Graduate Fellows

First Year Graduate Fellows

Explore the profiles of our current Graduate Fellows below. Click any name to view a full biography.

Larissa Benjamin

Public Health, UC Berkeley

Larissa Benjamin is a Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) candidate at UC Berkeley in the School of Public Health. Her research examines the structural and historical factors that contribute to cardiovascular disease risk in Southeastern rural communities, employing rigorous...Read more about Larissa Benjamin

Alexandra Gessesse

African American and African Diaspora Studies, UC Berkeley

Alexandra Gessesse is a cultural worker, daughter of the diaspora, and PhD Candidate in the Department of African Diaspora Studies at UC Berkeley. Alexandra’s dissertation examines how Ethiopian and Eritrean immigrants navigate historically Black neighborhoods in the U.S.,...Read more about Alexandra Gessesse

Jessica Kari Law

Sociology, UC Berkeley

Jessica Law is a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at UC Berkeley. She is broadly interested in racial formation and knowledge, the state, identity politics, and social movements. Her dissertation project focuses on the construction of “racial equity” as a framework for understanding...Read more about Jessica Kari Law

Lisa Ng

Ethnic Studies, UC Berkeley

Lisa Ng is a PhD candidate in the Ethnic Studies Department with a Designated Emphasis in Science and Technology Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She interrogates the relationships between the racialized histories of waste and technology and their potential roles in...Read more about Lisa Ng

Robert Ortiz Stahl

Anthropology, UC Berkeley

Robert “Bobby” Ortiz Stahl is a PhD candidate in Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, and the David Minkus Memorial Graduate Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues. His dissertation examines how unhealthy housing becomes a governable problem...Read more about Robert Ortiz Stahl

Marlena Robbins

Public Health, UC Berkeley

Marlena Robbins is a Doctor of Public Health candidate at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the Program Coordinator for the Collective Continuance: Indigenous Knowledge Fellowship, where her research utilizes implementation science, Indigenous methodologies, and...Read more about Marlena Robbins

Kieren Rudge

Environmental Science, Policy, & Management, UC Berkeley

Kieren Rudge is a PhD candidate in the Society and Environment Division of the Environmental Science, Policy, & Management Department at UC Berkeley. Their work is grounded in critical race theory, political ecology, and critical Pacific islands studies. Their dissertation focuses on how...Read more about Kieren Rudge

Second Year Graduate Fellows

Jesús Gutiérrez

Anthropology, UC Berkeley

Jesús Gutiérrez is a PhD candidate in Anthropology at UC Berkeley. His research, teaching and writing cluster around themes related to mediation, performance and embodiment; religion, ritual, and the secular; and temporality, memory and historical consciousness in Black Atlantic...Read more about Jesús Gutiérrez

Makaela Jones

Education, UC Berkeley

Makaela Jones (she/her) is a PhD Candidate in the School Psychology program at Berkeley School of Education and identifies as a radical Black feminist and youth advocate. She currently works as a school psychologist in Oakland Unified School District and is eager to persist...Read more about Makaela Jones

Adriana P. Ramírez

Sociology, UC Berkeley

Adriana P. Ramírez is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology at UC Berkeley. Her research interests revolve around migration, citizenship, Latin America, political sociology, and race and ethnicity. The influence of growing up as a migrant student between...Read more about Adriana P. Ramírez

juleon robinson

Geography, UC Berkeley

juleon robinson is an organizer, community educator, and PhD Student in the Department of Geography at UC Berkeley. His research analyzes the relationship between race and property in Bay Area housing geographies, with a specific focus on the persistence of Black housing...Read more about juleon robinson

Taesoo Song

City and Regional Planning, UC Berkeley

Taesoo Song is a Ph.D. Candidate in City and Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley. His research leverages quantitative and geospatial methods to investigate how housing policies and planning influence residential mobility and neighborhood change for low-income and...Read more about Taesoo Song

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