Grad Student - ISSI

Pilar Jefferson (she/her) is a PhD candidate in Ethnic Studies whose work focuses on the intersections of Black and Native racial representation and creative interventions in US museums. She received her BA in Art History and Native American Studies from Vassar College in 2015 and her MA in Ethnic Studies from UC Berkeley in 2022. Before matriculating at UC Berkeley, Pilar worked as a museum educator in New York City at institutions including the Museum of the City of New York and the Studio Museum in Harlem. Her dissertation combines archival research with participant...

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 as a scientist-practitioner. Her dissertation research focuses on the praxis and pedagogy of Black women educators and how they create liberatory spaces for BIPOC children. Makaela analyzes how school adults reimagine their power to destabilize the logic that assumes that children are...

Jennifer (she/elle/ella) works across the fields of (socio)-linguistics, queer theory, trans theory, and feminist theory. To date, she has conducted research on New York City English, language attitudes and ideologies in the French press, and non-binary Romance language varieties. Her dissertation project applies the lenses of queer theory and transfeminism alongside methods of linguistic ethnography to examine the language practices and linguistic attitudes and ideologies within francophone queer, trans, and non-binary communities in Montreal. Through a combination of...