Grad Student - CER

Maya is a PhD student in Geography who studies the relationships between gentrification, Black identity formation, bureaucracy, geographies of urban justice, and struggles over public (and private) space. In particular, she investigates how these entanglements might be instructive for alternative futures. She looks at the relationship between local and federal government policies that have unevenly impacted Black neighborhoods, and the ways Black residents resist physical and cultural displacement in their attempts to reclaim their neighborhoods. Historically, local...

Natasha Shannon is a PhD candidate in Society & Environment in the Environmental Science, Policy, and Management department. Her dissertation research examines different agricultural rural development strategies in Central Appalachia, especially those falling under the banners of AgTech and regenerative agriculture. Situated in the broader context of a “just transition” for the region, her work analyzes the labor and agricultural practices of these two approaches and also untangles their varying financial and social networks, with a specific focus on the influence,...

Sandra Oseguera Sotomayor is a Ph.D. Candidate in Anthropology at UC Berkeley. Born in Mexico City, she holds a BA and MA in Latin American Studies, with a second MA in Anthropology. Her research focuses on long-term human-environmental interactions, examining traditional agricultural practices among the Indigenous Zapotec people in the Northern Highlands of Oaxaca, Mexico. She investigates the impact of these practices on environmental resilience and cultural persistence within these communities. Sandra's academic interests include decoloniality, discussions on food sustainability and...