problems. Within this area of interest, Marcus is eager to pursue multiple questions that complement the Clough Center’s interest in democratic politics and societies. Some topics he hopes to explore include researching how leaders and institutions can encourage prosocial behavior; studying how to cultivate prosocial norms across diverse groups and societies; and motivating people to support policies that help distant others. This year, Marcus is particularly interested in studying the role journalism and the media plays in shaping democratic and cooperative norms and behavior.

Ophelia Fangfei Wang is a second-year PhD student in the English Department. She received her B.A. in Translation and Interpretation at Shandong University in China and her M.A. in Critical Asian Humanities at Duke University. As a Clough Doctoral Fellow, Ophelia plans to study urban Asian American community building in literary texts, specifically by theorizing Chinatown to contextualize and historicize Asian American literature. She argues that “Chinatown” comprises not only the urban spaces where Chinese immigrants dwell but also the layers of transnational history, culture, and relations that have been shaped by discriminatory racial laws and policies and stereotypical narratives. Another of Ophelia’s research ambitions is to understand race in a geopolitical framework rather than as localized knowledge. She is interested in exploring the connection and collusion between anti-Asian racism and Sinophobia against the backdrop of global superpower competition and geopolitical struggles. Ophelia aims to facilitate more conversations between area studies and Asian American studies and contribute to research on racial equality, justice, and constitutional democracy.

Yinan Xu is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Sociology at Boston College. Prior to her doctoral study, she completed her B.A. and M.A., respectively, in English Language and American Studies in China. Living in transformative China, she is interested in individual participation in social activism that strives for social justice, as she explores the form and style of civic endeavors in non-democratic contexts. At the center of Yinan’s academic investigation is how individuals react to inequalities and establish their resistances in post-socialist China, where social conflicts and contentions constantly emerge under the state’s transformative courses in political, social, and cultural procedures. As a Clough Doctoral Fellow, Yinan is focusing on activism in the digital sphere and has two lines of exploration. First, she is interested in understanding the role of digital media in facilitating social change, as digital media has emerged as one of the major channels for activism in non-democratic societies. Second,  she explores state–society relations through the lens of digital activism, as digital media increasingly emerges as the public communicative surface that connects to the infrastructural core of regimes.