Graduate Profiles
Madelaine Spiering - Health Care in the United States
After graduation, Madelaine moved to Palo Alto to work in Donor Relations and Stewardship in the Office of Development at Stanford University. She is currently at the University of Texas, Austin’s LBJ School of Public Affairs pursuing a Master’s of Public Affairs.
Public Health 150D: Introduction to Health Policy and Management
Public Health 150E: Introduction to Community Health and Human Development
Public Policy C103: Wealth and Poverty
Public Policy 101: Introduction to Public Policy Analysis
Social Welfare 112: Social Welfare Policy
Thesis From Theory to Possible Repeal: What the Affordable Care Act Means for Americans

Rosemarie Alejandrino - Popular Culture and the American Mediascape
After graduating with honors and a double major in English, Rosemarie went on to pursue a Master’s degree in Specialized Journalism (The Arts) at the University of Southern California. She is a first-generation college student and, in turn, is the first in her family to pursue a post-graduate degree. She is also the inaugural USC Annenberg-Rotten Tomatoes Fellow in Digital Innovation and Entertainment Criticism, working with Rotten Tomatoes to redefine the role of the critic in the modern era. Along with Charisse Celestial (’17), she is the co-founder of FLASH THRIVE zine collective, publishing art zines with work by local creatives.
American Studies H110: The Secret History of America
English C136: A Gallery of Wonders, Curiosities, Spectacles, Cynics, and Suckers: Consumer Culture in Post-Civil War America
English 190: Research Seminar: Mass Entertainment in Classical Hollywood Film
Media Studies 101: Visual Communications
Media Studies 102: Effects of Mass Media

Thesis Rosemarie Alejandrino : - Breaking Free: The Cultural Impact of the 21st Century On-screen American Musical (Class of 2017)
Hunter Cobleigh - Consumerism and American Popular Culture
One month after graduation, Hunter packed up and moved to Melbourne, Australia, on a yearlong work and holiday visa. In addition to exploring the country, he is currently working in advertising for the Australian Traffic Network, where he is putting his area of concentration to work. Before returning to the U.S. either to continue a career in media or to pursue a graduate degree, Hunter plans to visit more of the South Pacific.
American Studies 101: The Birth of Consumerism
American Studies C172: History of American Business
American Studies H110: Honors Seminar: The Road in American History
Sociology 130AC: Social Inequalities: American Cultures
Sociology C167: Virtual Communities and Social Media

Thesis Hunter Cobleigh : - Luke Cage Power Man Activist for Hire #1: A New Universe (Class of 2017)

Miesha Garnett - Race, Family, and Childhood
Miesha currently works for the Solano County Office of Education in the Special Education department. She is studying for both the CBEST and the Housing and Urban Development written exam. With the goal of a career that allows her to make a positive impact on the community in which she lives, Miesha also plans to pursue a Master’s in Public Health Community Education.
Gender and Women's Studies 134: Gender and the Politics of Childhood
Gender and Women's Studies 130AC: Gender, Race, Nation, and Health
History 136C: Defiant Women: Gender, Power and Violence in American History
Psychology 140: Developmental Psychology
Psychology 150: Psychology of Personality

Thesis Miesha Garnett : - The Vampire Huntress: A Lens into Black Female Identity Formation (Class of 2017)

Robert Gibbons - Culture, Economy, and the American City
After graduation, Robert accepted a full-time position with Outward Bound USA, where he collaborated with ten of the most experienced Outward Bound educators to form a National Learning Lab tasked with re-evaluating Outward Bound’s curriculum with the aim of adapting it to suit K-5th graders in a traditional educational setting.Robert led a trial run of such a program this summer at an elementary school in Omaha with great success and will be rollingout five programs to the Omaha Public School system in 2017-2018. Robert is eager to pursue a Masters in Public Policy.
Anthropology 157: Anthropology of Law
City and Regional Planning 110: Introduction to City Planning
Geography 182: Field Study of Buildings and Cities
History 127AC: California
Political Economy 101: Contemporary Theories of Political Economy

Thesis Robert Gibbons : - The Presidio from Post to Park: Two Hundred Years of Transition (Class of 2017)
Allison Ivey - California and the West
After graduating one semester early in December 2017, Allison is spending eight months traveling in Europe and Asia before starting her first year at Stanford Law School in the fall.
Anthropology 174AC: California Historical Anthropology
Education 188: Latinas/os in Education: Critical Issues and Perspectives
History 100AC: American Business History
History 128AC: California, the West and the World
Native American Studies 120AC: Photography and the American Indian: Manifest Destiny, American Frontier, and Images of American Indians

Thesis Allison Ivey : - The Children of California Shall Be Our Children: The Life of Leland Stanford, Junior and the Birth of Silicon Valley (Class of 2017)
Sally Littlefield - Twentieth Century American Culture
Sally Littlefield currently works for the Public Education Campaigns and Programs team at Futures Without Violence, a San Francisco-based national nonprofit organization dedicated to ending violence against women and children. Sally thanks her American Studies background for giving her the ability to understand the very real role culture plays in shaping our society. This knowledge has proven invaluable in her work developing public awareness campaigns that aim to break cultural norms that disempower women.
American Studies 102: The Suburbs
American Studies C111E: The Great Exhaling: Culture, Politics, and History, 1946-1952
American Studies H110: Honors Seminar: Bay Area in the 1970s
Education 183: High School, The Movie
Music 137AC: Music of the Civil Rights Era

Thesis Sally Littlefield : - Women's Sexual Liberation Comes of Age: Portrayals of Teen Female Sexuality in 1990s Popular Culture (Class of 2017)
Miriam Perales - Healthcare in the U.S.
During her last semester before graduating, Miriam Perales studied health seeking behaviors in the small community of Mae Sot, which lies at the border between Thailand and Myanmar. This experience coupled with her senior thesis research on curanderismo confirmed her decision to pursue a career in medicine to work specifically with communities of color that lack sufficient health services. Miriam is currently employed as a medical technician at Eye Physicians of the East Bay where she interacts with patients, works alongside optometrists and opthamalogists, and learns about ocular health complications and diseases. She is also applying to post-baccalaureate-pre-med programs with the ultimate plan of serving her community as a doctora.
Chicano Studies 176: Chicanos and Health Care
ESPM 162: Bioethics and Society
Gender and Women's Studies 130AC: Gender, Race, Nation, and Health
Public Health 130AC: Aging, Health, and Diversity
Public Health 150D: Introduction to Health Policy and Management

Thesis Miriam Perales : - Have Women Healers Disappeared? : From Traditional Healing to Modern White Male Medicine (Class of 2017)

Kristen Wilson - Immigration and the Cultural Geography of the U.S.
After graduating with Highest Honors from the American Studies and English programs in May 2017, Kristen Wilson, the Departmental Citation recipient for 2017, spent the summer traveling to console herself on the end of her undergraduate career. She plans to apply to graduate programs in American Studies and History in order to subject herself to at least another half decade of research, writing, and revision, with an eye towards a lifetime of such labor. Her ultimate ambition is to encourage similar dedication to and fulfillment through careful research, critical thought, and concise writing in the students she manages to trick into enjoying their academic pursuits.
American Studies 101AC: World War II
American Studies H110: The Secret History of America
American Studies H110: Bay Area in the 1970s
Asian American Studies 128AC: Muslims in America
Ethnic Studies 159AC: The Southern Border

Thesis Kristen Wilson : - The Slippery Slope: Paranoia and Alternative Morality in American Childrens Literature at the Turn of the Millennium (Class of 2017)

Handler, Wilson demonstrates, further challenges basic societal assumptions about the relationship of children to adults, highlighting the political, social, and cultural disenfranchisement that children endure, especially in homes without benevolent caregivers and most particularly in an environment of limited governance, when welfare programs designed to protect children are eliminated and replaced with inconsistent and inferior privatized versions that cater only to select groups. Expanding the relationship of parent and child to mirror that of state and citizen, Handler raises difficult questions about the existence of forbidden knowledge (classified information) and the outright lies which are so often told to comfort and even protect the child/citizen's ignorance ever preferable to knowledge?