Alumni Stories

M.A. in Cultural Studies alum Meshell Sturgis ('17) studies representations of difference and identity in the media using Black feminist critical-cultural communication theories and methods. A Ph.D. candidate in the UW Department of Communication, Sturgis recently published reviews of the documentary film, The Rachel Divide, with co-author Victoria Thomas, and the book, Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia, by Sabrina Strings.

Local environmental justice leader and IAS alum Melissa Watkinson has been selected to receive a Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition Forward Award. Watkinson is a social scientist with Washington Sea Grant where she supports the social science efforts on the Olympic Coast Ocean Acidification Vulnerability study, a community-based participatory project with WA’s coastal treaty tribes. She is also the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion ...

Midia De Souza graduated with a double major in Law, Economics & Public Policy and in Media & Communication Studies with a minor in Human Rights. She plans to become a lawyer to help immigrants.

Alum Amadanyo Oguara (’16) has published his second book, Asanda of Agirisaba, now available as eBook and in paperback on Amazon. Asanda of Agirisaba is the sci-fi story of an African heroine princess from Agirisaba, a sub-kingdom of The Nembe Kingdom of Nigeria, in West Africa, who by abduction, journeys to a "Fascinating Alien World Of Saturna" and acquires "Weapons of Magical Powers" from the Saturnian Moons of Ringa, Sworda, Spearda, and Shielda and returns back to Earth to become an "Intermediary of Peace and Environmental Crusader" in The Coastal Kingdoms of The Niger Delta Region of Nigeria. The book fulfills Oguara’s vision of the African female heroine...

Jeff Ketchel says his Master of Arts in Policy Studies (’08) gave him skills needed to head health districts and now serve as executive director of the Washington State Public Health Association. As a public health leader, Ketchel is grateful for his interdisciplinary training, which helps him view public health at the intersection of science and human behavior.