Meet Our JSD Candidates
Mr. Tsung-Chun Chen (Taiwan)
Curriculum Vitae
Dissertation Topic: The Value of Civil Disobedience in Defending Constitutional Democracy—A Case Study of Taiwan (1996–2022)
Thesis Advisor: Jason Mazzone
Before coming to Illinois, Tsung-Chun Chen obtained his undergraduate degree from Central Police University (Taiwan) and his LL.M. degrees from both Soochow University (Taiwan) and the University of Iowa. He has worked as a research assistant at the University of Iowa and a teaching assistant at the University of Illinois. Outside the academic field, Tsung-Chun has served in various law enforcement agencies in Taiwan for over fifteen years. His law enforcement career includes being a uniformed police officer and foreign affairs police. Before pursuing his JSD, he was a lieutenant captain who served as the Premier’s Personal Security Detail in Taiwan.
Tsung-Chun’s academic interests include constitutional law and theory, legal and political theory, civil disobedience, social movement, and empirical methods in law. He has published articles such as a comparative study on the freedom of assembly in the U.S. and Taiwan. Using long-term newspaper coverage in Taiwan, his dissertation focuses on how civil disobedience in the real world affects constitutional democracy.
Mr. Howard Jyun-Syun Li (Taiwan)
Curriculum Vitae
Dissertation Topic: The Psychological Barrier in the Environmental Goods Mechanism
Thesis Advisor: Arden Rowell
Jyun-Syun Li (Howard) is currently a JSD Candidate at the University of Illinois College of Law. His research interests include public international law, environmental law, international environmental law, behavioral law and economics, and law and psychology. During the JSD program, he works as a research assistant for Professor Arden Rowell and also works as an assistant editor for Transnational Environmental Law and editorial assistant for the Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal.
Before joining the program, Howard received his LLM in the international legal study at Georgetown University Law Center with an international human rights certificate. He also acquired an LLM and an LLB in laws from Soochow University in Taiwan.
Ms. Vanessa Villanueva Collao (Italy)
Curriculum Vitae
SSRN
Dissertation Topic: Conflicts of Interest in Decentralized Finance: Duties of Cryptointermediaries
Committee: Verity Winship (Chair), Amitai Aviram, Jeremy McClane, Thomas Ulen
Vanessa Villanueva Collao joined the JSD program in 2018, where she serves as a senior editor for the Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal. During the JSD program, she has been a teaching assistant for Professors Ralph Brubaker and Verity Winship and research assistant for Professors Verity Winship, Colleen Murphy, and Jeremy McClane. Currently, Vanessa is a fellow for the project “South EU Google Data Governance Chair” at the University of Roma Tre.
Vanessa’s academic interests are at the intersection of law and technology. Her research focuses on decentralized finance, blockchain, artificial intelligence, and empirical comparative methodology. Her current work aims to assess when and how intermediaries can address conflicts of interest (selfish/opportunistic behavior, asymmetry of information) in decentralized finance.
Her scholarship includes peer-reviewed articles in law reviews originally written in English, Italian, and Spanish. Moreover, her work has been selected for presentation at the Young Comparativists Committee section of the American Association of Comparative Law, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Italian Association of Law and Economics (SIDE), the Law and Society Association, and Jean Monnet Chairs events among other prestigious venues.
Before joining the program, Vanessa was a researcher and invited lecturer in Comparative Law at the University of Genova and has experience in the maritime field. Vanessa Villanueva is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley School of Law (LLM) and of the University of Genova, Department of Law (JD) and Department of Economics (MA).
Ms. Elsa Zawedde (Uganda)
Curriculum Vitae
Dissertation Topic: Piloting Dynamic Health Justice Partnerships in Uganda: Integrating Culturally Safe Legal Care in Rural Health Care Facilities
Thesis Advisor: Colleen Murphy
Elsa Zawedde is a JSD candidate researching Dynamic Health Justice Partnerships in Uganda. She is also a graduate assistant in the Vice Provost for International Affairs and Global Strategies Office at the University of Illinois.
Elsa has devoted a significant part of her career to advancing law as a tool to combat disparities and promote health equity. Her research focuses on health justice partnerships, culturally safe legal care, reproductive health, an interdisciplinary approach to the study of health law, social determinants of health, and the use of empirical research and legal design methodology in law. Her research has been featured in the Journal of Law in Society and Deseret News.
At the Center for Health Human Rights and Development, Elsa was able to advance the health rights of vulnerable people in Uganda through groundbreaking activism and litigation in maternal health, access to essential medicine, and tobacco regulation. In 2016, Elsa worked extensively on reforming the tobacco law bill and regulations adopted by the parliament of Uganda and enacted into law. She participated in the Comprehensive Sexuality Education Policy draft and the National Health Insurance scheme bill.
Elsa received her BA in Law from Uganda Christian University, summa cum laude. She received a master’s in law from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.
Ms. Qiaoyuan Melody Zhi (China)
Thesis Advisor: Kenworthey Bilz
Qiaoyuan Melody Zhi is an LLM and a Juris Science Doctor candidate at the University of Illinois. Melody focuses on law and psychology, health law, and elder law. Melody’s current projects use psychological experiments to test how medical scarcity and the understanding of altruism impact health inequity. The project aims to provide empirical evidence to help lawmakers think about the fair allocation of scarce medical resources in light of challenges, such as the pandemic.
Melody publishes in Chinese law reviews, psychological journals, and medical journals. She also presents papers about advance directives, gene-edited babies, and informed consent from parents at conferences in the U.S. and Europe. She is co-authoring a book chapter about health law and psychology with Professor Kenworthey Bilz for the Handbook in Law and Psychology. In this chapter, they focus on five issues: informed consent, advance care planning, how law shapes health behaviors and attitudes, the obligation to others based on the understanding of medical privacy, and health justice.
Melody conducted legal research and empirical analysis for Bloomington City Council, Louisiana Capital Assistance Center in the U.S., and Liannan City Council, Jianghai Sub-District Office in China. She earned pro bono notation by providing legal aid with the Chinese American Service League and Immigration Law Clinic.
Melody is a guest speaker, interpreter, translator, and graduate assistant for the University of Illinois Global Education and Training. She also writes and edits educational content about diverse psychological topics for lay audiences.
Mrs.Thallyta Pedroza Ferreira Cavoli (Brazil)
Curriculum Vitae
Dissertation Topic: “Do Labor and Employment Laws Contribute to Poverty: An interdisciplinary and comparative study of Brazil and the United States”
Thesis Advisor: Robert M. Lawless
Thallyta Laryssa P.F. Cavoli is currently a JSD Candidate at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign College of Law. Her research interests are labor and employment law, poverty law, law and economics, and interdisciplinary studies.
Before joining the program Thallyta received her BA in Law from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro and her LLM in Justice, Democracy, and Legal Rights from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign College of Law. During her Master’s program, she was the LLM Representative of the Education Law and Policy Society and a member of the Street Law Inc. program.
Thallyta has been involved with social projects that fight poverty around the globe and now is developing a dissertation in connection to these initiatives.