Abdullah Hasan (‘15 CLAS), the assistant press secretary and the first openly practicing Muslim to serve as a White House spokesperson, is leaving the Biden administration. 

 

Emily Luna (’17 CLAS) was just selected for a summer fellowship from the Peggy Browning Fund, which is a national non-profit that encourages students to go into labor law and provides up to 100 placements across the country every year. Emily’s placement will be in Las Vegas at the Arriba Las Vegas Workers Center, where she will primarily assist their DALE campaign (Deferred Action for Labor Enforcement), advocating for deferred action for immigrant worker whistleblowers, assist workers file pro-se complaints regarding wage and hour violations, among other responsibilities.   

 

Gregory P. Williams (’15 Ph.D.) accepted a new position as associate professor of political science and international relations at Simmons University in Boston, where he will also teach in the Master in Public Policy program. In addition, Williams’s chapter, “From Africa to the World” was recently published as part of The Anthem Companion to Immanuel Wallerstein (2023). [Text Wrapping Break] 

Imge Akaslan (’23 PhD) started a two-year postdoc at Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law. She is working with Dr. Janne Mende in her project on Shaping Human Rights Due-Diligence:Norm Contestation in the Business and Human Rights Regime.  

 

Carol Gray (’22 PhD) accepted a position as a tenure track Assistant Professor at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Prof. Jeremy Pressman was her advisor. 

 

Deng Yinghao (’23 PhD), recently published two articles:  “Out of West: The Internationalist Turn in W. E. B. Du Bois’ Views on Racial Liberation and Its Relations to His Literary Thoughts,” in Frontier of Literary Theory, CSSCI Index (2024), Spring; and “Counter-revolutionary in Revolutionary Times,” in Philosophy and Global Affairs, Volume 2, Issue 1, (2022):47-68. 

 

Danielle Cross (‘22 CLAS) is attending Yale Law School this fall.  

 

Ross Dardani (’17 PhD) published an article in Law & Social Inquiry on popular constitutionalism and the legal history of U.S. citizenship in Guam. 

 

Takiyah Harper-Shipman (’19 PhD) received a Teaching/Research Fulbright Award in Senegal for 2023-2024 . She will be completing research for her second book manuscript on the political economy of family planning and resistance in Senegal and the U.S. and collaborating with FASTEF to organize workshops around race, population development, and decolonial feminist theorizing.  

 

Daniel Leaf (’23 CLAS) earned his UConn degree in political science and German and will be an English teaching assistant at a school in Lower Saxony, Germany. He is returning to Germany after spending a year studying at the University of Konstanz in Baden-Württemberg. He plans to use his skills and experience to pursue a career in international relations.  

 

Chase Mack (’23 CLAS) was a finalist for the Donald L. McCullough Leadership Award  

 

Mohammad Hussain (’23 CLAS) received the Environmental Justice Leadership Award and the Cohen Student Leadership Scholarship for Enhancing Community.  

 

Geraldine Uribe (’23 CLAS) received the First Generation Student Leadership Award  

 

Lily Forand (’23 CLAS) received the Spirer/Dueker Student Humanitarian Achievement Award . 

 

Jack Higgins (’23 CLAS) and Sofia DiNatale (’23 CLAS) reflect on their time at UConn Today here and here.  

 

Matthew Plourd (‘23 CLAS) with his cappella group, The Extreme Measures, sang the National Anthem at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) Commencement ceremony in Gampel Pavilion on May 7, 2023