Graduate Fellows

First Year Graduate Fellows

Xavier Durham

Sociology, UC Berkeley

Xavier Durham (he/him) is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Sociology at UC Berkeley whose interests revolve around policing, surveillance, state violence, punishment, inequality, and urban sociology. His current project focuses on the precarious convergence between formerly-...Read more about Xavier Durham

Irene Farah

City and Regional Planning, UC Berkeley

Irene Farah is a PhD candidate in City & Regional Planning at UC Berkeley. Her research focuses on the political economy of street vending in Mexico City and San Francisco, with a focus on intra-urban inequalities. She received her BA in Political Science from ITAM in Mexico City and...Read more about Irene Farah

Daryl Mangosing

Public Health, UC Berkeley

Daryl Mangosing (they/he/she) is a DrPH Candidate in Berkeley Public Health whose interests lie at the intersection of LGBTQ+ health disparities, community-engaged research, mixed-methods, and Critical Theory. For their dissertation, Daryl is studying sexualized drug use (i.e.,...Read more about Daryl Mangosing

Martha Ortega Mendoza

School of Education, UC Berkeley

Martha Ortega Mendoza is the proud daughter of two former restaurant cooks. Currently, Martha is a Ph.D. candidate in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley. Her dissertation builds upon the scholarship focused on undocumented students by documenting and...Read more about Martha Ortega Mendoza

Catherine Park

School of Education, UC Berkeley

Catherine Park is a Ph.D. candidate in Education at the University of California, Berkeley with a designated emphasis in Global Metropolitan Studies. Catherine's research centers on how Mandarin-English dual immersion programs offered in private and public/charter schooling interact with...Read more about Catherine Park

Valentín Sierra

Social Welfare, UC Berkeley

Valentín “Val” Sierra is a Ph.D. candidate at the UC Berkeley School of Social Welfare. Val’s clinical and research agendas focus on eliminating mental health disparities, particularly suicide and depression, for urban Native American young people through culturally grounded practices and...Read more about Valentín Sierra

Rashad Arman Timmons

African Diaspora Studies, UC Berkeley

Rashad Arman Timmons is a community builder, keyboardist, writer, and black feminist educator from Detroit, Michigan. A beloved child of factory workers, urban gardeners, prayer warriors, and musicians, Rashad is a lifelong student of the ways black folk manipulate and adorn the built...Read more about Rashad Arman Timmons

Second Year Graduate Fellows

Diana Casanova

School of Education, UC Berkeley

Diana Casanova is a Ph.D. candidate in Education whose research examines the policies and practices that build power for family and community stakeholders to affect social change. Her dissertation analyzes the ways that Oakland families participate in district-level governance, impact budgeting...Read more about Diana Casanova

Akilah Favors

Sociology, UC Berkeley

Akilah Favors is an energetic free-spirited activist who loves to smile. She is a Ph.D. student in Sociology at UC Berkeley who researches race, class, social movements, gentrification, and the politics of inclusion. Her work investigates how Black middle-class organizers mobilize low-...Read more about Akilah Favors

Fabián Fernández

Anthropology, UC Berkeley

Fabián Fernández is a student in the joint UCSF-UCB M.D./Ph.D. program in Medical Anthropology. He researches issues of safety, workplace violence, and policing in U.S. Emergency Departments. In his time in the Bay Area, he has organized with healthcare workers from Do No Harm Coalition...Read more about Fabián Fernández

Brenda Mathias

Social Welfare, UC Berkeley

Brenda Mathias is a Ph.D. Candidate in Social Welfare at UC Berkeley. Her research focuses on urban spaces, youth well-being, social justice, and community-based participatory research methods. Brenda currently serves as a pre-doctoral fellow with SOULLAB utilizing technology as an empowerment...Read more about Brenda Mathias

Brie McLemore

Jurisprudence and Social Policy, UC Berkeley

Brie McLemore is a Ph.D. candidate in Jurisprudence and Social Policy with a designated emphasis in Science and Technology Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She has a Masters in Public Policy/Master of Arts in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Brandeis University...Read more about Brie McLemore

Karen Villegas

School of Education, UC Berkeley

Karen Villegas is a Ph.D. candidate in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley. Karen’s dissertation analyzes the ways in which economic and language ideologies work together to socialize aspiring U.S. citizens to be literate in a ‘neoliberal’ ideation of...Read more about Karen Villegas

Click here to learn more about the Graduate Fellows Program, a two-year program for advanced Berkeley doctoral students conducting research on social change in the United States.