Recent Graduates
Recently Earned Ph.D. Degrees
Chenoa Stilwell-Jensen
2021
Dissertation
Iina Dziil be’ At’iin (On the Path of a Strong Life): Dine (Navajo) Perceptions of Self-Care and Social Support with Diabetes Management
Employment: Part-time Instructor, University of New Mexico, Department of Communication & Journalism
Nina Cooper
2021
Dissertation
Sisters Supporting Sisters: Photovoice & Diabetes Discourse Among Church-based Women of Color Employment: Community Engagement Manager, Homewise, a nonprofit & CDFI (community development financial institution)
Christina Blankenship
2021
Dissertation
Moving Away from the Alt-Right: How the Proud Boys Utilize Image-Conscious Populist Media to Re-brand White Nationalism
Employment: Part-time Instructor, University of New Mexico, Department of Communication & Journalism; Senior Instructional Systems Designer, Department of Energy
Jocelyn Gomez
2021
Dissertation
Re/ Constructing Race and Racism Among Unionized Mexican Immigrants Through Vernacular Discourse
Employment: Community Engagement Student Initiatives Manager at the Center for Community Engagement at Dominican University of California and adjunct faculty for the Division of Literature, Languages & Humanities at Dominican University of California
Maggie Seiber
Employment: New Mexico Department of Health & University of New Mexico Community & Regional Planning
Brook Cholka
Employment: IRB specialist University of Nevada, Reno
Hannah Long
2020
Dissertation
“‘Fat is a queer issue too’: Complicating queerness and body size in women’s sexual orientation and identity.” Seeking a job outside of the academia.
Joseph Flores
2020
Dissertation
Capitalizing on Language: The Political and Economic (Re)Circulation of a National Imaginary.
Employment: Casper College
Zhao Ding
2019
Dissertation: “Resisting the victimization: Examining ideological tensions of race, gender, sexuality, and transnationality among first-generation Chinese migrant women in U.S. academia.”
- Awarded the 2020 Outstanding Dissertation in Asian/Pacific American Communication Studies Division & Caucus by National Communication Association (NCA) and the 2020 Outstanding Dissertation in International and Intercultural Communication Division by National Communication Association (NCA).
Employment: Assistant Professor of Interpersonal/Intercultural Communication, Dixie State University.
Claudia Boyd
2019
Dissertation: The Sweet Tale: A Pilot Study of an Interactive Narrative Health Communication Intervention for Children Using Positive Deviance to Highlight Communicative Acts that Lead to Effective Management of Diabetes among Hispanics
Employment: Lecturer and Assistant Director of Forensics, University of Texas - El Paso
Cicilia Brooke Cholka
2019
Dissertation: Safe Sex and Relationship Negotiation in People who Identify as Polyamorous
Ivana Cvetkovic
2019
Dissertation: Framing EU Borders in Online News: European Multimodal Discourses of Inclusion and Exclusion
Employment: Assistant Professor, Cal Poly - Pomona
Zhao Ding
2019
Dissertation: Resisting the Victimization: Examining Edeological Tensions of Race, Gender, Sexuality and Transnationality among First-generation Chinese Migrant Women in U.S. Academia
Employment: Visiting Assistant Professor, Gustavus Adolphus College
Ailesha Ringer
2019
Dissertation: Sex, Labor, and Digital Spaces: A Critical Discourse Analysis of GP Guiaz - a Brazilian Sex Worker Twitter Feed
Employment: Assistant Professor, Metropolitan State University - St. Paul
Margaret Siebert
2019
Dissertation: Genetically Modified Salmon and the Future of Food: A Qualitative Content Analysis of Twitter
Mariko Thomas
2019
Dissertation: Cartographies of Roots: An Exploration of Plant Communication, Place, and Story
Andrew West
2019
Dissertation: "What's With What's Her Name? Sire, Call So and So...Can't You Use Your Own Hands?" Older Adult Perspectives on the Roles Communication Technology and Physical Activity Play in Their Aging Experiences.
Employment: Private Consultant, Albuquerque
Jose Castro Sotomayor
2018
Dissertation: Translating Global Nature: Territoriality, Environmental Discourses, and Ecocultural Identies
Eric Karikari
2018
Dissertation: Negotiating Culture in Africa: A Critical Analysis of Organizational Discourse in Ghana
Employment: Assistant Professor, Towson University
Huan Ran
2018
Dissertation: International News Agencies in the Era of Global Communications: The Case of CCTV and its Penetration of the U.S. News Market
Employment: Apple, Inc.
Myra "Nikkie" Roberts
2018
Dissertation: "(Lie)Alectics and the Discursive Dequeerification of Political Spaces Based on Religious Freedoms: A Critical Rhetorical Analysis of the Mormon and Gay Website"
Employment: Assistant Professor and Director of Public Speaking, Central New Mexico Community College
Lindsay Scott
2018
Dissertation: "Kenyan Youth’s Experiences of Intercultural Conflict: Negotiating Context, Intersectionalities, and Agency"
Employment: Assistant Professor, Lone Star College
Sayyed Fawad Ali Shah
2018
Dissertation: Health is an Achoot Beat: Factors Influencing Pakistani Journalists’ Coverage of Polio Vaccination
Employment: Assistant Professor, University of Jacksonville, Alabama
Maryam Alhinai
2017
Dissertation: Humanature Relations in Oman: Connections, Disconnections and Globalization
Employment: Assistant Professor, Sultan Qaboos University, Department of English
Godfried Agyeman Asante
2017
Dissertation: (Re)producing the Ghanain/African subject: Ideological Tensions and Queer Subjectivities in Post - colonial Ghana
Employment: Assistant Professor, Drake University
Emily Lilo
2017
Employment: Team Lead for the Mass Media Team - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Gabriela I. Morales
2017
Employment: Assistant Professor, New Mexico State
Consolata Mutua
2017
Dissertation: Negotiating Identity, Home, and Belonging: Understanding the Experiences of Afracan Women Refugees Resettled in the United States
Employment: Assistant Professor, Randolph-Macon College
Audrey Riffenburgh
2017
Dissertation: Elements Affecting Adoption and Implementation of Health Literacy Initiatives in Healthcare Organizations: A Qualitative Study
Employment: President and Founder at Health Literacy Connections, LLC
Ricky Hill
2016
Dissertation: Trans/formations: A Photovoice Assessment of Transgender People's Wellness
Employment: Research Program Coordinator, The Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing, Northwestern University
Mónica Pérez-Marín
2016
Dissertation: Critical Discourse Analysis of Colombian Identities and Humanature in National Geographic Magazine (1903-1952)
Employment: Associate Professor, Universidad de Medellin (Colombia)
Santhosh Chandrashekar
2016
Dissertation: Un/desirable Subjects: Racial Neoliberal Capitalism, South Asians, and the Unevenness of Racialization
Employment: Assistant Professor, University of Denver
Laura L. Burton
2016
Dissertation: Hope as Reclaiming Narrative Agency: The Communication Processes Facilitating Hope at a Community-Based Support Program
Employment: Program Manager, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Rio Rancho Campus
Erin Watley
2016
Dissertation: Culture, Conflicts & Discourse: A Critical Discourse Analysis of How Undergraduate Students Conceptualize and Practice Context, Intersectionality and Critical Reflexivity in Conversations About Intercultural Conflict
Employment: Assistant Professor, McDaniel College
Arthur Aguirre
2015
Dissertation: Monstrosities, Money, & Machines: A Metaphoric Analysis of Fantasy Football as a Social World
Employment: Visiting Assistant Professor in Leadership Studies, University of Texas-El Paso
Nicholas Noblet
2015
Dissertation: EMAIL AND ENRON: USING CMM TO MAKE BETTER SOCIAL WORLDS IN ORGANIZATIONS
Employment: Partner Solution Analyst, HealthX
Chad Perry
2015
Dissertation: ¿De dónde eres? The Construction of U.S. and Immigrant Culture and Identity in the ESL Adult Education Setting
Employment: Assistant Professor, University of Central Oklahoma
Lynn Walters
2015
Dissertation: Through Their Own Eyes: Exploring New Mexico High School Students' Perceptions of the Influences on Their Food Practices
Employment: Executive Director, Cooking with Kids
Danielle Kvam
2014
Dissertation: Communication as a resource for Latin American immigrant settlement in the United States: An ethnography of communication.
Employment: Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh
Angela Putman
2014
Dissertation: Interrupting the silence: A critical discourse analysis of a pilot seminar on racism, intersectionality and white privilege.
Employment: Assistant Professor, Penn State University - Brandywine
Ashley Archiopoli
2014
Dissertation: Don’t put me in “quotes:” Examining communication episodes of health-related stigma
Employment: Associat Professor, University of Houston Downtown
Susan Arsht
2014
Dissertation: “This is how worklife should be:” Quality connections, positive relationships, and positive organizational climate
Employment: Assistant Professor, Westminster College
Natasha (Barnett) Rascon
2014
Dissertation: The Process Of Diagnosis Delivery Of Autism Spectrum Disorders
Employment: Instructor, Indiana State University
Vanessa Brandon
2014
Dissertation: Fantasy-theme analysis of food documentaries: Contention, collaboration, and consultation as health promotion approaches
Employment: Seattle University
Jaclyn Devine
2014
Dissertation: Exploring organizational culture and intercultural communication practices in a teaching hospital
Sarah Upton
2014
Dissertation: Constructing the conspiring community: Using the practices of invitational rhetoric to create sustainable solutions to community-identified needs
Employment: Assistant Professor, University of Texas-El Paso
Marisa Garcia Rodriguez
2014
Dissertation: Mediated Narratives on Citizenship, Immigration, and National Identity: The Construction of Dreamer Identities in Public Discourse Surrounding President Obama’s 2012 Deferred Deportation Announcement
Employment: Lecturer at: Northern Arizona University
Kristen Cole
2013
Dissertation: “Every ‘one’ and every ‘thing’ can be loved”: A rhetorical analysis of networked self-representation by the objectùm sexuality community
Employment: Assistant Professor, Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus
Wendy Hine
2013
Dissertation: Narrative medicine and traditional medical interviewing approaches in women with breast cancer
Employment: UNM Cancer Center, Albuquerque, NM
Carmen Lowry
2013
Dissertation: Traversing Invitational Spaces: The Beautiful Iraqi Women Project
Employment: Executive Director, Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault
Jelena Petrovic
2013
Dissertation: The return of the Serbian other: Interpretative repertoires of nationalism and identity politics in online news discourses on Serbia’s integration in the European union.
Employment: Assistant Professor, Stetson University
Alexis Pulos
2013
Dissertation: Digital Game Design: A Procedural Field Analysis of Digital Capital
Employment: Assistant Professor, Northern Kentucky University
Alexandra (Sasha) Arjannikova de Leon
2013
Dissertation: An Organizational Culture Analysis of United Methodist Congregations
Employment: International-intercultural specialist for the United Methodist Church, Western Region in Sacramento, CA
Julie Lucero
2013
Dissertation: Trust as an Ethical Construct in Community Based Participatory Research Partnerships.
Employment: Assistant Professor & Director of the Latino Research Center, University of Nevada, Reno
Jaelyn deMaria
2012
Dissertation: Seeds of Resistance; Harvesting Justice: An exploration of spaces where native seeds grow
Employment: Assistant Professor, University of New Mexico
Willow Jackson
2012
Dissertation: Immigration in rural Newfoundland: Individual and community change
Brandi Lawless
2012
Dissertation: Ending poverty? Critical interrogations of class subjectivities, agency, and ideologies in discursive and embodied texts from a US nonprofit.
Employment: Associate Professor, University of San Francisco
Alice Hopkins-Loy
2012
Dissertation: Social-environmental Entrepreneurs’ Communicative Actions in Communication Networks
Employment: Institute for Cultural and Creative Entrepreneurship, Global Center for Cultural Entrepreneurship, Sustainable Native Communities Collaborative; Rockwood Fellow (2012-2013)
Satoshi Moriizumi
2012
Dissertation: Social support seeking processes in Japan and the United States: A multi-layered approach.
Employment: Nanzan University, Nagoya, Japan
Anjana Mudambi
2012
Dissertation: South Asian And (Undocumented) Latino/A Immigrant Bloggers: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Their Engagement With Immigration Discourses
Employment: Lecturer, Augusta University
Cleophas Muneri
2012
Dissertation: Negotiating Cultural Identity In The Struggle For Democracy In Zimbabwe: Postcolonial Transitions And Endurance
Employment: Lecturer III, University of New Mexico
Jessica Nodulman Cooper
2012
Dissertation: Transcending Traditional Approaches to Sexuality Education: A Case Study in Communicating, Constructing, and Defining Sex-Positive Sexuality Education
Employment: Associate Professor, Augustana College
Claudia Anguiano
2011
Dissertation: Undocumented, unapologetic, and unafraid: Analyzing the discursive strategies of the DREAMer immigrant youth movement.
Employment: Assistant Professor, University of California, Fullerton
Soumia Bardhan
2011
Employment: Assistant Professor and Director of Global Communication initiatives, Kansas State University
Jo Carter
2011
Dissertation: Let the Beauty We Love Be What We Do: A Case Study in Communication-Centered Leadership
Iliana Rucker De Larkin
2011
Dissertation: Obama's Presidential Race: Framing and Ideological Analysis of BLOGS.
Employment: Instructor, Loyola-Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA
Eudaline Patricia (Cia) Hell
2011
Dissertation: Patient-Provider Interactions: The Contemporary Cameroonian Story.
Employment: Health care, Nantes, France
Divya Sreenivas
2010
Dissertation: Structure of Narratives: Applying Propp's folktale morphology to entertainment-education films
Lorenda Belone
2010
Dissertation: An examination of communicative dialectical tensions and paradoxes encountered by Native American researchers in the field and in the academy
Employment: Associate Professor, Health Education, University of New Mexico
Yea-Wen Chen
2010
Dissertation: Negotiating intersecting cultural identities, dialectical tensions, and status relationships: Intercultural relationships in two nonprofit organizations in the Southwest
Employment: Ohio University
Jennifer Sandoval
2010.
Dissertation: Labor pains: An exploration into the complex roles of identity, the body, and policy in surrogacy discourses in India
Employment: University of Central Florida after a year at California State University Stanislaus
Elizabeth Dickinson
2010
Dissertation: Constructing, consuming, and complicating the human-nature binary: Communication practices in forest environmental education
Employment: University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
Marianne Leonardi
2010
Dissertation:Narrative as self performance: The rhetorical construction of identities on Facebook profiles
Employment: Assistant Professor, St. Ambrose University - Davenport, Iowa
Hannah Oliha
2010
Dissertation: Discourses of diversity: Negotiating the boundaries for equality, inclusion, and through the discourse of socially situated subjects
Employment: West Texas A & M University
Abdissa Zerai
2010
Dissertation: U.S. press representation of the southern Sudanese Civil War, 1983-2005
Employment: Instructor, UNM C&J department
Christopher Brown
2009
Dissertation: White bodies, black gaze: Constructions of white masculinity in white-male elite discourses on leadership and diversity
Employment: Two-year postdoctoral research fellowship, Ohio State University
Holly Siebert Kawakami
2009
Dissertation: A history and development of the intercultural communication field in Japan (1950-Present)
Martina Myers
2009
Dissertation: Institutional Ethnography: How Tenured Academic Women Talk About Success
Employment: New Mexico State University
Bhavana Upadhyaya
2009
Dissertation: Amma’s daughters: A transmodern study of personal, gender, cultural, and religious identities amongst women in the Amma community in United States
Employment: Central New Mexico Community College
Courtney Fletcher
2009
Dissertation: Negotiating face and conflict in romantic relationships: A cross-cultural comparison of Uganda and Ethiopia
Employment: University of Portland
Jessica Crespo
2009
Dissertation: Online Marriage and "Buhay Ko" (My Life): Views from Filipino Prospective Brides, Wives, and their U.S./British/Australian Husbands
Employment: Clarion University
Recently Earned M.A. Degrees
Yvone Gandert
2019
Thesis: Broadcasting or Branding America's Political Breakdown: Gaging the Multi-level Media Influences of Satirical Media Coverage of the Government Shutdown
Employment:
Matthew Higgins
2019
Thesis: It is More than a Game: An Ethnography Of Communication Treatment of Resilience as a Key Element of Basketball Culture
Employment:
Kaitlin Magee
2019
Thesis: "Is There Really a Way to Prevent Cancer?": Exploring Cancer Prevention Information Seeking Among Cancer Patients and Caregivers
Employment:
Isaac Ramsey
2019
Thesis: Stories in Magenta: An Asexual Standpoint Within and Outside Queerness, Sexual Performance, and Relationships
Carolotta Anweiler
2018
Thesis: A Church’s Approach to Intercultural Communication Encounters in Short-term Missions
Employment: Communications Coordinator, Missions Door
Maria Elwan
2018
Thesis: Flan, Manzanilla y un Despojo: An Oral History Project on the FolkLife and Foodways of the Cuban Diaspora in the Greater Albuquerque, New Mexico, Area
Seonah Kim
2018
Thesis: Is it Non-Summit? Is it Abnormal? Unpacking Whiteness: Critiquing Racialized and Gendered Representations in Non-Summit
Employment: Doctoral Student, University of Washington
Sebastiaan H.M.H. Gorissen
2017
Thesis: Common anong Wizards, Popstars, and Cowboys: Performance and Participation in Media Fandom
Avery Myers-Regulinski
2017
Thesis: A Rainbow with One Color: Expanding the Limited Representations of LGBTQ People in Greeting Cards
Employment: Communications Adjunct Faculty, Whatcom Community College
Jason Boys
2013
Thesis: Tensions in (Agri)Culture: The Negotiation of Environmental Dialectics at an Urban Farmers’ Market
Employment: Senior Assistant Director, School of Labor and Employment Relations, University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
Rodrigo Guzman
2013
Thesis: Contested Knowledges: A Rhetorical Analysis of the Eclipses for Austin by Pablo Vargas Lugo at the Intersection of Art and Science
Employment: Graduate school in Estonia
Diana Leon
2013
Thesis: “A Latina Captain in Showtime’s Dexter”: (Un)Veiling a Progressive Image of Latinas through Discourse Analysis of Media-Audience Co-constructions of Latinidad
Lingjing Bao
2013
Employment: Disney World, Florida
Zhibin Hong
2013
Thesis: Social Networking Sites: Social Support, Motivation, and Influences on Chinese international students' intercultural communication competence
Employment: Non-Profit Admin. Fellow at New Mexico Asian Family Center
Miwa Kimura
2013
Thesis: A Program Of Attraction Rather Than Promotion: Encouraging Newcomers To “Keep Coming Back”
Lisa Rossignol
2013
Thesis: When Visions Converge and Collide: A Fantasy Theme Analysis of Staff Participation in the Patient—and Family—Centered Care Initiative at the University of New Mexico Hospital
Employment: Ph.D. student, Sociology, Univ. of New Mexico
Kirby Witten-Smith
2013
Employment: PR Newswire, Albuquerque, N.M.
Pamela Gerber
2012
Thesis: Virtually present: An ethnography of communication look at the shaping of social rules in small group interactions mediated by mobile devices
Employment: Central New Mexico Community College
LaRae Tronstad
2012
Thesis: "And now I'm here": An ethnography of communication about "asking for help" practices at a homeless shelter.
Employment: Doctoral student, University of Texas at Austin
Uriel Lapcevic
2012
Stacey Overholt
2012
Thesis: "The Monstrous Side of Humanity": A Generic, Narrative, and Audience Reception Analysis of "True Blood"
Angela (Qingjing) Xu
2012
Thesis: "I have to be everything": Voices of international working mothers: Negotiating work-life balance in the United States.
Employment: Executive Vice President, Recruitment and Organizational Development - Asia, for Education First. Based out of Boston, Mass.
Krystal Zaragoza
2012
Thesis: Adolescent Sexuality and Gender Discourses in Seventeen, Cosmo Girl, and Teen: A Frame Analysis of Online Teen Magazines
Kenneth Lythgoe
2011
Thesis: Over and Under the Rainbow: A (Queer) Rhetorical Analysis of the Rainbow Sash Movement and Rainbow Sash Alliance
Placement: Doctoral student, University of Wisconsin Madison
Carolina Ramos
2011
Thesis: Borders, bridges, and beer: Performances of cultural identities in the Washington Birthday Celebration.
Placement: Doctoral student, University of Texas at San Antonio
Marleah Dean
2011
Thesis: "It's Like a Giant Game of Telephone": Physicians' Perceptions of Effective Communication in the Emergency Department Context.
Placement: Doctoral student, University of Texas at Austin
Carrie Niesen
2010
Thesis: Navigating reentry shock: The use of communication as a facilitative tool
Employment: Instructor, Winona State University
Nicole Abeyta
2010
Thesis:Hispanics’ communication experience in the organizational setting
Bodi Li
2010
Thesis: The effects of electronic word-of-mouth: An exploratory study
Liesel Sharabi
Thesis: Why can’t we be friends? Examining the influence of social network profiles on initial interactions.
Laura Burton
May 2009
Thesis: Facing defacement: Factors influencing indigenous patients in provider-patient communication in Baja Verapaz, Guatamala
Employment: Instructor, UNM C&J department
