Graduate Assistants

2012-2013 Ethnic Studies Graduate Teaching Assistants

Daniel Elkan

My research focuses on the intersection of race, masculinity and imperialism. Through this work, I consider how identity and belonging is negotiated through multiple social constructions. My focus is on the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and particularly on how black men considered military service in the context of Jim Crow society and U.S. Imperialism around the globe. More broadly, I am interested in U.S. and Caribbean history, African American Studies, and cultural studies (particularly as it relates to the consideration of built and urban space).

My interests have led me to place the consideration of identity at the heart of my teaching. In my classes, I hope to consider how the ways we view ourselves shapes our understanding of the world, and how we might question those understandings. I think that the goal of our education, and the best way to make it relevant to our day-to-day lives, is to be self-critical, and this sort of questioning is a clear way of doing that.

Things that I enjoy include well-written TV dramas and sci-fi, traveling, and a good cup of coffee.

Education: M.A., American Studies, University at Buffalo (SUNY): B.A., Political Science, Seton Hall University


Keisha Hicks 

Program: American Culture Studies P.h.D
Email: khicks@bgsu.edu

Areas of Study and Research Interest: African American History, African American Women’s History, African History,  Diaspora Studies, Civil Rights Movement, Black Aesthetic Movement, Black Power Movement, Black Arts Movement, Social Movements, Social Stratification, Race and Ethnic Relations, Ethnography, Deviant Behavior and Social Control, Urban Sociology, Sociology of Poverty, Social Organization, Social Inequality, Institutional Inequality, Urban Education, Qualitative Methods




Stephanie Salerno

I’m a doctoral student in American Cultural Studies with interests in popular music, queer studies, masculinity and musical affect.  I hold a B.A. in Music History from the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University and an M.A. in  Liberal Studies from North Central College.  In addition to studying historical constructions of race and ethnicity in the U.S., I also include explorations of music, literature, art and other aspects of culture as viewed through the lens of Ethnic Studies in my course.  Outside of the academy, I look forward to reading historical fiction, playing classical piano, discovering new music and writing creatively.

Kate Schaab 

I am a doctoral student in the American Culture Studies program.  My research focuses on immigration and sexuality, particularly how literary and filmic texts frame immigrant women’s sexuality. In addition to my academic work, I enjoy swimming, vegetarian cooking and dining, and watching old episodes of Arrested Development.

Education: M.A. English, Northern Illinois University (2011); M.A. Women’s History, Sarah Lawrence College (2008); B.A. English, Spanish, Miami University (2004)