Fellows Directory

Niveen AbiGhannam

Current Fellow

Dr. Niveen AbiGhannam is a science communication researcher and educator whose work centers around the strategic and inclusive communication of technical knowledge. More specifically, her research seeks to understand individual, organizational, and social factors that can drive or hinder public engagement with STEM behaviors. She also examines the identities of publicly engaged scientists and engineers and the meanings that they associate with their engagement experiences. On the teaching front, Dr. AbiGhannam has taught Engineering Communication at UT since 2015.

Marina Alexandrova

Current Fellow

Dr. Alexandrova teaches a variety of courses on Russian history, culture, and language. Her current research interests include international modernism and avant-garde, Russian radical and revolutionary movements, spirituality in Imperial Russia, and, most recently, cultural and spiritual ties between Russia and the United States. Her Signature Course, UGS 303 "Tsars and Mystics," examines (un)Orthodox spiritual practices of Russian rulers from Ivan the Terrible to Nicholas II.

Matt Bowers

Current Fellow

Dr. Matt Bowers is an Associate Professor of Instruction in Sport Management at the University of Texas at Austin. He studies youth development in and through sports and has published research studies related to the impact of sport participation on creativity and the value of sandlot/unstructured sports for children. His work has been featured in Sports Illustrated, Wired, The Atlantic, and Wall Street Journal, SXSW, and the Aspen Institute’s Sport for All, Play For Life: A Playbook to Get Every Kid in the Game.

Andrew Dell'Antonio

Current Fellow

Andrew Dell’Antonio (he/him/his) specializes in musical repertories of early modern Europe, with a focus on seventeenth-century Italy. His research interests include musical historiography, reception history, and disability studies.

Erica "EG" Gionfriddo

Current Fellow

Erica Gionfriddo is a dance artist, educator and somatic researcher who believes in the intelligent body each of us occupies. They are co-founder of ARCOS Dance (arcosdance.com), whose ongoing inquiry probes the intersection of technology and humanity through rigorous interdisciplinary experimentation. ARCOS’ recent work has focused on “hacking” consumer technologies, or repurposing them outside of their intended uses, into performance and developing an embodied cyborgian movement language.

Elon Lang

Current Fellow

Elon Lang is an Associate Professor of Instruction at the University of Texas at Austin, where he teaches a variety of undergraduate literature survey courses on ethical topics, medieval and early modern studies, dramatic literature, and Experiential Learning courses based in archival research. One example was his 2020-2021 courses called Archival Advocacy in which students learned how to bring archival techniques to bear on a real-world social justice issue facing the East Austin, Texas, community: the closing of one of Austin's historically Hispanic elementary schools.

Fernanda Leite

Current Fellow

Fernanda Leite is a Professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. She holds the John A. Focht Centennial Teaching Fellowship in Civil Engineering. She is the past Chair of a University-wide Bridging Barriers research initiative called Planet Texas 2050. Her built environment research program sits at the interface of engineering and computing. She teaches courses on Building Information Modeling, Project Management and Economics, Construction Safety, and Sustainable Systems Engineering.

Julia Mickenberg

Current Fellow

Julia Mickenberg is Professor of American Studies and an affiliate in the Center for Women and Gender Studies, the Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies, and the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies. She is the author of American Girls in Red Russia: Chasing the Soviet Dream (Chicago, 2017) and Learning from the Left: Children's Literature, the Cold War, and Radical Politics (Oxford, 2006) and editor or co-editor of several other books, along with articles in journals ranging from the Journal of American History to Radical Teacher.