School of Humanities and Sciences
Showing 1-37 of 37 Results
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Vincent L. Briley
Affiliate, SGS Stanford Global Studies
BioVincent L. Briley is a passionate leader and coach in community college education. He currently serves as the Interim Associate Dean of Student Affairs at Montgomery College - Rockville Campus, where he is dedicated to improving student access and outcomes. His extensive career includes administrative and instructional roles at Denison University, Eastern Iowa Community Colleges, and Cuyahoga Community College, with a focus on student success, academic affairs, and community engagement.
Briley has honed his leadership skills through prestigious professional development, including the American Association of Community Colleges’ John E. Roueche Future Leaders Institute and the Peabody Professional Institute of Higher Education Management at Vanderbilt University. A champion of scholarship, he earned fellowships at Stanford University, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and multiple Fulbright awards focused on expanding international education.
Committed to his community, Briley volunteers with several local and national organizations and is a passionate musician who has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra. He is drawn to opportunities that allow him to serve institutions where students are central to the mission and vision. -
Shiven Jain
Undergraduate, Anthropology
Undergraduate, Art & Art History
Undergraduate, International Comparative and Area StudiesBioThroughout my academic journey, I have sought to reimagine education as a collective act of meaning-making rather than a transactional exchange of knowledge. At Indus International School Pune, I collaborated with the English department to redesign our pedagogical framework: students alternated as instructors, teachers assumed the role of facilitators, and classrooms became dialogic spaces for co-construction. What began as a localized experiment now informs learning models across fifteen schools—a testament to the transformative potential of student agency when institutions make space for it.
This commitment to humanized learning permeates my broader work. Through IKKIS: The Podcast, I engage with actors, historians, and critics to examine postcolonial cinema as a site of resistance and reclamation. As the founder of the International Youth Philosophy Initiative (IYPI), I convene interdisciplinary seminars with peers from 37 countries, using literature, aesthetics, and critical philosophy to counter apathy and reanimate ethical inquiry.
Research forms the cornerstone of my intellectual life. For instance, my paper, Reclaiming Sociocultural Agency: The Resurrection of India and Africa in Postcolonial Cinema (The Schola, 2024), investigates narrative reclamation in the aftermath of cultural subjugation. I similarly approach media and cultural criticism as modes of activism: as Director of Content Development at RAYS Magazine, I lead initiatives that interrogate and reframe portrayals of mental health in popular culture, overseeing bimonthly publications rooted in accessibility and literacy. My essays for Film Companion, Youth Ki Awaaz, and Flick Deposit likewise aim to navigate—and, where necessary, dismantle—the ideological scaffolding of mainstream cinema.
To me, leadership and mentorship are natural extensions of intellectual agency. As a Teaching Assistant in English Language and Literature, I have conducted over 150 seminars exploring the intersections of language, politics, and aesthetics—facilitating sessions on figures such as Patrick Chappatte, Audre Lorde, Henrik Ibsen, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Across research, pedagogy, media, and mentorship, my work is undergirded by a singular conviction: that education, if it is to remain ethical, must center not merely the transmission of knowledge, but the reclamation of voice, the recognition of alterity, and the radical possibility of collective transformation. -
Jun Li
Affiliate, SGS Stanford Global Studies
Visiting Scholar, Stanford Global StudiesBioJun Li (pen name: Sipan Li) is a Visiting Scholar at the Stanford Global Studies Division. Her research focuses on the relationship between feminist movements, media, and the state, and examines media practices and digital activism in authoritarian contexts. She earned her Ph.D. in Political Sociology from the University of Macau, and previously served as Associate Professor at the School of Journalism and Communication, Shantou University, as well as a Scholar-in-Residence with the Beatrice Bain Research Group (Gender Studies) at the University of California, Berkeley.
Li is an award-winning journalist and public intellectual, and one of the earliest investigative reporters in China to focus on sexual harassment and sexual assault in the workplace and in educational institutions. She founded the Women Awakening Network, one of the most influential feminist advocacy NGOs in China. Through her work and organizational leadership, she has had a broad impact on government policy, academia, and public awareness in efforts to combat gender-based violence. Her coordinated policy advocacy contributed to the Ministry of Education issuing its first formal anti-sexual harassment policy.
From 2014 to 2015, Li served as the Media and Public Advocacy Lead for the civil coalition advocating for China’s anti-domestic violence legislation. She has also served as an expert reviewer for “Love Ideas – Women’s Project Guangdong,” an innovative initiative jointly launched by the Guangdong Provincial Government and the Li Ka Shing Foundation to improve women’s well-being, and as a consultant expert for the Guangdong Women’s Federation. In addition, Li has collaborated with UNESCO, the Caixin Media Foundation, the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung (Heinrich Böll Foundation), and Oxfam Hong Kong on journalism and communication training programs. -
Cirian Villavicencio
Affiliate, SGS Stanford Global Studies
BioDr. Cirian Villavicencio has been Professor and Co-Chair of the Department of Political Science at San Joaquin Delta College since 2012. A Stanford Global Studies EPIC Fellow (2024–2025), he focused on internationalizing the curriculum in higher education. He serves as a gubernatorial appointee and faculty representative on the California Community Colleges Board of Governors. Previously, Dr. Villavicencio worked for the California Asian American Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus and chaired the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs, where he advanced legislation on data disaggregation and human trafficking, and advocated for Filipino WWII veterans to receive the Congressional Gold Medal. He also led the advocacy effort to establish the AANHPI Student Achievement Program across California Community Colleges and California State Universities, supporting the unique needs of first-generation, low-income AANHPI students.
