current-phd-students

Alexander Sogo

Alexander Sogo

Field: East Asian Religion
Advisor: Michael Como
Email: acs2299@columbia.edu

Alex is a PhD student in premodern Japanese religion. His studies focus on demonic spirits, possession, exorcism in Heian Japan. This work frequently overlaps with topics such as disease etiology and healing, as well as questions of the identity of “Shinto” in the premodern period. He is also interested in modern issues surrounding theories of religion and magic both in the West and in Japan.
Alex received a BA in Music and Religious Studies from Brown University (2015) and an MA in Asian Studies from UC Berkeley (2017).

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Benjamin Avichai Katz Sinvany

Benjamin Avichai Katz Sinvany

Field: Chinese History
Advisor: Robert Hymes
Email: bas2260@columbia.edu

Benjamin is a doctoral student in Chinese History. He studies the history of science and technology and the military history of Middle Period East Asia (~ AD 900-1300). Benjamin hopes to use material historical methodologies borrowed from Archaeology and Art History as well as digital humanities tools, like GIS, to better understand the production of technologies like gunpowder and their transmission among the many states that existed in East Asia in the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries. Benjamin received his BA in History from Emory University where he began his research on this period. This past spring he received an MA in International Studies from Johns Hopkins University and Nanjing University.

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Alexis Rangell-Onwuegbuzia

 

Alexis Rangell-Onwuegbuzia

Field: Japanese Film and Media
Advisor: Takuya Tsunoda
Email: aar2195@columbia.edu

Alexis Rangell-Onwuegbuzia is a doctoral candidate studying contemporary Japanese film and media; they are also pursuing a graduate certificate through the Center for Comparative Media. Their research focuses on representations of Otherness in anime, particularly Black and queer representation, as well as audience engagement. Alexis’ scholarship is an active effort to bridge the gaps between academic, industry, and fan analyses of contemporary anime. They are especially interested in examining the historical influence of both Japanese and non-Japanese fans of anime. Prior entering the Ph.D. program, Alexis received a B.A. in East Asian Languages and Cultures from Columbia University, where they completed a senior thesis focusing on Black representation in, and engagement with, Japanese anime produced in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

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