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Ryan Bagwell
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Ryan Bagwell is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology and Criminology specializing in race, ethnicity, and immigration. He focuses on the intersection of race, sports, media, crime, social movements, and organizations through a multidisciplinary and mixed-method approach. He is originally from California, where he completed his Master's degree at CSU Fullerton. His Master's thesis analyzed the media framing of Colin Kaepernick's kneeling protest during the National Anthem through a CRT lens. His current work focuses on the racial of Black NFL quarterbacks and crime during sporting events.
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Ahzin Bahraini (Race & Ethnic Relations/Criminology)
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Ahzin is PhD candidate at the University of Miami. Her interdisciplinary agenda draws from gender, race, and education to understand disparities in different contexts. She primarily uses qualitive methods such as a grounded theory, narrative analysis, and phenomenology to answer her research questions. In 2020, she published her first article in the Journal of Humanity and Society titles, "The More Ethnic the Face, the More Important the Race: A Closer Look at Colorism and Employment Opportunities among Middle Eastern Women". Her dissertation examines students' experiences in public education, and she founded Ketab in 2019, a non-profit organization that works to bridge educational disparities in higher education.
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Mahbub Bhuyan
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Mahbub Bhuyan is a third-year PhD student at the Department of Sociology and Criminology. His research interests include white-collar crime, criminal justice, cyber-crime and racial inequalities. He completed his undergraduate and graduate studies from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, and an MA from Ohio University, USA.
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Christopher Brown (Social Theory/Criminology)
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Christopher Brown is a fourth year Ph.D. student in the Department of Sociology and Criminology. His research focuses on issues surrounding deviant speech. In particular, he focuses on investigating societal reactions to, and public support for, criminalizing different kinds of speech. His master's thesis explored the different factors that compel societies to either criminalize or legally tolerate hate speech. He also studies how people conceptualize truth and has written on the phenomenon of people's confidence in their ability to detect misinformation via the third-person effect. Christopher is originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He earned his B.A. in Democracy and Justice Studies from the University of Wisconsin - Green Bay, and his M.A. in Applied Sociology from Northern Arizona University.
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Maria Del Rosario Concha (Criminology)
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Rosario is a second year graduate student pursuing her Ph.D. in sociology with concentration in Criminology. She is originally from Santiago, Chile. Rosario earned her M.A. in Sociology from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, India, and an M.Phil. in Chilean and Latin American Literature from the University of Chile, and a B.A. in psychology from the University Católica de Chile. Her research interests are sociology of crime and punishment, historical sociology, archival research, Latin American and gender studies.
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Carrie Hough (Medical Sociology/Race & Ethnic Relations)
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Carrie Hough is a PhD student at the University of Miami specializing in medical sociology. Her research focuses on addiction and recovery. She received her MA in sociology from Florida Atlantic University and worked as a medical case manager and supervisor at an HIV service organization in Palm Beach County. Carrie is currently the project director for the Study on Personal Experiences with Accessing Care in South (SPECS) since January 2019.
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Calvin Liew
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Calvin Liew is a first year student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Miami. His primary interests are social philosophy, critical theory, postcolonial thought, cultural studies, and literary criticism. His current focuses are community-based social resistance and collapsing the expansive, if imagined, schism between the social sciences and the humanities.
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Marco Lueras
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Marco Lueras is a PhD student researching social control, racism, colorism, and violence in the U.S. criminal legal formation. By utilizing qualitative and quantitative data analyses, Marco investigates issues concerning the multi-level racialization of criminal legal outcomes pertaining to legislation, enforcement, litigation, incarceration, and parole. Marco's forthcoming dissertation illuminates the complexities of police reform, abolition, and defunding in a manner that centers local communities.
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Michele Mayne
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Michele S. Mayne is a second-year PhD Sociology student at the University of Miami, with a concentration in Medical Sociology and Community Health & Well-being, with intersections of race and socioeconomic status. Broadly, her research focuses on mental health, socioeconomic status, social psychology, substance/drug use, discrimination, social networks and healthcare inequality/disparities among vulnerable populations, particularly people of color in the US and Canada. Michele is originally from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She earned her BA in Sociology from Florida Memorial University in Miami Gardens, FL (2014), then later relocated to London, England, to earn an MSc in Mental Health Studies at King’s College London (2017). Upon her completion, she worked in numerous non-profit mental health organizations in Toronto and Vancouver as a Mental Health & Addiction Crisis Counselor working within the community amongst a multidisciplinary team, which led her to pursue a doctoral degree in Sociology.
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Melanie McKenna
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Melanie McKenna is currently a PhD student at the University of Miami in Medical Sociology. Her research interests include feminist theory, reproductive health, and access to care for marginalized women. Melanie is a graduate research assistant in the Health Justice lab, focusing on the intersection of healthcare and mass incarceration. Previously, Melanie studied Biology and Research at the University of Miami and Public Health at John Hopkins University. Melanie has interned for the Epidemiology Department at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and for the Mayor of Miami-Dade County. In the future, Melanie hopes to contribute to the development of a more accessible and adequate healthcare system for historically marginalized women and children.
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Caroline Miles
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Caroline Miles is a first-year PhD student in the Department of Sociology and Criminology specializing in Medical Sociology. Taking a qualitative approach, her research interests include disability studies, accessibility for individuals with disabilities, and racial and ethnic disparities. She received her Bachelors in Arts from Suffolk University in Boston, Massachusetts.
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John "JP" Payne (he/him)
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JP is a doctoral student specializing in medical sociology and race, ethnicity, and immigration studies. His research focuses on immigrant families and communities and their access to justice and social welfare. He has 15 years of experience working in community development, HIV healthcare, and youth entrepreneurship, primarily in Southern Africa. He has a master's degree in public policy and bachelor's degree in political science. John is inspired by the belief expressed by the Setswana proverb "motho ke motho ka batho" meaning each one's humanity is based in the dignity and worth of all others.
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Victoria Rapp
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Victoria Rapp is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Miami. Her concentration is in Criminology. Within Criminology, she focuses on criminological theory, violence against women, sexual violence, and specialty courts. Most of her published work has focused on specialty courts. Her current research projects focus on criminological theory, intimate partner violence, and/or sexual violence. Victoria received her Master of Criminology and Justice and Bachelor of Arts in Criminology and Justice from Loyola University New Orleans.
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Meghan Scott
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Meghan Scott earned her BA and MA in Criminology from the University of South Florida. Her interests concentrate on violent crime, with a particular interests in gun violence. At the University of Miami, she aims to explore gun violence as a public health crisis, concentrating her studies in Criminology and Medical Sociology.
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Yasukiyo Sugimoto
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Yasukiyo Sugimoto is a PhD candidate specializing in race and criminology. In his dissertation study, he is establishing an alternative theory and curriculum of correctional education from an international, culturally liberating perspective. He applies quantitative, qualitative, and philosophical approaches in his research, that is, structural equation modeling, thematic narrative analysis, and relational philosophy, as well as his personal experience working with minoritized youth in Japan and Miami. He served as an Education Specialist at a juvenile training school in Tokyo and mentored at a non-profit organization in a community correctional education program in Miami.
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Taylor Sumpter
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Taylor Sumpter is a PhD student at the University of Miami, Department of Sociology and Criminology. She is a native New Yorker who was born and raised in The Bronx. Her undergraduate degrees were awarded from CUNY Hunter College in Sociology and Africana and Puerto Rican/Latino Studies. Taylor's doctoral research focuses on criminology and medical sociology with an emphasis on racial disparities within institutions of healthcare and the justice system, specifically treatment of racialized crime, drug use, and medical care. She is a former Ronald E. McNair Scholar and Big ten Academic Alliance SROP Scholar. Taylor is currently honored with a prestigious fellowship, bestowed by the Florida Educational Fund (FEF), the McKnight Doctoral Fellowship (2021-Present). She endeavors to improve knowledge about structural inequality and promote equitable and sustainable race relations through education as a practice of freedom and self-actualized praxis.
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Olivia Yoh
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Olivia Yoh is a first-year doctoral student in Sociology at the University of Miami. Her primary concentration is Criminology with a secondary concentration in medical sociology. Olivia's criminological research interests include terrorism and counterterrorism, media and crime, cybersecurity, and alternatives to incarceration. Her medical sociology research right now will be focusing on the media's portrayal of mental illness, as well as media consumption and its effect on mental health.
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