I am earning a Ph.D. in Sociology with designated emphases in Feminist Studies and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. My dissertation investigates the global Black imaginary in Black girlhood and community-engaged education in collaboration with community organizations based in Oakland, California and Baltimore, Maryland. I will graduate in June 2023.
The grounding of Black Studies in community needs and concerns inspired my investment in community-engaged research (CER) and methods. I have collaborated with professors Rebecca London and Steve McKay on CER projects in California and CER is my primary dissertation methodology.
I have designed and taught courses in the Critical Race and Ethnic Studies (CRES) and Philosophy departments at UCSC and have received teaching and pedagogy fellowships from CRES, The Humanities Institute, and the Center for Innovations in Teaching and Learning (CITL).
I am passionate about mentorship and, from 2019 through 2022, I led Pathways to Research (P2R), a UCSC Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) research mentorship initiative. I engaged in peer mentorship in P2R and in my role as a 2021 CITL peer mentor for graduate student summer instructors.
In my postdoctoral research, I will engage critical science and technology studies (STS) to investigate:
1) intersections in anti-Black and anti-Asian racism,
2) legacies of Afro-Asian solidarity, and
3) Black and Asian youth engagements with novel digital technologies.