Graduate Fellows

First Year Graduate Fellows

Aukeem Ballard

Education, UC Berkeley

Aukeem Ballard is a former secondary public-school educator, organizer, and school leader whose pedagogy and practices remain grounded in critical love. Aukeem is currently a PhD student in the Berkeley School of Education with a Designated Emphasis in Critical Theory. Aukeem's...Read more about Aukeem Ballard

Renee Clarke

Public Health, UC Berkeley

Renee is a Doctor of Public Health candidate at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research is focused on care after birth for Black birthing people in California. Renee examines the healthcare needs and experiences of Black women until one year...Read more about Renee Clarke

Caylee Hong

Anthropology, UC Berkeley

Caylee Hong is a PhD candidate in Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, where she researches urban oil production in the Los Angeles Basin. Her dissertation examines the ways that diverse stakeholders navigate the decommissioning and...Read more about Caylee Hong

Cathy Hu

Sociology, UC Berkeley

Cathy Hu is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. Her work sits at the intersection of punishment and society, social movements, and political sociology. Currently, she is working on an ethnographic and interview project examining criminal...Read more about Cathy Hu

Clara Pérez Medina

Geography, UC Berkeley

Clara Pérez Medina (they/them) is a PhD student in the Department of Geography at the University of California, Berkeley. They are a geographic filmmaker, studying the relationship between race, place, and representation through the modalities of oral history, film, and photography....Read more about Clara Pérez Medina

Everardo Reyes

Ethnomusicology, UC Berkeley

Everardo “Ever” Reyes (Rarámuri descent and Chicanx) is a PhD candidate in Ethnomusicology at the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on the intersections between music, social movements, and Indigenous self-determination. His dissertation focuses on the...Read more about Everardo Reyes

Jasmine M. Sanders

Sociology, UC Berkeley

Jasmine M. Sanders is a Sociology PhD student at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research centers issues of equity and access with a focus on organizational inequality, culture, and workplace policies and practices. Her dissertation research examines the role of...Read more about Jasmine M. Sanders

Second 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

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

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

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.