Who We Are

Wanyi Chen is a Ph.D. candidate in computer science. She is from China and received a B.A. in computer science and cultural studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2019. She worked as a software engineer at Audible before joining graduate school. Her current research centers around Human-AI interaction. She investigates the subjectivities involved in machine learning model creation and aims to build tools to help fellow computer scientists think more critically about the models they are training. At Duke, she served as a teaching assistant for the “Race, Gender, Class, and Computing” class.

Jonathan Colen is a Ph.D. candidate in the University Program in Ecology. His research interests focus on how species may stay distinct despite the homogenizing effects of hybridization. As an educator, Jonathan believes that teaching is an act of empathy and that the best teachers are those that foster kindness and compassion in the students that they instruct. His prior teaching experience includes teaching labs as a Teaching Assistant in introductory biology courses (Bio 201 and 203) and leading guest lectures for Bio 263. Prior to graduate school, Jonathan served as a tutor for UNC-Chapel Hill’s Academic Support for Student Athletes Program. He graduated from Stanford University with a B.S.H. in Biology in 2016.

Indigo Cook is a second-year student in the Duke dance program's MFA in Embodied Interdisciplinary Praxis. Originally from Salt Lake City, Utah, they work within the intersection of movement, music, and contemporary performance practices of experimental and avant-garde art. They relish any opportunity to listen deeply, move wildly, and remain ever in flux.

Adrienne Duke is a Ph.D. candidate in the Philosophy department at Duke. Her work is on moods and mood disorders, and she is interested in questions about well-being as it relates to psychiatry. She holds a B.S. in Philosophy from the United States Military Academy at West Point. She is an Army veteran and considers teaching undergraduates the next phase of a life devoted to service to others.

Ivy Flessen is in her third year in the Political Science Ph.D. program. She is a budding political theorist whose work lies at the intersection of the history of political thought and moral psychology. She writes primarily on ancient Greek and early modern political thought, with a focus on the political mechanization of “sub-rational” passions. She has many working papers at the submission stage, including a piece on the rhetoric of Plato's Republic, co-authored with Michael Gillespie and Mike Hawley. While, administratively, she is spending this year leading a funded Franklin Humanities reading group and running the Duke Political Theory Graduate Conference, she is also developing her dissertation topic. Her project will explore the political value of indignation in the history of political thought.

Kiersten Hasenour is a Ph.D candidate in Sociology at Duke University. She received a B.A in Sociology and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Evansville in 2018. Through her research, she seeks to better understand how others’ identities impact our understanding and response to interaction with them. Her work primarily focuses on gender identity and often takes place in the legal sphere.

Alexis Ligon Holloway is a Cultural Anthropology Ph.D. candidate and Dean’s Graduate Fellow at Duke University. Stemming from personal experience, her research explores how the mechanisms of white supremacy operate in classical music performance, examining how racial and aesthetic hierarchies position Black bodies as aberrant in these spaces. Specifically, Alexis's research centers on the resilience and resistance that Black musicians display in the face of racism in classical music pedagogy and performance. As a filmmaker, Alexis hopes to produce a multi-modal dissertation, consisting of a written portion and an accompanying documentary that attends to the aural and performative aspects of her research.

Sadé M Jones is a movement alchemist. Her talent as a dancer, choreographer and theater maker paired with her expertise as a Trauma Informed Yoga Facilitator, social psychologist, griot and energy worker supports this. Her research and practice lives within the intersections and fringes of somatic, cultural discourse, performance and the healing arts. Her healing practice, SADEIZM Movement Alchemy provides artistic, mindful and culturally relevant ways for individuals and groups to embody innate wholeness and walk their path with it. Her award winning work has been featured at Women & Their Work, The Vortex, The Long Center, University of Louisville, Dixon Place, Collegium Of African Diasporic Dance. Sadé holds a graduate degree in Social Psychology and is a 2025 candidate for a Master’s of Fine Arts at Duke University where she will be studying Dance as Embodied Interdisciplinary Praxis.

Christopher Kaminski is a second-year Ph.D. student in the MEMS department at Duke University. Christopher studies in the Aeroelasticity group under the leadership of Dr. Kenneth Hall. Christopher works on harmonic balance analysis for unsteady aerodynamic phenomena in turbomachinery. He hopes that this research will lead to a greater theoretical and practical understanding of phenomena such as Non-Synchronous Vibration for turbomachinery blades, leading to longer turbofan engine lifespans and greater reliability. Christopher previously received a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Central Florida and worked briefly in the aerospace industry on Florida’s Space Coast.

Jacob Little is a Ph.D. candidate in Duke’s Political Science department with a specialization in political theory. He earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Houston. He studies the history of political thought broadly, with particular interest in ancient, early modern, and American political thought. His dissertation is on how regimes can manage the promise and the peril of political ambition.

Jingyi Liu is a second-year graduate student in Critical Asian Humanities at Duke University. She received her bachelor’s degree in Chinese language and literature from Peking University. Her current research focuses on the literature and political history of modern China, with an emphasis on war reportage and female novels. Her areas of interest include diaspora studies, religious studies, and comparative literature.

Kaylie Page is a candidate in the Graduate Program in Religion, concentrating in Christian Theological Studies. Her dissertation research compares four pre-modern theologians on the theme of Christ as the Mediator between God and Man, considering how this theme speaks to modern debates about Trinitarian theology and how theological language signifies; her broader research interests are Trinity, Christology, and pre-modern interpretation of Scripture. Kaylie grew up homeschooled along with her nine younger siblings, and she maintains a keen interest in the philosophy of education broadly conceived. In addition to her teaching roles at the Divinity School, she has led reading groups for undergraduates and Bible studies for various populations.

Evan Pebesma is a Ph.D. candidate in the Program in Literature at Duke University. His research interests include U.S. literature, American studies, political theory, and comedy studies. He is currently serving as the Academic Affairs Intern at The Graduate School. Evan specializes in literature and language arts education, with an emphasis on teaching writing skills. He has undertaken extensive pedagogical training through the Certificate in Teaching Writing in the Disciplines, the Certificate in College Teaching, and the Humanities Teaching as Leadership Training Workshop.

Jessica Reif is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Management + Organizations area at Fuqua. Her research explores social networks and social influence at work, as well as the role of technology in shaping the future of work. Prior to starting her Ph.D., Jess was the Director of Research & Development for a consulting firm in Washington, DC.

Brittany Smith is a Ph.D. candidate in Electrical and Computer Engineering. A Connecticut native, she received her B.S. in Electrical Engineering at the University of Connecticut in 2020 before coming to Duke. As a member of the Franklin group, Brittany works on developing environmentally sustainable printed electronics with a focus on transistor and sensor applications. Brittany enjoys mentoring students in the lab and volunteering at outreach events to engage people of all ages through hands-on engineering and science activities. After holding seven teaching assistant positions (two at Duke and five at UCONN), Brittany has developed a passion for teaching and looks forward to teaching and mentoring students for years to come.

Eric is a Ph.D. candidate in the Theology Department at Princeton Theological Seminary, where he studies constructive and political theologies. His dissertation offers a constructive account of Christian eschatology that is attentive to political and ethical concerns. Elsewhere, his work focuses on democratic organizing, responses to historic injustice, apocalyptic theology, and doctrines of God.

Bren Vienrich-Felling (she/ her) is an artist and educator who explores documentary-driven stories within the mediums of cinematic expression, photography and printmaking. Her work has focused on themes related to human connections in nature, women’s issues and cultural identity. Born in Lima, Peru in 1987, Bren immigrated to the United States at a young age and grew up in North Carolina. Following her graduation from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro where she received a BFA in Studio Art, she worked as a multimedia artist for fourteen years and led roles as designer, consultant and art director for a variety of clients. She has collaborated with others on projects that span animation, filmmaking, design and photography. She is a graduate student within the MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts program at Duke University.

Stephen is a Ph.D. candidate in the joint Carolina-Duke Graduate Program in German Studies. His dissertation examines the relationship between conceptions of nature and models of worldhood in contemporary Austrian prose, from global to planetary existences in the Anthropocene, against a history of nature writing and the cultural and political significance of nature in the Austrian contexts. He is also an “Austrophile,” having spent two years as an English Teaching Assistant in Linz and a year conducting dissertation research in Vienna through Fulbright Austria. He is most likely to be found hiking a mountain, at the opera, playing volleyball, at his cello, hunched over a board game, or studying a new language.