CGU Dissertation Fellows and Thesis Projects

It is our pleasure to announce the Claremont Graduate University Dissertation Award Fellows for 2025 – 2026. The recipients and brief descriptions of their dissertation projects are listed below. This is an impressive set of projects and illustrates that high quality, high impact research is being conducted at CGU.

The Claremont Graduate University Dissertation Award is generously funded by the “Richter Memorial Funds Master Code, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee.” The Office of Research, Sponsored Programs & Grants on behalf of the Faculty Research Committee thanks them for their generous support of our students and their research.

Michelle Arch

School Of Arts & Humanities (SAH)

“Just How Mad Were They?: The Neuropathology of the Double Syndrome in Nineteenth-Century Fiction”

This research applies cognitive neuroscience and brain anatomy to fiction that portrays compromised self-face recognition, reduplicative hallucinations, and other autoscopic phenomena interpreted as symptomatic of emergent or advanced schizophrenia and is commonly implicated in psychoanalytic criticism. A fundamental component of my inquiry involves a comparison of nineteenth-century schizophrenic incarnations to actual patients with right frontal cortex deficits or impairments to identify shared neural correlates of consciousness. This assimilation of neuroscientific discernments with historical literary depictions purports a formative alliance between science and art and enables new insights about neurodivergent behavior that are grounded in both clinical neurobiology and humanism.

Byengseon Bae

Division Of Politics & Economics (DPE)

“The Concept of Representation in The Federalist“

The contemporary conception of representation is predominantly based on the notion of congruence between representatives and their constituents in terms of policy or identity. However, this conception of representation fails to recognize populists as misrepresentation. To find a better normative benchmark, I examine the concept of representation in The Federalist Papers. I show that virtue is essential to the concept of representation in The Federalist Papers which is composed of the ideas of deliberation and responsibility and enables us to recognize populists as misrepresentation. In addition, I empirically test whether Americans intuitively have the original conception of representation.

Kazumi Igus

School Of Educational Studies (SES)

“Trait Mindfulness and Social Justice Orientations in K12 Educators”

This study explores the intersection between trait mindfulness and social justice orientations in K-12 educators across the U.S. With increased mindfulness integration and growing numbers of strategically undervalued students in schools, the research aims to understand how these two traits intersect in classrooms. Using a convergent, mixed methods design, the study combines quantitative survey data from 100 educators using items from the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire and Social Justice Scale, with qualitative data from 20 semi-structured interviews. Guided by Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior, findings may inform efforts to strengthen educator rapport, wellness, and equity in education.

Xitao Liu

Division Of Behavioral & Organizational Sciences (DBOS)

“Positive Emotion Infusions as a Means of Increasing Help-Seeking among Individuals with Depression: A New Hope”

Depression affects 280 million people globally. Although treatable, many avoid seeking help due to factors like negative cognitive schemas, emphasizing the need to promote help-seeking. Positive Emotion Infusion interventions, which catalyze a momentary change in mindset by inducing positive emotions, have shown promise in improving help-seeking, particularly through high-arousal emotions. This dissertation investigates how hope, a high-arousal, future-oriented emotion that encompasses believing in desired outcomes, can motivate help-seeking in uncertain, low-control situations like depression. The studies examine whether hope can be induced through different future-oriented techniques among the general population and further explore its impact on help-seeking among depressed individuals.

Elizabeth Mott

School Of Arts & Humanities (SAH)

“Faith, Feminism, and Family Therapy: The Evangelical Integration of Psychology at Fuller and Wheaton, 1947 to 2012”

By the early 1990s, when marriage and family therapy was a newly popular but controversial specialty among professional psychologists, two schools of thought had emerged among evangelical therapists, or “integrationists,” in tandem with the founding of Christians for Biblical Equality, on the one hand, and The Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, on the other. My dissertation is the story—as seen from Fuller Theological Seminary and Wheaton College—of the emergence of egalitarian and complementarian camps within the profession and its implications for lived religion and sexual ethics in the 21st century.

Griselda Paredes

School Of Educational Studies (SES)

“The Transformational Impact of Students at Hispanic Serving Institutions”

Latine/x college students have been instrumental in advancing the trajectories of Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs). However, existing research largely overlooks their critical labor. This dissertation addresses an urgent and timely focus by highlighting how Latine/x college students advance the foundational mission of HSIs through grassroots advocacy and resistance to systemic barriers, creating equitable pathways for their peers where institutional leadership falls short. Utilizing a Plática methodology alongside multimodal research methods, this qualitative study examines how these students develop vital support systems, mobilize efforts to garner student resources, and engage in political advocacy to advance social and institutional policies.

Ashley Starr-Morris

School Of Arts & Humanities (SAH)

“The Exvangelical Movement: An Exodus Community”

A growing movement of former evangelicals, or exvangelicals, emerges as a key yet understudied phenomenon despite its
demographic and cultural impact on American religious disaffiliation trends. This dissertation explores the motivations and experiences of exvangelicals through qualitative analysis of published narratives. Feminist theory, intersectionality, queer theory, and lived religion ground this examination of the tensions shaping disaffiliation, focusing on gender roles, sexuality, racial dynamics, and political ideology. By centering marginalized voices, this research traces exvangelicals’ identity and ideological shifts, illuminating the contested boundaries of faith and secularism, and challenging dominant narratives of secularization and identity renegotiation in contemporary America.

This year we were also able to recognize and award an “Honorable Mention” distinction for work showing exceptional promise and impact. This awardee will receive additional funds to carry out their dissertation research.

Michelle Blaya Burgo

Division Of Behavioral & Organizational Sciences (DBOS)

“Pathways to (Prevent) Radicalization: How Self-Uncertainty and Identity Complexity Shape Vulnerability”

This project explores how social identity complexity (i.e., belonging to multiple self-defining groups) influences the connection between uncertainty and inclination toward activism/radicalization. Two studies investigate how a person’s social identity complexity and level of uncertainty interact to shape their attitudes toward their identities and intentions to engage in activism or radicalism. It is hypothesized that in situations of high uncertainty, those with complex identity structures will show less inclination toward radical actions and have more positive attitudes about their identities. The findings aim to improve strategies for preventing and countering radicalization by highlighting the protective role of social identity complexity.

Savannah Leslie

Division Of Behavioral & Organizational Sciences (DBOS)

“Navigating the Hybrid Workspace: Toolkit Interventions for Improving Work-life Balance”

Work communication technology increasingly blurs work-life boundaries, worsening work-life balance and wellbeing. This study bridges the extant split between empirical and field research by examining how boundary management, job control, and social support mediate the relationship between role demands and work-life balance/conflict. Using a repeated measures design with intervention and waitlist control groups, the study aims to test a work-life balance management toolkit with individually-implementable strategies to improve work-life balance and reduce conflict in hybrid workplaces. Rather than policy changes, the research will provide evidence on simplifying practices customized to individuals’ needs and guide organizations in developing strategies.

Kimberly Megyesi-Brem

School of Educational Studies (SES)

“Gender Differences in Math Self-Concept and Career Aspirations in Japan and the U.S.: The Role of Math Teacher Expectancy Effects”

Women’s underrepresentation in STEM fields is a global problem, and women are particularly underrepresented in math-related careers in Japan and the United States. Research has demonstrated a relationship between secondary students’ math self-concept and math-related career aspirations but has not sufficiently explored whether this might be related to teachers’ expectations of student math competence and how this interrelationship might differ for girls in either country. This dissertation employs multilevel structural equation modeling with data from TIMSS 2019 to consider both individual-level and teacher-level factors that correlate with gender differences in math-related career aspirations in Japan and the U.S.