Ph.D.s on the Market

Isabel Güiza-Gómez graduated in 2025 with a Ph.D. in political science and peace studies from the University of Notre Dame. Her research centers on the conditions under which marginalized actors can forge development and democracy in contexts marked by inequality and violence, particularly in Latin America. In her dissertation, Isabel examines the strategies employed by opposition actors, including unarmed social movements and insurgent negotiators, to forge land redistribution during civil war peace processes in Colombia, El Salvador, and Guatemala. Her research has been supported by prestigious grants, including the United States Institute for Peace – Peace Scholar Fellowship, the Graduate Women in Science National Fellowship, the Fulbright Program, the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, and the Notre Dame Graduate School.

Alyssa Paylor graduated in 2025 with a Ph.D. in anthropology and peace studies, and a graduate minor in gender studies. Alyssa holds a master's degree in anthropology and a master of global affairs with a concentration in peace studies from the University of Notre Dame. Her research specializes in the intersection of ethics, emotion, and politics, and her dissertation investigates how Palestinian and Israeli participants of peace programs judge one another as ethical persons worthy of respect. Alyssa was the recipient of a Notre Dame Presidential Fellowship and held the Mullen Family Fellowship in 2021-2022. She currently is a postdoctoral fellow with the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.

Ana Sánchez graduated in 2023 with a Ph.D. in Peace Studies and History from the University of Notre Dame. Currently, she is a Lecturer at the Political Science Department of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá. She holds an M.A. in History from the University of Notre Dame, an M.A. in Ethnic Studies and a graduate certificate in Women Studies from Colorado State University, as well as a B.A. degree in Anthropology from the National University of Colombia. Her research centers on the intellectual and political histories of peace in modern Latin America, particularly on the articulation between expert knowledge about violence and national peace efforts. 

Flora x. Tang is a Ph.D. candidate in theology and peace studies. She holds a master's degree in theological studies from Harvard Divinity School and a Bachelor of Arts in political science and theology from the University of Notre Dame. Flora researches in the fields of decolonial theology, theologies of trauma healing, gender and sexuality studies, and questions of land justice in the age of where environmental violence and ethnonationalist violence perpetuate large-scale human displacement and suffering.