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 quantitative and qualitative research methods. Using geospatial and statistical methods, she maps patterns of neighborhood-level disinvestment and segregation by rurality across 14 states in the Southeastern US and investigates associations between disinvestment and cardiovascular disease risk factors and...
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., forging new forms of belonging through the lenses of place, politics, and popular culture. As a visual storyteller, Alexandra uses photography and video to capture the everyday moments where these complex negotiations of identity unfold—revealing how Blackness is performed, contested, and reimagined...
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 and addressing inequality. This project specifically examines the instantiations of “racial equity” in San Francisco’s local governance. Jessica holds a master’s degree in sociology from UC Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree in sociology and comparative race studies from the University of Chicago.
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 social movements. Her current research examines how grassroots urban beautification projects in Asian (American) communities in Oakland, California, can represent new imaginations of relationality, resistance, and futurity. Beyond academia, she is an experienced multilingual community educator and...
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 through the intersecting practices of expert intervention, advocacy, and "policywork" in Oakland, California. Drawing on ethnographic research with policy and public health experts, housing advocates and affected tenants, Bobby traces how public policy solutions can both reflect and reshape the...
Marlena Robbins is a Doctor of Public Health candidate at UC Berkeley. She specializes in Tribal governance, psilocybin policy, and public health. A member of the Diné (Navajo) Nation, her dissertation research focuses on state-level psilocybin legislation and its implications for tribal sovereignty in the Four Corners region—Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. Marlena is conducting a policy analysis and interviews with tribal leaders, state officials, and urban Indian health organizations to examine how governance, healing, and community priorities intersect in...
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 racialized social-political structures differently impact Pacific communities facing climate injustice. This project uses a collective case study examining marginalization and coalitional climate activism in the state of California and the U.S. territory of Guåhan. This research examines how the...
