As part of the University's Graduate Student Appreciation Week , the Green School has chosen three students to be featured on our website, focusing on their research interests or career aspirations. The students were chosen randomly in an open raffle available to all graduate students and will receive a $100 Visa card.
We are so proud of all our hard-working graduate students! Please join us in congratulating our winners!
Kristin Hynes, International Relations Ph.D.
I am currently finishing up my second year as an International Relations Ph.D. student, and at either the end of the Fall semester or the beginning of the Spring semester, I should be defending my dissertation proposal. I have a BA and MA in Asian Studies, and I specialize in East Asia. While I have many interests related to that part of the world, one specific topic I am interested in is South Korea-Japan relations and the tensions between them that have stemmed from the colonization of the Korean peninsula by the Japanese Empire.
Initially, I was going to focus on South Korea/Japan relations in regard to the South Korean entertainment industry, but I have decided to shift my focus a bit. Instead, I will focus on the ways former colonizers honor their war dead and how this can inflame tensions with their former colonies. I plan to compare South Korea/Japan and Ireland/UK. Although I specialize in East Asia, I am also interested in British-Irish relations as my family is Irish. My dissertation will look at postcolonialism and historical narrative.
Lidya Cerritos, Spanish Ph.D.
Representation of Violence in Central American Culture and Literature
The main focus of my research is to analyze how violence of recent Central American history has been represented in this new culture and literature boom. This study of Central American literature and culture from the perspective of violence will allow for a focus on the subjective experiences and emotions of the community, thereby integrating the different visions and the multiplicity of discourses about Central America identity and the complex mechanisms that operate in the recovery—or reinterpretation—of its historical memory.
Nick Kukuk, Spanish, Ph.D.
In my current research, I investigate first the motivation of the Castro regime to support the sporting development of the island. Then, I will analyze the actions taken since the Revolution and whether there are possible models–the USSR or the former East German model– that were copied or served as examples for the regime. Also, I will investigate the selection process and the Cuban training system for its athletes. Lastly, I will look at the public reactions and interviews of the Cuban athletes winning for their country because socialist propaganda like the Liberation Newspaper of the Party of Socialism and Liberation uses Cuban athletes to praise the regime's commitment to sports (Farber 2021). For example, after winning his fourth Olympic gold medal in the latest Olympic Games Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel, called the Greco-Roman wrestler Mijaín López who was giving live interviews at that moment (Morales 2021). This example shows the necessity of investigating the public opinion and the influence of Cuban athletes.