Heartfelt congratulations to the distinguished individuals comprising our latest cohort of Rhetoric Ph.D. students embarking on their academic journey this upcoming fall! We are thrilled to embrace your unique perspectives, talents, and aspirations, confident that your contributions will enrich and invigorate our dynamic and lively community at Cal. Here's to a fulfilling and inspiring tenure ahead, filled with boundless opportunities for growth, exploration, and academic excellence!
Sean Fen
Sean comes with a BA from George Washington University and a Masters in political theory from the University of Chicago. Sean is working on a project on the relation between the fragility of life and freedom in philosophy, working with diverse thinkers ranging from Machiavelli and Nietzsche, to Arendt and Esposito.
Dana Karout
Dana is an interdisciplinary researcher and educator, whose work focuses on the pedagogical and theoretical implications of contemporary generative AI tools such as ChatGPT. She holds a Bachelor of Engineering from the American University of Beirut and a Master in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School.
Deniz Morova
Deniz Zehra Morova is earning her BA from Swarthmore College in Religion and English Literature with honors, in addition to a minor in Classical Studies. She previously studied philosophy, theology, and literature at Wadham College, University of Oxford in 2022-2023. Her research interests include the history of philosophy, Ancient Greek tragedy, ontologies and dialectics of love, and the ethics of subjective and cultural fragmentation in the works of James Joyce, Simone Weil, and Walter Benjamin.
Pia Sazani
Pia is an artist, educator, and researcher living in Oakland, California. They are interested in the collocation of the speculative mode and religious affect in contemporary literature, art, theory, and popular culture attempting to think the future.