Meet the Team
The Cellular Connections Project team is made up of a dedicated group of George Washington University and Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History faculty and students.
Alex Dent
Principal Investigator
Alexander Dent is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the George Washington University. He specializes in language, media, intellectual property, confidence, policy, and music — in Latin America (chiefly Brazil) and the United States. He is also Associate Editor of Anthropological Quarterly, the Director of Graduate Studies for GW’s PhD program, and a Research Associate at the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History.
Joel Kuipers
Co-Principal Investigaor
Joel Kuipers (PhD Yale University 1982) is Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs at the George Washington University and a Research Associate at the National Museum of Natural History. Most of his research has been guided by an interest in the relation between language and the ethnographic description of social life, particularly authority and its various institutional forms: ceremonies, clinics, classrooms, and courtrooms. Drawing on extensive audio and videotaped recordings collected as part of ethnographic and linguistic fieldwork, and analyzed in their social, cultural and historical context, he has examined ritual speech in Sumba (1990, 1998), language in medical interviews (1989, 1995), verbal interaction in science classrooms (2006, 2008), and is now focused on cell phones as a communicative media (2014, forthcoming), and Arabic as a sacred speech register in Java Indonesia.
Joshua Bell
Co-Principal Investigator
Dr. Joshua A. Bell (D.Phil Oxford 2006) is Curator of Globalization at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), and an adjunct professor in George Washington’s Anthropology Department. Combining ethnographic fieldwork with research in museums and archives, Bell examines the shifting local and global network of relationships between persons, artefacts and the environment. Since 2000, he has conducted ethnographic fieldwork in the Purari Delta of Papua New Guinea where he works with communities to document their histories, material culture and oral traditions. At the Smithsonian he curates the Melanesian collections (New Caledonia, New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu) and the film collection of Human Studies Film Archive in the National Anthropological Archives.
Katelyn Schoenike
Project Manager
Katelyn is a Master student in International Development Anthropology at George Washington University with a focus on education. She studied Archaeology and Art History in undergrad at The College of Wooster. For the past year, she has served as the Manager for the Cellular Connection Project. Prior to this, Katelyn was actively involved in DC’s education sector through her work in DCPS schools as a literacy interventionist and with the instruction of a cross cultural conversation course at the Washington English Center. Her current interests specifically focus on international educational development, transnational education, and alliterative modes of ethnography employed to evaluate educational environments.
Samuel Pfister
Researcher
Samuel is a graduate MA student in Anthropology at the George Washington University and a research assistant for the Cellular Connections Project. His work with the project focuses on the reflective relationship between cell phones and social inequality, as the devices change, moderate, and exacerbate existing divides. He also researches kinship and social network effects of cell phones in communities and the phantasmic and supernatural elements of cellular dependence. Outside of the project, Samuel studies the archaeology and history of Western Asia through colonial ethnohistory and archaeological spatial analysis. He is an experienced field archaeologist currently serving as a supervisor for the Kabri Archaeological Project in northern Israel where he helps oversee excavations of a nearly 4,000 year old palace complex hidden within a dense avocado grove in the Galilean highlands.
Danielle McIntosh
Research Assistant
Danielle is a senior majoring in Psychology at The George Washington University. She became involved with the Cellular Connections Project through her interest and passion for child development and to assist on a research project focusing on daily social interactions. She is currently serving as the President of the Xi Sigma Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. After graduation, Danielle plans to get her nursing degree, continue research, and pursue her career as a psychiatric nurse.
Emily Bauwens
Research Assistant
Emily is a sophomore at The George Washington University double majoring in Political Science and Criminal Justice. She has always been passionate about social justice, and she joined the Cellular Connections Project to get a hands on experience with a unique aspect of inequality and ethnography in DC. After graduation, she plans to attend law school and become a civil rights lawyer.
Mikaela Tajo
Research Assistant
Mikaela is a freshman at the George Washington University. She recently joined the Cellular Research Project through the Honors Program, and she is very excited to learn  more about research methodology and develop her observational skills. Originally born in the Philippines, Mikaela’s background as a first generation American fosters her interest in the racial, political, and socioeconomic inequalities present in American culture.
Nina Mellor
Research Assistant
Nina is a sophomore majoring in Anthropology at the George Washington University. She joined the team to get more hands on experience in anthropology and to better understand how a research project is conducted. She is currently the Vice President of GW's Asian American Student Association. Next semester she hopes to study abroad in Shanghai, China.
Owen Vacheron
Research Assistant
Owen is a sophomore at The George Washington University where he is majoring in Spanish with minors in Linguistics and Communication. He became interested in the Cellular Connections project after taking an Intro to Linguistic Anthropology course (taught by Alex), where he acquired a fascination with cellular communication. Owen spends a majority of his time working for WRGW District Radio as its current Operations Director and incoming General Manager for the Fall of 2019.