Alumni Accolades – April 2020

~2018 Cohort~

(L-R) Christopher Perez, Program Director, Office of Graduate Diversity & Inclusion at the University of Maryland and Briceno Bowrey, IRT ’18 currently in his first year of doctoral studies in History at the University of Maryland. #IamIRT

~2017 Cohort~

Mariahadesse Tallie, IRT ’17
Mariahadesse wrote her first children’s book entitled, “Layla’s Happiness,” published by Enchanted Lion Books. She is currently a Ph.D. student at Brown University.

 

 

 

 

 

~2015 Cohort~

Eliana Castro, IRT ’15
Eliana anticipates completing her Ph.D. this June and will begin a tenure-track faculty appointment at the University of Vermont (UVM) in January 2021. In 2016, Eliana began the doctoral program in Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher Education at Michigan State University. She has been awarded several travel and research fellowships, including the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE) Graduate Student Fellowship. Her recent publications highlight the experiences of Black and Latinx students, teachers, and school leaders (see Google Scholar for details). Her dissertation, “Progress in the time of MAGA: Negotiating Narratives of Race in Two High School History Classrooms” looks at how teenagers in multicultural urban contexts make sense of racism, as well as how one teacher encourages students to pursue topics related to their racial/ethnic identities. She will join a network of IRT alumni and supporters at UVM as Assistant Professor of Secondary Education in the College of Education and Social Services.

In the long term, her research agenda has two goals: (1) to integrate anthropological, sociological, and historical theories on collective memory, narrativity, and identity formation into K-12 history education; and (2) to complicate conceptions of race/ethnicity in the teaching and learning of history to include intersectional identities, such as Afro-Latinidad.

~2014 Cohort~

Ayaa and Yasmin Elgoharry, IRT ’14 presented at the Association of American Colleges and Universities(AAC&U) Conference on Diversity, Equity, and Student Success held on March 19-21, 2020. Their presentation is titled, Unapologetically Muslim: Supporting Muslim College Student’s Identity.

Ayaa is currently an academic advisor and Yasmin is a career coach both working at Indiana University. The sisters both earned master’s degrees in educational leadership from the University of Rochester and each plan to pursue a doctoral degree in the next few years. They have also been accepted to present at the NACAA Great Lakes Region 5 Conference in Milwaukee at the end of March.

~2010 Cohort~

Cecilia Caballero, IRT ’10
Cecilia co-authored The Chicana Motherwork Anthology (The Feminist Wire Books) published by the University of Arizona Press. Cecilia is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Southern California.

 

 

 

 

 

 

~2000 Cohort~

Dr. Marisela Ramos, IRT ’00
Phillips Academy Andover announced that Dr. Ramos, IRT will be the next chair of the Department of History. Beginning in fall 2020, Dr. Ramos is the first woman, and the first lesbian, to hold this position.

~1999 Cohort~

Angelique Bey, IRT ’99
Angelique currently wrote Jammin’ Jerone!: The lamb who played the saxophone. The book is published by BookSurge Publishing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

~1997 Cohort~

Stephanie Flores-Koulish, IRT ’97
Stephanie is the recipient of the Faculty Award for Excellence in Engaged Scholarship at Loyola University Maryland. The award recognizes a faculty member who has made extraordinary contributions in engaged scholarship by creating partnerships that exemplify the university’s Jesuit mission of advancing social justice, transformative learning, and disciplinary knowledge.

~1996 Cohort~

Angie Cruz, IRT ’96
She is the author of three novels, Dominicana (Flatiron, 2019), Let It Rain Coffee (S & S 2005) and Soledad (Simon & Schuster 2001). She has published short fiction and essays in magazines and journals, including VQR, Gulf Coast, Callaloo, The New York Times and Small Axe. Angie is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Pittsburgh.

Angela Batista, IRT ’96
Angela is currently Vice President of Student Affairs and Institutional Diversity and Inclusion at Champlain College and Board Chair-Elect, NASPA (Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education). Angela is one of the authors of the book Latinx/a/os in Higher Education: Exploring Identity, Pathways and Success.