McDougal Graduate Writing Fellows
Forestry and Environmental Studies
Kelly is a third-year Ph.D. student in Forestry and Environmental Studies (FES). Her research focuses on carbon cycle biogeochemistry. She also holds a BA in Biology from Dartmouth College and a MESc from Yale FES. She is interested in clear science writing for both scientific journals and other outlets.
FASAAS African American Studies Dept
Phoenix Alexander is a Ph.D. Candidate in the English and African American Studies Departments at Yale University, with a Certificate in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. His dissertation “Voices with Vision: Writing Black, Feminist Futures in Twentieth Century African America” traces a genealogy of twentieth century speculative fiction, focusing on the life and work of visionary novelist Octavia Butler. His book reviews may be found in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and his articles have appeared in Safundi: the Journal of South African and American Studies and forthcoming in the Journal of Science Fiction Studies. A writer as well as a scholar of science fiction, his debut short story, ‘Gennesaret’, was published in the Hugo-nominated magazine Beneath Ceaseless Skies in March 2018. His fiction has also appeared in Black Static and is forthcoming in Kaleidotrope.
Kendall Arslanian is a fifth year Ph.D. Candidate in Anthropology. Her research takes a combined Public Health and bioanthropological approach that aims to better understand the early origins of obesity. For her dissertation, she is investigating early life behavioral and genetic factors that may increase an individual’s likelihood of being obese in adulthood. The work takes place in Samoa, one of several ethnic minorities with high rates of obesity and a known genetic predisposition toward obesity. Her work is supported by the National Science Foundation DDRI award and the MacMillan International Dissertation Research Fellowship.
Kate is a third-year Ph.D. student in Forestry and Environmental Studies. Her research focuses on the link between environmentally-driven displacement and mental health in Indonesia. She is particularly interested in deepening our understanding of current environmental-migration so as to improve projections of displacement under climate change scenarios. Kate holds a BA and an MPH from Columbia University.
Carlye is a second-year Ph.D. student in Biological Anthropology. She received her B.A. in Anthropology with minors in Biology and Spanish from Washington University in St. Louis in 2017. Her work focuses on using human reproductive ecology to study the interaction between biology, ecology, and culture in Latin America with a focus on the health of indigenous populations. Carlye is looking forward to providing resources to help students develop compelling academic writing and presentations.
Emilie is a PhD candidate in History. Her dissertation focuses on eugenics and family planning in twentieth-century Latin America. She also holds a master’s degree in women’s history from Sarah Lawrence College.
Emilie enjoys helping humanities researchers identify topics and perfect different styles of writing. In addition to her dissertation, her current writing projects focus on the medical humanities, accessible pedagogy, and reproductive health.
Chelsea is a first-year Ph.D. student in the Anthropology Department. She graduated from the University of Virginia with a B.A. in Political & Social Thought and Anthropology in 2014, and then served as a project manager and research assistant at The Hastings Center, a bioethics research institute in the Hudson River Valley. After her work at Hastings, Chelsea completed her M.A. in Social Science at the University of Chicago in 2017. Now, as a doctoral student at Yale, she focuses on sociocultural and medical anthropology. Among other honors, her academic work has received the generous support of the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (2016 - 2021).
Xavier is a first-year PhD student in the department of comparative literature. He received his BA in comparative literature and French and Francophone studies from Swarthmore College in 2017 where he was a Mellon Mays Fellow. His research interests include Franco- and Anglophone African and African-American literature, cultural studies and critical theory. His research focuses primarily on twentieth century prose.
Stéphanie is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in Religious Studies. Her research focuses on cultural heritage preservation and management, museum studies, and identity politics. Stéphanie has complimented her academic journey with an eclectic array of work experiences, including a fellowship at the Smithsonian Institution, where she assisted with various national and international projects within the realm of cultural sustainability work, assisting in an archeological project in Egypt, and teaching as part of the Yale Young African Scholars program. She enjoys presenting her research at national and international conferences, while experimenting with different presentation styles. Stéphanie is a strong proponent for accessibility in academic writing, presentations, and teaching.
Sophie Richardson is a third-year Ph.D. student in the English department. She received her B.A. from Oberlin College (2015; English, Comparative Literature, German, minor in French). Prior to coming to Yale, she taught high school English for a year in Austria with the USTA/Fulbright program. Her primary research interests are centered around English Early Modern drama, lyric, and culture (from food to fashion to medicine). She loves clear and compelling writing across the disciplines, and looks forward to providing resources and working with others to help promote engaging written work, presentations, and classroom techniques.
Yale School of Public Health, Environmental Health Sciences
Ana is a PhD candidate in Public Health, where her research examines the impact of common, every-day chemical exposures on reproductive function and fertility. Prior to her doctoral studies, she worked as a midwife, and was co-founder and editor of Midwifery Matters, a peer-reviewed research journal for out-of-hospital midwives. She received a BA in History and Science from Harvard University, and is a Certified Professional Midwife and graduate of Birthwise Midwifery School.
Ashley is a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Pharmacology department. She received her B.S. in Cell and Molecular Biology with a minor in Chemistry from the University of Minnesota Duluth. Since coming to Yale, Ashley was awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship for her thesis work on the role of epigenetics in the regulation of vascular smooth muscle cell phenotype. She has experience in writing scientific manuscripts, literature reviews, editorials, prospectuses, fellowship applications, and conference abstracts. Ashley is looking forward to consulting with students in the natural sciences with these or other writing projects!
Michelle received her BA from the University of Virginia in 2009 in the History of Art and Anthropology and received her MPhil from Yale in 2015. For her dissertation she directed an international research project at an archaeological site in the remote highlands of Peru between 2014 and 2017 to investigate the social processes involved in incipient village formation and organization of communal labor in the creation of large-scale public works. Her research incorporates community outreach and education and has received generous funding from Yale, Fulbright, the Rust Family Foundation, and the National Science Foundation. Michelle is passionate about providing resources for scholars to improve their academic writing. She joined the Graduate Writing Lab as a Writing Fellow in December 2014 and currently serves as the Writing Group Coordinator and contributes to developing programs offered by the Humanities and Social Science team.
