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Danielle Duran

Sociology PhD Candidate

Danielle Duran joined Northeastern in 2022. She holds an MA in Sociology from the University of Colorado Denver, a BA in Sociology from the University of New Mexico, and an AAS in Exercise Science from Santa Fe Community College. Her expertise spans food, culture, politics, and health. Using comparative historical methods, her dissertation explores how political and cultural discourse around food choice in SNAP reveals class tensions and shapes the lived experiences of SNAP recipients. Her work is supported by an American Sociological Association Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (funded by the National Science Foundation), the NULab for Digital Humanities and Computational Social Science, and the Brudnick Center on Violence and Conflict. Beyond her academic work, she partners with community-based food organizations to evaluate Food is Medicine programs. She also collaborates on healthcare delivery projects at the NU Center for Health Policy and Healthcare Research. She previously worked on a range of patient health outcomes and care delivery projects with the Qualitative and Mixed Methods Research Core of the Adult and Child Center for Health Outcomes Research and Delivery Science (ACCORDS) at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

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[email protected]

Areas of Research: Health disparities, healthcare institutions, medicalization, chronic disease management, culture, and mixed methods.

Dissertation Chair: Tiffany Joseph, Members: Eileen Otis, Christopher Bosso, Connor Fitzmaurice

More Student Paths

Mahd Malik

  • Mahd took an internship at the private equity and venture capital firm Milebreaker Partners. He continued working there after the internship ended, learning to balance professional and academic workloads.
  • At the Alexander Hamilton Society, Mahd discusses foreign policy, as well as content from undergrad and master's classes, and how to apply those learnings in the real world.
  • In “Macroeconomic Theory” with Professor Veysel Ulusoy, Mahd learned about different ways to assess macroeconomic dynamics during Fall 2024.
  • Mahd joined, and still participates in, the Northeastern Investment Banking Group. His current focus is how tariffs affect indices in the U.S.
  • In Spring 2025, he took a Masters level course, Comparative Economics with Professor Madhavi Venkatesan, where he learned to look at macroeconomic growth and development through a different lens.
  • Mahd is currently applying his knowledge from CSSH to his senior thesis, entitled Trade Protectionism and Its Effect on The US Indices. In it, he uses quantitative data to explain current events.
  • After graduating, Mahd hopes to break into the finance, consulting, or the defense sector, where he can apply his background in economics, research, and strategy while growing his career...

Shannon Peifer

  • Shannon took Black Digital Humanities with Professor Nicole Aljoe where they had the opportunity to work on the digital project of reframing of the Boston Inoculation Controversy of 1721.
  • Shannon co-founded the Health Humanities Group with fellow student Morgan Paik to discuss scholarship in the field and build community through related educational events.
  • They took Archives of Public Health with Professor Sari Altschuler and helped organize a digital exhibit of their class’s archival objects and research findings on Cholera in Nineteenth-century America.
  • Shannon developed a digital StoryMap of Salem to map connections to the Atlantic slave trade, and the “haunting” of racial capitalism in the course 18th Century Literature: Race, Gender, Capitalism.
  • They currently work as a Graduate Writing Consultant at the Northeastern Writing Center, helping undergraduates achieve their writing goals.
  • ..

Eva de Menezes Martins Langer

  • Beginning in her second year at Northeastern, Eva worked as a research assistant with Professor Berna Turam, assisting in research on border cities.
  • Eva’s first co-op was at Action Corps. In the role, she assisted with all aspects of the organization, including research, writing, congressional meetings, and more.
  • Eva participated in the Balkan Wars Summer 2023 Dialogue of Civilizations led by Professor Denis Sullivan, where she spoke to members of the Serbian parliament and Bosnian presidency.
  • One of her favorite courses at Northeastern has been "Security and Resilience Policy" with Professor Nichola Minott.
  • Through her Advanced Writing course, she took part in a service-learning project, where she worked with Lifeboat Boston, providing fresh food to those suffering from food insecurity.
  • In her second co-op, Eva worked as a Research Analyst at the Center for Applied Nonviolent Actions and Strategies in Belgrade, Serbia.
  • In 2024, Eva was awarded the Flemister Fellowship by the Center for International Affairs and World Cultures. ..

Niyam Alami

  • Niyam is a member of the Economics Master’s Student Association, where he plans and organizes events to build the graduate student network and make connections.
  • He took “Applied Econometrics” with Professor Shahriar Sadighi and conducted a replication study to understand double machine learning, strengthening his modeling, coding, and analysis skills.
  • Niyam is a founding member of the Economics Club in Seattle, where he organizes hackathons and participates in the National Association for Business Economics Conference.
  • He participated in a Graduate Leadership Institute program, where he built leadership confidence through interactive workshops, case studies, and collaborative exercises.
  • Niyam took “Financial Economics” with Professor Florin Bidian. In this course, he bridged his knowledge of finance with his economics background using analytical models.
  • After graduating, Niyam plans to work as a quantitative analyst, applying data-driven insights to solve real-world financial and economic challenges.
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