PRODiG Fellows

Santiago Acosta holds a PhD in Latin American and Iberian Cultures from Columbia University. His academic work specializes in the intersections of aesthetics, politics, and nature in Latin America, with a focus on literature and visual cultures. He teaches courses on Latin American literature, art, and film, engaging with debates in the environmental humanities and the climate justice movement.

Santiago is also the author of four poetry books. In 2018, his collection El próximo desierto won the José Emilio Pacheco Literature Prize “Ciudad y Naturaleza” (Guadalajara, Mexico). In Caracas, he was the founder and editor of El Salmón, a quarterly journal devoted to archival work on Venezuelan poetry, which won a National Book Award in 2010.

Bridget Amulike is currently a PhD candidate of Environmental Conservation at the University of Massachusetts. She has a MS in Wildlife Biology/Conservation from Frostburg State University, a diploma and advanced diploma from the College of African Wildlife Management in Tanzania, and a British Technical and Education Certificate in Tropical Habitat Conservation.

The goal of her research is to inform more stringent wildlife policy development, contribute to strengthening laws that guide wildlife trade, and promote conservation of wetland and grassland habitats that are critical for sustaining grey crowned crane populations. Amulike has taught courses centered on wildlife management, wildlife ecology, and environmental policy, among other topics.

Adrienne Atterberry is a recent graduate of the Sociology Department at Syracuse University. Before starting her PhD coursework, Adrienne earned undergraduate degrees from the University of Pittsburgh, a graduate degree from the SI Newhouse School, and a certificate in South Asia through Syracuse University's South Asia Center.

Atterberry’s current work examines the following questions: Why do highly educated, affluent, and seemingly, well-settled immigrants leave their country of migration and return to their country of origin? How do return migrants prepare their children to become the next generation of transnationally-mobile professionals? As a result of their upbringing in two countries, how do their children understand their cultural identity and national belonging? These questions, and more, are addressed in her dissertation, "Cultivating India's New Transnational Elite: Parenting, Schooling, and Belonging in the Age of Global IT."

Casey Coomes is a recent graduate of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. Her research examines the effects of heat stress on animal behavior. Specifically, she focuses on communication and mate choice in songbirds. Her dissertation research explores how rising temperatures affect male song and female mate choice in zebra finches.

While at Tulane University, where she was a PhD student, Coomes designed and led workshops for an event called Girls in STEM at Tulane (GiST), a program for middle school girls in New Orleans. In their workshop "Thermal Image-ination," she taught about scientific concepts such as climate change and thermoregulation.

Bernadet DeJonge is a recent graduate of Oregon State University, receiving her PhD in Counseling. She holds a MA in Rehabilitation Counseling from Western Washington University, a BA in Psychology from Western Washington University, and a AAUCT from Skagit Valley College. She has taught courses in counseling, case management, disability systems, and many other subject matters. Her research interests include suicide intervention and treatment, counseling clients with aphasia, and motivational interviewing for frontline staff, to name a few. DeJonge also possesses clinical experience, having worked as an expanded community services clinician, care manager, and social worker, in addition to other roles.

Jessica is a recent graduate of University at Buffalo's Department of Geography, where she studied the intersections between food and racial justice, environmental justice, the just transition, and institutional food procurement. She was also a research associate at the Partnership for the Public Good, where she supported numerous food justice initiatives throughout the region via policy research and advocacy. Through these collaborations, Jessica uses her research to support local campaigns centered on supporting Black farmers and Black-owned businesses in NYS. During her free time, she can usually be found hiking or biking in the region's numerous parks or in her veggie garden.

Douglas Hoston, Jr., is a recent Doctor of Philosophy, Learning and Instruction from the University at Buffalo. He also holds a Master of Education in Counseling from Cleveland State University and a Bachelor of Arts of Psychology from Cleveland State University, and is also a Licensed Professional Counselor. During his time at the University at Buffalo, he has taught courses in adult learning, research methods, introduction to education, and psychophysiological measurement.

Hoston has presented research, including a Ted Talk on culturally responsive poetry, as well as conference presentations on perseverance in STEM, scientific writing and virtual reality, and chronic stress in historically under-represented post-secondary STEM students, among other topics. In 2019, Holston received a scholarship award from his international fraternity, Omega Psi Phi, for his research evaluating how stress affects underrepresented students.

CJ is a recent graduate of Feminist Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where they defended their dissertation, "Governing Bodies: Trans Politics, Embodiment, and Critique in Sports," in June 2021. Their dissertation considers trans politics related to sports as a lucrative site for identifying the ideologies at play among trans exclusionary feminists as well as for re-thinking classic trans studies arguments regarding gender and embodiment. Jones' research adds to knowledge of trans bodies in the field of feminist sports studies, which is largely characterized by an assumption of an athletic subject who is cisgender, by asking questions of how sports co-constitutes (proper) cis personhood through its relation to trans deviance.

Jones also has a MA in American Studies from the University at Buffalo and a BA with Honors in History from Syracuse University.

Staceyann is from Queens, NY. She recently received her PhD in Human Development and Family Science from Syracuse University. She also holds a BA in Psychology from the City University of New York – Queens College and a MS in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from LIU Post. Reid also has a Post-Baccalaureate Advanced Certificate in Play Therapy from the State University of New York at Oswego. Staceyann’s research interests are in social-emotional development, childhood trauma, mindfulness, and the academic success of at-risk urban children and youth. She has taught courses on family development and issues and perspectives in early childhood education, among other topics.

Hannah Stokes-Ramos is a PhD candidate in the Department of Geography at the University at Buffalo. Their dissertation research engages theories of political ecology and environmental justice to investigate how procedural justice in processes of agro-food systems planning can contribute to social-ecological justice and climate resilience in Puerto Rico. Their masters research investigated conceptualizations of food security among resettled refugees living in Vermont and its implications for food security measurement.

Their research interests more broadly involve critical approaches to bridging the social and environmental sciences, previously through an MS in food systems and a double major in anthropology and environmental studies, and currently through co-leading a Graduate Pursuits interdisciplinary research project through the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center. Outside of research, they participate in local economic- and social-justice activism.