2024 Next System Fellows

Sara Aftab

Sara is a doctoral student in Sociology and the Project Manager of Democratizing NOVA (DNOVA). She comes to GMU from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. 

Caleb Archdeacon

Caleb is a BA student in Anthropology from Oyster Bay, New York. He is interning with the Virginia Solidarity Economy Network.

Alessandro David Bovo

Alessandro is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and hopes to continue his studies in the legal field. Most of his research is focused on policing and police accountability. He is currently interning with the Poor People’s Army, helping them with their organizing work. 

Selin Boybeyi

Selin is a BFA in Dance who is studying alternative ownership and management structures in the arts.

Dhruv Deepak

Dhruv is a researcher with the Center for Social Science Research’s Next System Studies program, supporting the development and delivery of cutting-edge interdisciplinary coursework as well as contributing to the definition of new research initiatives. Dhruv's doctoral dissertation research, stemming from his work on the Digital Commonwealth Project (DCP), comprises a comparative analysis of platform cooperatives (and other initiatives centering common ownership and digital rights) spanning the Global North and Global South. Globally, discourses, practices and traditions around digital sovereignty are challenging the privatization of data; through these emergent paradigms, he intends to develop an understanding of community wealth in a digital context, related governance models, and impacts.  

Benjamin Edison

Benjamin is interning at Democratizing NOVA as he focuses on networking with various business organizations to jumpstart a career and engage in group-based activities with like-minded individuals and communities. Benjamin is a Sociology BA and comes from San Antonio, TX. 

Ellie Fox

Ellie is a BA student in Government who is interning with Democratizing NOVA and researching the history of utopian, abolitionist, and other next system initiatives in the region.

Alexia Ferguson

Alexia is in her 2nd year at George Mason University and will graduate in May of 2024 with an MA in Sociology. Her research is centered around two paths, 1) researching how higher education institutions can be more accessible and inclusive for system-impacted students (currently and formerly incarcerated students) and 2) How communities can build wealth and generate social change through the integration of micro and macro policy changes inside and outside the political system. She is a qualitative researcher who centers her research around elevating the voices of marginalized communities and creating data-driven, sustainable social-political change. Her internship is with The Research-to-Policy Collaborative affiliated with Penn State University. She is helping to bring research professionals and public officials together to support evidence-based policy.

Ghazal Habib

Ghazal is a B.A. student here at George Mason University studying International Security and Law with a double major in Global Affairs. She is interning with DNOVA and her area of interest is migration to NOVA from Central Asian and Middle Eastern countries. She asks: What is being done for these migrants to ensure that democracy is upheld for all? For her internship paper she plans to focus on observing failed and successful methods and initiatives across the world to apply to the DNOVA system. Her goal is to find the solution to creating a successful next system. 

Liam Keen

Liam is a BA student in Sociology who is researching democratic alternatives in incarceration.

Ilya Kim

Ilya, from Khabarovsk, Russia, is an MA in Sociology and interning with the Next Constitutions Research Lab. 

Giordania Wilcox

Giordania is a BA in Sociology from Woodbridge, Virginia. She is interning with Democratizing NOVA, evaluating democratic alternatives for regional community health in Northern Virginia.