Administrative Staff
Our administrative staff members train Writing Consultants, teach courses, develop curriculum, research and publish, initiate new programs, answer questions about Center policies and practice, and maintain the day-to-day operations of the Center.
Director: Dr. Marcus Weakley
Administrative Team
Administrative Lead: Joshua Mendez
Administrative Assistant: Christina Schwartz
Anti-Discrimination Committee:
Anti-Discrimination Committee Chairs: Lorise Diamond and Sam Gardner
Anti-Discrimination Committee: Anisha Ahuja, Gongju Cha, Julissa Contreras Castanon, Juan Carlos Parrilla, Clayton Plake, Ayoub Touti
Media Team
Media Coordinator: Sneha Suresh
Writing Consultants
Anisha Ahuja (she/her) (Senior Consultant)
Anisha Ahuja is a Ph.D. student in Cultural Studies with an emphasis in Women’s and Gender Studies and completed her Master’s in the Cultural Studies program at CGU. She received a BA in Political Science and Feminist Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research interest interests include feminist and queer theory, critical theory, and subaltern and postcolonial studies.
Gongju Cha (she/her)
Gongju Cha is a Ph.D. student in Cultural Studies with Media concentration. She completed her Master in Cultural Studies at CGU. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Media & Communications, and Humanities and Justice at Korea University, South Korea. Her research interest is in visual studies including Cinema, Television, and Digital Media.
Virgil Clark (he/him)
Virgil is a Ph.D. student in the History department with a concentration in American Studies. His research focuses on the history of race, power, and American politics. In addition to being a full-time student he is also a professor of sociology at the University of LaVerne.
Julissa Contreras (they/them)
Hello! I am Julissa, my pronouns are they/them. I am completing my dual master’s degree in Applied Gender Studies and Cultural Studies with a concentration in Hemispheric & Transnational Studies at Claremont Graduate University and ahve also completed the Preparing Future Faculty Teaching Certificate. My undergraduate education is in Women’s Studies (now Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies) at the University of Maryland and Social and Behavioral Science from East Los Angeles College. My ethical teaching pedagogy is student centered and collaborative, informed by Radical Women of Color and decolonial feminist methodologies. My academic research and writing interests have been on gender, sexuality, and queer theory; transnational and third world women feminism; and intersectionality and cultural competency. My most recent work focuses on Title IX compliance and accessibility in higher education.
Katrina Denman (she/her) (Senior Consultant)
Katrina Denman is a Ph.D. candidate in History. She also received her MA in History & Archival Studies from CGU and has a professional background in archival work. Her main research interests focus on Victorian Britain and include the careers of women historians, the creation of history as a professional discipine, and the experiences of women of color. When not at the CWR, she is usually working on her dissertation and hanging out with her dogs Evie and Phineas.
Lorise “Rise” Diamond (she, her, they, them)
Rise Diamond, a Ph.D. student in Cultural Studies, holds an M.A. in Rhetoric and Writing Studies and a B.A. in Communication with minors in Sociology and Interdisciplinary Studies from San Diego State University. Her work explores how power influences spiritual, intellectual, and aesthetic evolution in material and symbolic ecologies at the nexus of race, gender, and sexuality. She uses a prism that integrates radical Black feminism, multimodal rhetoric, and intercultural communication. Rise is an experienced university teacher, editor, and social justice entrepreneur who directs an education-centered non-profit organization.
Leah Dopp (she/her/hers)
Leah Dopp is a Ph.D. student in English with an emphasis in Hemispheric & Transnational Studies and completed her Master’s in the English program at CGU. She is also working towards CGU’s Women and Gender Studies certificate. Her research interests include 20th Century novels, postcolonialism, and decolonial theory.
Samantha Gardner (they/them)
Sam Gardner is a Ph.D. student in CGU’s Applied Social Psychology program. Sam completed their MA in psychology at Humboldt State University and completed their BS at Texas A&M University. Sam’s research interests consist of social identity, leadership rhetoric within extreme groups, and the use of internet memes to foster a collective group identity. In addition to their work for the CWR, Sam is the current lab manager for CGU’s Social Identity Lab and an adjunct professor at Chapman University.
Joshua Mendez (he/him)
Joshua is an interfield Ph.D. student in Cultural Studies and Religion. His research interests include religion and the colonial encounter(s), philosophy and radical politics, and critical theories of contemporary culture.
Shantel Muldrew (she/her/hers)
Shantel Muldrew is a Health Promotion Sciences Ph.D. student in the School of Community of Global Health at CGU. She holds a B.S. in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Studies and an MPH in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the University of Southern California. Her main research interests include infectious disease, cancer and health disparities. Her hobbies include watching her children play soccer and basketball, exercising (yoga, running and hiking are her favorite activities), and cooking international recipes.
Juan Carlos Parrilla (he/him/his)
Juan Carlos is a Ph.D. student in Cultural Studies. He is also completing an M.S. in Information Systems and Technology with a concetration in Geographic Information Systems. Juan Carlos holds a B.A. in English from UCLA, and an M.A. in English from CSULA. His research interests include Latinx Theater, Latinx and African American literature, The Theory of the Duende, Afrofuturism, Poetics of Space, Ancient Mesoamerican culture, and archaeology. Juan Carlos teaches playwright at Casa 0101 in Boyle Heights. He also teaches as an adjunct professor at Pasadena City College.
Clayton Plake (he/him)
Clayton Plake is a Ph.D. candidate pursuing an interfield degree in English and Cultural Studies. He receive an MA in English with an emphasis in Theory and Critical Methods from San Francisco State University, and a BA in English with an emphasis in twentieth-century “US American” Literature and a minor in French from California State University, Bakersfield. His professional experience also includes teaching undergraduate composition at Fullerton College, Pasadena City College, Moreno Valley College, and Riverside City College. His research interests include mid-late twentieth century “US American” Literature, cultural production and its role in State formation and resistance to it, visual rhetoric and culture (with an emphasis in film), the visual rhetoric of social movements, theory and critical methods, and radical pedagogy.
Sneha Suresh
Sneha Suresh is a Ph.D. student in Applied Cognitive Psychology with an emphasis in Psychology and Law. She completed her Master’s in the Forensic Psychology program at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, NY. She receive a BSc (Hons.) in Forensic Psychology from the University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK. Her research interests include Eyewitness Memory and Identification, Eyewitness Instructions, and Jury Decision Making.
Therasa “Terry” Topete (she/her)
Terry is a Ph.D. student in the department of Religion at CGU with a concentration in Critical Comparative Scriptures, Coptic Studies, and Transdisciplinary Studies. She holds a B.A. in History and a B.A. in Religion from the University of California, Irvine. Her research interests include textual analysis and comparative scriptures, Gnosticism, mythology and cosmogony, New Religious Movements, philosophy and religious theory, Quantum theory, transdisciplinary theory, and Transdisciplinarity.
Ayoub Touti (he/him)
Ayoub Touti is a Phd Student from Italy currently enrolled in the Cultural Studies program at CGU.