Alumni
The School of Liberal Arts and Sciences applauds its many accomplished alumni. If you are, or know of, a noteworthy LAS alum, please send us your information and we'll post it along with these interesting items:
Take a look at what some of our recent Cultural Studies majors are up to now...
Charles Castle (2007) is the Assistant Dean of the school of Media Arts here at Columbia. His thesis, "Whiteness in America" was published in Cultural Landscapes, an online academic journal of cultural studies.
Alex DiGiacinto (2007) presented his capstone thesis at the 3rd Global Conference at Mansfield College, Oxford. His thesis was entitled, "Creating the Digital Sandbox: Visions of the Human in Cyber culture, Cyberspace and Science Fiction."
Rubina Diggs (2007) is a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Danielle Ormond (2007) is a teaching assistant at the British School of Chicago.
Lora Koycheva (2006) is a graduate student in the anthropology department at Northwestern University, having received a full 5-year scholarship from Northwestern upon her graduation from Columbia. Here thesis was published in Cultural Landscapes, an online journal of cultural studies.
Leigh Novak (2006) wrote her thesis on "Starbucks Coffee in America." Fittingly, Leigh now lives in Seattle and works at Starbucks' corporate headquarters as a respresentative overseeing 350 stores in nine states. Leigh's weekly column in the Beachwood Reporter was nominated for a Lisagor Award last year.
Spacialle Novak (2006) founded an artists' residency and lodging space in Costa Rica.
Brandon Vezmar (2006) served as the campaign manager for the Indiana mayoral candidate Dennis Terry (D). Brandon has been a radio host fo the station WJOB and the Indiana Director of the Midwest Arts Advocacy Organization. Currently, he is a Clean Energy Fellow with Environment America, the environmental advocacy arm of the U.S. Public Interest Research Groups, Washington, D.C.
Meghan Finn (2005) is a grad student in the University of Chicago's soical work program. She received a substantial scholarhip to aid in her graduate studies.
Varrick Douglas (2005) completed his M.A. in linguistics at University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and now teaches at the Chicago City Colleges and the Columbia College Writing Center.
Brian Roberts (2005) is a case manager and mentor for young homeless men at an open door shelter, The Night Ministry Inc.
Shanley Erin Kane (2004) was awarded a scholarship to Carnegie Mellon's Professional Writing M.A. program.
We also received these updates from the following English Department alums:
Jacob Saenz graduated from Columbia College Chicago in the winter of 2005 with a BA in Creative Writing - Poetry. His work has appeared in a handful of journals such as RHINO, Columbia Poetry Review, Inkstains and Poetry. In 2007 he was nominated for an Illinois Arts Council Literary Award.
Kristy Bowen graduated from Columbia College Chicago in 2007 with an M.F.A. in Creative Writing - Poetry. She is the author of the fever almanac (Ghost Road Press, 2006) and in the bird museum, (Dusie Press, 2008), as well as several small press and self-published chapbooks. Her work has appeared in Swink, Backwards City Review, DIAGRAM, Caffeine Destiny and others. She is the editor of the online litzine wicked alice, and publisher of dancing girl press, which has published over 30 chapbooks and book arts projects by emerging women writers. She recently moved the whole operation into a studio / reading / workshop in the Fine Arts Building down the street and off of her dining room table. Her third collection, girl show, is forthcoming from Ghost Road in late 2009.