Home Navigating Your Degree Oral Defense Dates Oral Defense Dates Amina Abdu Program: Information Dissertation Title: Legitimacy Practices Under Algorithmic Governance Date: 19 Jun 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: LEINWEBER 3470 Chair: Abigail Zoe Jacobs Zhuoqi Liu Program: Astronomy & Astrophysics Dissertation Title: Characterizing the Circumgalactic and Intergalactic Medium with Giant Quasar Nebulae Date: 19 Jun 2026 Time: 1:00 p.m. Location: WEST HALL 411 Chair: Sean Johnson Jasmine Simington Program: Public Policy & Sociology Dissertation Title: Legacy and Loss: Preserving the Family Inheritance in South Carolina?s Black Lowcountry Date: 22 Jun 2026 Time: 11:00 a.m. Location: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/92859877004?JST=2 Chair: Luke Shaefer and Alford A Young Jr Grace Wilsey Program: Film, Television, and Media Dissertation Title: Thrift: How Authorship Mediates Systems of Power Amidst Technological Change Date: 23 Jun 2026 Time: 1:00 p.m. Location: NORTH QUAD 6450 Chair: Sarah Murray and Johannes Von Moltke Morgan Wofford Program: Information Dissertation Title: Characterizing Climate Crisis Skeptics' Data Reuse to Generate Insights for Data Repositories and Intermediaries Date: 23 Jun 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/95195111549?JST=4 PW:794706 Chair: Libby Hemphill and Andrea Thomer Keerthikka Ravi Program: Molecular, Cell & Dev Biology Dissertation Title: A Comparative and Functional Genomics Approach in Lactobacillus johnsonii for Identifying Genetic Determinants of Host Adaptation Date: 23 Jun 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: KHAN AUDITORIUM, BSRB Chair: Gary B Huffnagle Sam Hobson Program: Sociology Dissertation Title: The Stories We Tell, The Justice We Seek, The Power We Reproduce: A Foucauldian Discourse Study of Progressive Movement Framing in New York City Food Justice Date: 23 Jun 2026 Time: 3:00 p.m. Location: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/99354880168 Chair: Fatma Muge Gocek Marnie McLean Program: Movement Science Dissertation Title: Resistance Exercise in Perimenopause Date: 24 Jun 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: SCHOOL OF KINESIOLOGY BUILDING 2140 Chair: Abbi Danielle Lane Charles Katulamu Program: Sociology Dissertation Title: Abortion in Criminalized and Restricted Contexts: Essays from Uganda Date: 24 Jun 2026 Time: 11:00 a.m. Location: LSA SOCIOLOGY LIBRARY ROOM 4147 Chair: Sarah Andrea Burgard and Maggie Frye Bryanne Gordon Program: Earth & Environmental Sciences Dissertation Title: The Origin of High-SiO2 Rhyolites at Long Valley and Benton Range, CA: Temperatures, Timescales, and Tectonic Implications Date: 26 Jun 2026 Time: 11:00 a.m. Location: ROOM 2540, 1100 NORTH UNIVERSITY BUILDING Chair: Rebecca Ann Lange Rachel O'Rourke Program: Medicinal Chemistry Dissertation Title: Biological Characterization of Small-Molecule eIF4E Inhibitors to Assess their Therapeutic Potential in Cancer Date: 29 Jun 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: KAHN AUDITORIUM, A. TAUBMAN BIOMEDICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH BUILDING (BSRB Chair: Amanda Lee Garner Aditya Anand Program: Computer Science & Eng Dissertation Title: Cross-Paradigm Algorithm Design: Connecting Approximation, Parameterized and Fast Graph Algorithms Date: 29 Jun 2026 Time: 10:30 a.m. Location: BOB AND BETTY BEYSTER (BBB) 3725, HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/94097390373, PASSCODE: 669396 Chair: Euiwoong Lee Arighna Gupta Program: History Dissertation Title: Trajectories of the People: Popular Politics, Law, and Empire in Early-Colonial India Date: 29 Jun 2026 Time: 12:00 p.m. Location: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/MY/AURIGHNO (PASSCODE: 641537) Chair: Farina Mir Zachary Bons Program: Mechanical Engineering Dissertation Title: Towards Real-World Robotic Prostheses: Addressing Mass, Efficacy and Audible Noise Date: 30 Jun 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: FMCRB 1000 Chair: Elliott J Rouse Steven Mace Program: History Dissertation Title: Cantonment Rule: Authority, Law, and Military Governance in Colonial India, 1757-1947 Date: 30 Jun 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/91888103640 PC: 000446 Chair: Mrinalini Sinha Yaowei Long Program: Computer Science & Eng Dissertation Title: Dynamic and Fault-Tolerant Graph Algorithms via Graph Decompositions Date: 30 Jun 2026 Time: 10:30 a.m. Location: ROOM 3725, BOB AND BETTY BEYSTER BUILDING Chair: Thatchaphol Saranurak Hardik Patil Program: Civil Engineering Dissertation Title: Transforming Static Structural Topologies into Functional Reconfigurable Systems Date: 30 Jun 2026 Time: 12:00 p.m. Location: G. G. BROWN LABORATORIES 2029 Chair: Evgueni Filipov Emma Hardy Program: Philosophy Dissertation Title: Cultivating a Fruitful Metaphysics of Food Date: 30 Jun 2026 Time: 1:00 p.m. Location: 2271 ANGELL HALL Chair: Maegan Fairchild Joanna Lum Program: Molecular & Cellular Pathology Dissertation Title: Histone Lactylation and Epigenetic Reprogramming in Diffuse Midline Glioma Date: 30 Jun 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: 3699 MSII (SOUTH LECTURE HALL) Chair: Sriram Venneti Erin Holcomb Program: Immunology Dissertation Title: Therapeutic Alteration of the CD8+ T Cell Response in Cancer Date: 30 Jun 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: 2901 THSL Chair: Michael Green and Weiping Zou Simeneh Gebremariam Program: Anthropology Dissertation Title: Sounding Ethiopia: Music, Revolution, and (Post)Socialism Date: 1 Jul 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: NEW HAVEN 4701 (DAAS CONFERENCE ROOM) Chair: Kelly M Askew Sierra Mortimer Program: Genetics and Genomics Dissertation Title: The Roles of the Nuclear Import Proteins Importin-7 and Importin-beta in LINE-1 Retrotransposition Date: 1 Jul 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: NORTH LECTURE HALL, MEDICAL SCIENCE II Chair: John V Moran Csilla Tatar Program: Linguistics Dissertation Title: The Prosodic and Information Structural Underpinnings of Speech and Co-speech Gesture Alignment in Hungarian Date: 1 Jul 2026 Time: 10:30 a.m. Location: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/99015472838?JST=2 Chair: Ezra Keshet and Jelena Krivokapic Jian Zhang Program: History Dissertation Title: Localizing Civilization: The Poetics of Geographical Knowledge in Middle-Period China (ca. 600-1300) Date: 2 Jul 2026 Time: 9:00 a.m. Location: TISCH 1029B, ZOOM LINK: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/5289731572?OMN=91372071198 Chair: Christian De Pee Rebecca Lentz Program: Electrical & Computer Engineer Dissertation Title: Understanding Electrolyte and Flow Effects in Z-scheme Photocatalytic Reactors for Water Splitting Date: 2 Jul 2026 Time: 1:00 p.m. Location: PHOENIX MEMORIAL LAB 2000 Chair: Rohini Bala Chandran and Pramod Sangi Reddy Contact Academic Records and Dissertations Hours: Academic Records and Dissertations is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The office is closed Saturdays and Sundays and on the following holidays: Thanksgiving (Thursday and the following Friday), Christmas through New Year’s, Memorial Day, Independence Day (July 4), and Labor Day. Location 0120 Rackham Building 915 East Washington Street Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1070 Contact Phone: 734.763.0171 Fax: 734.936.3335 Email: [email protected]
Amina Abdu Program: Information Dissertation Title: Legitimacy Practices Under Algorithmic Governance Date: 19 Jun 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: LEINWEBER 3470 Chair: Abigail Zoe Jacobs
Zhuoqi Liu Program: Astronomy & Astrophysics Dissertation Title: Characterizing the Circumgalactic and Intergalactic Medium with Giant Quasar Nebulae Date: 19 Jun 2026 Time: 1:00 p.m. Location: WEST HALL 411 Chair: Sean Johnson
Jasmine Simington Program: Public Policy & Sociology Dissertation Title: Legacy and Loss: Preserving the Family Inheritance in South Carolina?s Black Lowcountry Date: 22 Jun 2026 Time: 11:00 a.m. Location: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/92859877004?JST=2 Chair: Luke Shaefer and Alford A Young Jr
Grace Wilsey Program: Film, Television, and Media Dissertation Title: Thrift: How Authorship Mediates Systems of Power Amidst Technological Change Date: 23 Jun 2026 Time: 1:00 p.m. Location: NORTH QUAD 6450 Chair: Sarah Murray and Johannes Von Moltke
Morgan Wofford Program: Information Dissertation Title: Characterizing Climate Crisis Skeptics' Data Reuse to Generate Insights for Data Repositories and Intermediaries Date: 23 Jun 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/95195111549?JST=4 PW:794706 Chair: Libby Hemphill and Andrea Thomer
Keerthikka Ravi Program: Molecular, Cell & Dev Biology Dissertation Title: A Comparative and Functional Genomics Approach in Lactobacillus johnsonii for Identifying Genetic Determinants of Host Adaptation Date: 23 Jun 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: KHAN AUDITORIUM, BSRB Chair: Gary B Huffnagle
Sam Hobson Program: Sociology Dissertation Title: The Stories We Tell, The Justice We Seek, The Power We Reproduce: A Foucauldian Discourse Study of Progressive Movement Framing in New York City Food Justice Date: 23 Jun 2026 Time: 3:00 p.m. Location: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/99354880168 Chair: Fatma Muge Gocek
Marnie McLean Program: Movement Science Dissertation Title: Resistance Exercise in Perimenopause Date: 24 Jun 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: SCHOOL OF KINESIOLOGY BUILDING 2140 Chair: Abbi Danielle Lane
Charles Katulamu Program: Sociology Dissertation Title: Abortion in Criminalized and Restricted Contexts: Essays from Uganda Date: 24 Jun 2026 Time: 11:00 a.m. Location: LSA SOCIOLOGY LIBRARY ROOM 4147 Chair: Sarah Andrea Burgard and Maggie Frye
Bryanne Gordon Program: Earth & Environmental Sciences Dissertation Title: The Origin of High-SiO2 Rhyolites at Long Valley and Benton Range, CA: Temperatures, Timescales, and Tectonic Implications Date: 26 Jun 2026 Time: 11:00 a.m. Location: ROOM 2540, 1100 NORTH UNIVERSITY BUILDING Chair: Rebecca Ann Lange
Rachel O'Rourke Program: Medicinal Chemistry Dissertation Title: Biological Characterization of Small-Molecule eIF4E Inhibitors to Assess their Therapeutic Potential in Cancer Date: 29 Jun 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: KAHN AUDITORIUM, A. TAUBMAN BIOMEDICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH BUILDING (BSRB Chair: Amanda Lee Garner
Aditya Anand Program: Computer Science & Eng Dissertation Title: Cross-Paradigm Algorithm Design: Connecting Approximation, Parameterized and Fast Graph Algorithms Date: 29 Jun 2026 Time: 10:30 a.m. Location: BOB AND BETTY BEYSTER (BBB) 3725, HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/94097390373, PASSCODE: 669396 Chair: Euiwoong Lee
Arighna Gupta Program: History Dissertation Title: Trajectories of the People: Popular Politics, Law, and Empire in Early-Colonial India Date: 29 Jun 2026 Time: 12:00 p.m. Location: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/MY/AURIGHNO (PASSCODE: 641537) Chair: Farina Mir
Zachary Bons Program: Mechanical Engineering Dissertation Title: Towards Real-World Robotic Prostheses: Addressing Mass, Efficacy and Audible Noise Date: 30 Jun 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: FMCRB 1000 Chair: Elliott J Rouse
Steven Mace Program: History Dissertation Title: Cantonment Rule: Authority, Law, and Military Governance in Colonial India, 1757-1947 Date: 30 Jun 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/91888103640 PC: 000446 Chair: Mrinalini Sinha
Yaowei Long Program: Computer Science & Eng Dissertation Title: Dynamic and Fault-Tolerant Graph Algorithms via Graph Decompositions Date: 30 Jun 2026 Time: 10:30 a.m. Location: ROOM 3725, BOB AND BETTY BEYSTER BUILDING Chair: Thatchaphol Saranurak
Hardik Patil Program: Civil Engineering Dissertation Title: Transforming Static Structural Topologies into Functional Reconfigurable Systems Date: 30 Jun 2026 Time: 12:00 p.m. Location: G. G. BROWN LABORATORIES 2029 Chair: Evgueni Filipov
Emma Hardy Program: Philosophy Dissertation Title: Cultivating a Fruitful Metaphysics of Food Date: 30 Jun 2026 Time: 1:00 p.m. Location: 2271 ANGELL HALL Chair: Maegan Fairchild
Joanna Lum Program: Molecular & Cellular Pathology Dissertation Title: Histone Lactylation and Epigenetic Reprogramming in Diffuse Midline Glioma Date: 30 Jun 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: 3699 MSII (SOUTH LECTURE HALL) Chair: Sriram Venneti
Erin Holcomb Program: Immunology Dissertation Title: Therapeutic Alteration of the CD8+ T Cell Response in Cancer Date: 30 Jun 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: 2901 THSL Chair: Michael Green and Weiping Zou
Simeneh Gebremariam Program: Anthropology Dissertation Title: Sounding Ethiopia: Music, Revolution, and (Post)Socialism Date: 1 Jul 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: NEW HAVEN 4701 (DAAS CONFERENCE ROOM) Chair: Kelly M Askew
Sierra Mortimer Program: Genetics and Genomics Dissertation Title: The Roles of the Nuclear Import Proteins Importin-7 and Importin-beta in LINE-1 Retrotransposition Date: 1 Jul 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: NORTH LECTURE HALL, MEDICAL SCIENCE II Chair: John V Moran
Csilla Tatar Program: Linguistics Dissertation Title: The Prosodic and Information Structural Underpinnings of Speech and Co-speech Gesture Alignment in Hungarian Date: 1 Jul 2026 Time: 10:30 a.m. Location: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/99015472838?JST=2 Chair: Ezra Keshet and Jelena Krivokapic
Jian Zhang Program: History Dissertation Title: Localizing Civilization: The Poetics of Geographical Knowledge in Middle-Period China (ca. 600-1300) Date: 2 Jul 2026 Time: 9:00 a.m. Location: TISCH 1029B, ZOOM LINK: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/5289731572?OMN=91372071198 Chair: Christian De Pee
Rebecca Lentz Program: Electrical & Computer Engineer Dissertation Title: Understanding Electrolyte and Flow Effects in Z-scheme Photocatalytic Reactors for Water Splitting Date: 2 Jul 2026 Time: 1:00 p.m. Location: PHOENIX MEMORIAL LAB 2000 Chair: Rohini Bala Chandran and Pramod Sangi Reddy
