UCI Anthropology welcomes an amazing group of graduate student for the upcoming 2018/2019 academic year. We seek to highlight who they are, and what has brought them to the University of California Irvine Anthropology department.

Tariq Al-Hamedi:
Education background: Tariq comes to UCI with a B.A. in Anthropology and Sociology from Lafayette College.
Research Interests: Tariqs focus spans the western Indian Ocean and broadly encompass the themes of citizenship, ethnicity, diaspora, and memory.
Program Goals: "I plan to undertake a project focusing on contested forms of belonging and transnational affiliation within Hadhrami diaspora communities in East Africa."

Kaitlyn Rabach:
Education background: Kaitlyn come to UCI with a B.A from Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame 15', and a M.A from SOAS University of London 17'
Research Interests: Kaitlyn's focus includes South Asia; Myanmar, urban exclusions; anthropology of gender; mobilities; citizenship and belonging; and identity politics.

Gina Hakim:
Education background: Gina comes to UCI with a M.A in Near Eastern Studies from New York University.
Research Interests: Ginas focus spans human-environment relationships, security infrastructure, and critical geography.
Program Goals: "I except to work on a project focused on sustainability and solar power in Egypt."

Adan Martinez Ordaz:
Education background: Adan comes to UCI with a B.A in Anthropology from UCLA as well as experience working with undocumented communities and immigration advocacy organizations.
Research Interests: Immigration, trans-nationalism, social media, online communities, cyberspace, and surveillance technologies.

Danielle Tassara:
Education background: Danielle comes to UCI with a B.A in English, and Anthropology from The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Danielle also has experience working at refugee and migrant centers.
Program Goals: Danielle hopes to examine ideas of subjectivity and belonging as shaped by Korean mothers and their families migrating in South America. She also hopes to explore how certain values like motherhood and home are recognized and constructed.

Monique Azzara:
Education background: Monique comes to UCI with a M.A in socio-cultural anthropology from Cal State L.A, and a B.A in Anthropology from Cal State Fullerton.
Research Interests: Monique's focus is anthropology of religion, specifically a focus on urban Christian churches and how they are changing in relation to demographic and economic shifts in historically Black communities. She expects to focus on Black Christianity in Los Angeles as it intersects with class, gender, race, and the city.
Program Goals: "I plan to undertake a project focusing on contested forms of belonging and transnational affiliation within Hadhrami diaspora communities in East Africa."

Lucy Garbett:
Education background: Tariq comes to UCI with a B.A. degree in Anthropology and Sociology from Lafayette College.
Research Interests: Lucy Garbett comes to UCI with a undergraduate degree in International Relations and Middle East Studies from the University of Leeds (UK), and she holds a MSc in Development Studies from SOAS, University of London. Lucy has work experience at research centers and NGO's in Palestine.
Program Goals: "My research interests include political economy, sexuality and gender, care work and social reproduction as well as political and social movements. I hope to work on a project on care work and changing kin structures in Palestine."

Raymond Fang:
Education background: Raymond comes to UCI with a dual degrees in Anthropology and History, Philosophy, and Social Studies and Medicine from the University of Chicago. Raymond has work experience in law and legal academia as a research assistant on issues surrounding science, and technology, privacy and predicting policing.
Research Interests: Medical anthropology, science and technology studies, and postcolonial transnational feminist theory.
Program Goals: Raymond expects to work on a project on how traditional Chinese medicine is marketed in U.S Chinatown's.

Jessica Slattery:
Education background: Jessica comes to UCI with a B.A in History from the University of Texas and experience working with environmental advocacy organizations.
Research Interests: Decolonization, critical theory, and environmental justice.
Program Goals: Working on a project focused on water scarcity and inequality in West Texas.

Akil Flectcher:
Education background: Akil comes to UCI with a B.A in Anthropology, and work experience in the realm of gentrification to examine first hand on streets of Brooklyn.
Research interests: Strong research interest in gaming and critical race theory.
Program Goals: Raymond expects to work on a project which examines the confluence of race and gaming.

Isabelle Soifer:
Education background: Isabelle comes to us with a B.A in Cultural Anthropology with a minor in African Studies from Rice University and an M.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Columbia University.
Research & Program Goals: Will pursue a J.D. at UC—Irvine in tandem with the Ph.D. as she examines the semiotics of legal texts and study spatial politics, knowledge economy, and disinvestment in low-income New York City communities. By studying the legal texts that inform structures of power, she seeks to understand the cultural factors that perpetuate social, political, and economic inequality in the urban U.S.

Tarek Moustafa Mohamed:
Education background: Tarek comes to us with a B.A in History from the University of Texas with experience working with environmental advocacy organizations.
Research Interests: decolonization, critical race theory, and environmental justice. Tarek expects to work on a project focused on water scarcity and inequality in West Texas.