NEMIRA GASIUNAS (nhg2105@columbia.edu)
Graduate Student Mentor, Columbia Undergraduate Scholars Program
Facilitator, CUSP Columbia Journey Seminar

Nemira Gasiunas is a PhD student in the philosophy department at Columbia University, working in the philosophy of mind. Her dissertation focuses on the nature of experiences of relations between perceptual properties. By which processes do we become aware that, for example, one object is redder than another, or that one object is the same size as another? And can we have direct experiences of such relations? Of special interest is the role that awareness of color relations play in our aesthetic experiences. 

Nemira was born in Manchester, England, and received her Bachelors degree in French and Philosophy from the University of Oxford. She spent a year studying at the Sorbonne as an Erasmus Scholar, and has taught English and French in francophone Senegal. During her time at Columbia, she has taught a class on the Philosophy of Psychology, and served as a teaching assistant for classes on Metaphysics, Ethics and Aesthetics. She has also been involved for a number of years in the Columbia University Outreach program, taking a weekly philosophy class into the Manhattan Free School.

Nemira has a lifelong love of literature, travel and visual art. In her spare time, she takes full advantage of being an inhabitant of New York City.

AMANDA GILLIAM (aog2102@columbia.edu)
Graduate Student Mentor, Columbia Undergraduate Scholars Program
Research Advisor, CUSP Summer Fellowship Program

Amanda Gilliam is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology. She received a Bachelor of Arts in English and Creative Writing from Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH, and was a recipient of the prestigious Senior Fellowship, an award given to 10 seniors to design their own independent, interdisciplinary thesis projects in lieu of senior year coursework. Her thesis, “In Their Own Words: Stories and Poems from Prison,” featured over 200 pieces of student-inmate writing completed in a creative writing program that she created, implemented, and taught at threw New Jersey state prisons for men, women, and youth. A paper inspired by that experience, “The Search for the Real in U.S. Prison Literature,” was presented at the American Anthropological Association (AAA) Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. in 2007.

Her dissertation-in-progress, “Fit for Citizenship? Race, Respectability, and the Politics of 'Obesity,'” explores the ways in which “overweight” and “obesity” are socially produced as distinct problems of the urban poor of color and the ways this racialization of fat may serve to designate fat African-Americans, in particular, as unfit, undeserving, and ineligible for citizenship. Amanda is completing fieldwork that examines how Black people in Washington, D.C. use practices of weight management and bodily presentation as evidence of self-control, reason, and responsibility to gain access to social and political power otherwise denied them. She has presented her work at numerous conferences, most recently at “Fat Studies: A Critical Dialogue” at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia in the fall of 2010.

In addition to her research, Amanda is a three-time recipient of the John W. Kluge Fellowship where she serves as a Graduate Student Mentor with the Columbia Undergraduate Scholars Program (CUSP). As the CUSP Independent Research Advisor, she develops curricula, facilitates seminars, and mentors an academically diverse and highly motivated cohort of undergraduate students as they design and pursue their own independent research projects. She has previously held teaching assistant appointments in the yearlong Senior Honors Thesis Seminar in Anthropology, as well as the two-semester course Film and Culture. After obtaining her PhD Amanda plans to attend law school and seek a cross appointment in law and culture.

RUARIDH MACLEOD (rjm2132@columbia.edu)
Graduate Student Mentor, Columbia Undergraduate Scholars Program
Facilitator, CUSP Columbia Journey Seminar

Ruaridh MacLeod is a fifth-year PhD student in the Philosophy and Education program. His dissertation thesis attempts to establish that an underlying notion of temporality is central to Dewey’s later philosophy – including his mature concept of experience – and is one which allows Dewey’s work to exhibit a renewed relevance to current work developing the educational application of particular psychological and scientific theories. Beyond the work of John Dewey, he maintains an active interest in relating the work of seminal philosophers (Kant, Rousseau, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Gadamer) to matters of current concern.

Ruaridh has a B.A. (Hons) in philosophy from the University of Durham and an MA (with Distinction) in continental philosophy from the University of Warwick, UK. Immediately prior to coming to the US, Ruaridh studied developmental psychology at the Anna Freud Centre, part of the Department of Psychology at University College London (UCL). He has served as a mentor/advocate to vulnerable adults in the London Borough of Southwark, and taught Critical Thinking and Philosophy classes at further education level in the UK. During his time at Columbia, he has been elected as University Representative Senator, acted as a higher education consultant for Noodle Education, and recently completed a year as a Core preceptor (Contemporary Civilization) at Columbia College.

NASSER HUSSAIN (nh2321@columbia.edu)
Graduate Student Mentor, Columbia Undergraduate Scholars Program
Facilitator, CUSP Columbia Journey Seminar

Nasser Hussain is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Anthropology in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Before Columbia, he received his B.A. in Government from Harvard College. In the fall of 2010 he was a Visiting Scholar at the London School of Economics' Department of Anthropology. His research interests include migration, urbanism, nationalism and religion. Besides his teaching experiences at both Columbia and Harvard Colleges, Nasser has taught and mentored in a range of settings, from inner city neighborhoods in Boston to Fudan University, Shanghai. He has worked in the British Houses of Parliament, The Guardian newspaper and the think tank Chatham House, as well as providing consultancy and research expertise on political movements at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Other non-academic experiences include a roofing stint in the Massachusetts area and working in the taxi industry in several towns across England. In his free time, he enjoys cooking, playing tennis and watching movies.

ARIELA ZYCHERMAN (atz2103@columbia.edu)
Graduate Student Mentor, Columbia Undergraduate Scholars Program
Facilitator, CUSP Columbia Journey Seminar

Ariela Zycherman is doctoral candidate in the Applied Anthropology program. She is currently completing her dissertation entitled, "The Changing Value of Food: Development, Diet and Labor among the Tsimané in Lowland Bolivia" which examines the impact of encroaching market activities on the production, distribution, consumption and conceptualization of food among a historically subsistence population. 

Ariela's research interests focus on the complex relationship between identity, food and economic systems and in addition to Bolivia she has conducted research on this topic in Mexico, Argentina and New York. Ariela developed her interests in the topic prior to beginning at Columbia, working for the New York City Coalition Against Hunger as an AmeriCorps VISTA. She received both her M.A. and her M. Phil from Columbia and graduated with a B.A. from SUNY Binghamton in Anthropology, where she completed her honors thesis on ethics in the anthropology and archeology of Native Americans.  Beyond her research, Ariela is interested in ethnographic photography and manages an extensive media collection at CIFAS at Teachers College. Recently, one of her photos won top selection in the process category in the American Anthropological Association photo contest.