The College of Humanities and Social Sciences recognizes the 39 graduates who received their doctoral degrees at George Mason University's Winter Graduation ceremony on December 14, 2023. Congratulations to all graduates!
Doctor of Philosophy in Communication
Corinne Berry
The COVID-19 Pandemic and Vaccine Perceptions at George Mason University: A Formative Communication Study
Advisor: Gary L. Kreps, PhD, Department of Communication
Amanda C. Borth
A Reflexive Approach to Designing Small-Group Deliberation on Carbon Dioxide Removal: Integrating Public, Expert Stakeholder, and Scholarly Perspectives
Advisor: Chris Clarke, PhD, Department of Communication
Nate S. Brophy
Measuring Basic Psychological Need Fulfillment in Higher Education: An Investigation of Bifactor Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling in In-Person and Online Sections of an Introductory Communication Course
Advisor: Melissa A. Broeckelman-Post, PhD, Department of Communication
Doctor of Philosophy in Criminology, Law and Society
Lauren Duhaime Bush
Extracurricular Activity Involvement and the Impact of Involvement on Justice System Outcomes
Advisor: Cesar J. Rebellon, PhD, Department of Criminology, Law and Society
Chelsea Foudray
Problematic Substance Use and the Pretrial Period: Risk- and Needs-Based Supervision Strategies
Advisor: Evan Marie Lowder, PhD, Department of Criminology, Law and Society
Amanda J. Reioux
Obstetric Violence and the Law: Socio-legal Perceptions of Childbirth Violations
Advisor: Linda M. Merola, PhD, Department of Criminology, Law and Society
Emily C. Smedley
Linguistic Analysis of School Shooters’ Leakage: Examination of Dr. Langman’s Typology
Advisor: Linda M. Merola, PhD, Department of Criminology, Law and Society
Teneshia Thurman
Exploring the Relationship between Human Trafficking and Prostitution through an Analysis of State Statutes and Human Trafficking Initiatives
Advisor: James Willis, PhD, Department of Criminology, Law and Society
Doctor of Philosophy in Cultural Studies
Marintha Miles
Tajikistan’s Diasporic Transnational Social Movements: Coalescence and Co-option
Advisor: Roger N. Lancaster, PhD, Cultural Studies Program
Amy Zhang
Globalizing the Ideology of Art: Art Museums in the Arabian Peninsula
Advisor: Paul Smith, PhD, Cultural Studies Program
Doctor of Philosophy in Economics
Sriteja R. Burla
Cooperation and Competition in the U.S. Airline Industry: Essays on Relational Contracts and Common Ownership
Advisor: Tyler Cowen, PhD, Department of Economics
Denver Casey
Investigating the Conditions for Multiple Media of Exchange
Advisor: Lawrence H. White, PhD, Department of Economics
Edgar Castro Mendez
Three Essays on Public Economics and Market Interventions
Advisor: Cesar A. Martinelli, PhD, Department of Economics
Nicholas K. Cooper
Essays on the Political Economy of Central Banking
Advisor: Lawrence H. White, PhD, Department of Economics
Preston Cooper
The Role of Human Capital in Economic Development
Advisor: Noel D. Johnson, PhD, Department of Economics
Nitish Gobin
Three Empirical Essays on Interventionism and the Economic Impact of International Financial Integration in Africa
Advisor: Carlos D. Ramirez, PhD, Department of Economics
Jacob Hall
Life in the Fast Lane: Essays in Economic History and State Building
Advisor: Mark Koyama, PhD, Department of Economics
Linghui Han
Essays on State Capacity and Development
Advisor: Mark Koyama, PhD, Department of Economics
Mark W. Hodgins
Essays on the Economics of Cybersecurity Information
Advisor: Peter T. Leeson, PhD, Department of Economics
Patrick Horan
Three Essays on Monetary Economics and Policy
Advisor: Carlos D. Ramirez, PhD, Department of Economics
Jonathan W. Plante
The Constitutional Political Economy of Deficits and Public Debt
Advisor: Peter J. Boettke, PhD, Department of Economics
Michael Watson
Menger vs. Chartalism on the Origins of Money: Theory and History
Advisor: Lawrence H. White, PhD, Department of Economics
Konstantin Zhukov
Studies in the Political Economy of Communism and Post-Communism
Advisor: Peter J. Boettke, PhD, Department of Economics
Doctor of Philosophy in History
Jordan Bratt
“The Convert to Zion”: The Mormon Conversion Experience in the Nineteenth Century
Advisor: John Turner, PhD, Department of Religious Studies
Anthony Guidone
The Empire’s City: A Global History of Salem, Massachusetts, 1783–1820
Advisor: Rosemarie Zagarri, PhD, Department of History and Art History
Greta Swain
Potomac Networks: Waterways, Commerce, and Enslavement in the George Mason Family, 1700–1828
Advisor: Rosemarie Zagarri, PhD, Department of History and Art History
Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics
Hind Aldakheelallah
The Use of Morphophonological Cues in Noun Processing: The Case of the Arabic Definite Article
Advisor: Cynthia Lukyanenko, PhD, Department of English
Abdulmajeed Alrashed
The Production and Perception of Emphasis in Qassimi
Advisors: James Belvins, PhD, Department of English, and Harim Kwon, PhD, Seoul National University
Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology
Tiancheng (Allen) Chen
The Other Side of Leader Humor: An Investigation of Leader Humor from the Follower’s Perspective
Advisor: Stephen Zaccaro, PhD, Department of Psychology
Erin Nichole Doherty
Biochemical Sequelae of Repetitive Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in a Murine Model Treated with Young Blood Plasma
Advisor: Jane M. Flinn, PhD, Department of Psychology
Aaron David Hunt
Disclosing Stigmatizing Health Information across Illnesses: Learning How to Talk about Mental Illness by Examining HIV Disclosures
Advisor: Leah M. Adams, PhD, Department of Psychology
Kerry Kelso
Negative Urgency, Emotion Regulation, and Stress Generation: An Experience Sampling Study
Advisor: Keith D. Renshaw, PhD, Department of Psychology
Min Ji Kim
The Use of Telepresence Robots as an Educational Tool
Advisor: Tyler H. Shaw, PhD, Department of Psychology
W. Ryan McGarry
The Effect of Distractor Processing on the Distribution of Visual Attention
Advisor: Craig McDonald, PhD, Department of Psychology
Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology
Carrie Hutnick
Anywhere Else: Collaborative Learning across Differences inside a Prison
Advisor: Nancy W. Hanrahan, PhD, Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Amber C. Kalb
Incorporating Feminist Thought: Institutional Mechanisms and Epistemic Challenges in Sociology
Advisor: Nancy W. Hanrahan, PhD, Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Doctor of Philosophy in Writing and Rhetoric
Caitlin Dungan
“There’s No Way She’s Straight”: Toward a Heuristic of Positive Queer Representation in Gaming
Advisor: Douglas Eyman, PhD, Department of English
Lauren Foster
Metacognition as a Transformative Process in Teaching and Learning
Advisors: Michelle LaFrance, PhD, and Douglas Eyman, PhD, Department of English
Christine Kervina
Toward a New Model for Disciplinary Literacy Instruction: Reuniting Reading and Writing as Coequal Literacies with the WAC/WID Balanced Disciplinary Literacy Instruction Model
Advisor: E. Shelley Reid, PhD, Department of English
January 16, 2024