Dissertation: Utopic Oakland: Imaginaries of Racial Capitalism

Research Interests: critical ethnic studies, visual culture, urban space, uneven geographical development, theories of racialization, the politics of recognition, historiography, consumption, public/urban humanities praxis, racial formation, racial capitalism, liberalism, cultural economy, critical race art history

Major Awards:

• 2018-2019: UC Humanities Research Institute, Multi-Campus Graduate Working Group grant for Thinking from Oakland: Urban Study in the Town
• 2018: UC Davis Humanities Summer Fellowship
• 2018: UC Davis Feminist Research Institute Summer Fellowship
• 2018: UC Davis Mellon Initiative in Racial Capitalism Summer Fellowship
• 2017: Cultural Studies Dissertation Quarter Fellowship
• 2016-2017: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Equity Fellow  (http://ybca.org/initiatives/ybca-fellows)
• 2016: Mellon Public Scholars Fellowship (http://publicscholars.ucdavis.edu/)
• 2015-2016: UC Humanities Research Institute, Multi-Campus Graduate Working Group grant to convene “The ‘Oakland School’ of Urban Studies” (http://oaklandschool.ucdavis.edu/)

Education:

• B.A. American Culture (Highest Honors) and History of Art, University of Michigan, 2008.

Publications:

• “Oakland Ecopolis.”  Critical Sustanabilites, UCSC. Co-authored with Mayee Wong. May 2018.

                https://critical-sustainabilities.ucsc.edu/oakland-ecopolis/.

• Review of Reimagining Marginalized Foods: Global Process, Local Places edited by Elizabeth Finnis. Food and Foodways:

                  Explorations in the History and Culture of Human Nourishment 23:1-2 (2015).

Select Presentations:

• “The Spatial Politics of Racial Liberalism: Contested Public Infrastructures in Oakland, CA.” University of Chicago’s Race  and Capitalism Graduate Student Conference. Chicago, IL. May 2018.
• Session Organizer. “What Does Equity Look Like? Reflections and Insights from Bay Area Artists and Community Leaders.” Imagining America National Conference. Davis, CA. October 2017.
• “The Legacy of the Oakland Equity Policy.” Brown Bag Talk at Asian Pacific Environmental Network. Oakland, CA. April  2017.
• “Blueprints for Art, Activism, and Development in Oakland.” FRESH Experimental Dance Festival. Red Poppy Art House. San Francisco, CA. January 2017.
• “Public/Carceral and Black Domestic Spaces: The Decolonial and Abolitionist Possiblities of Representations of Oscar Grant.” American Studies Association. Denver, CO. November 2016.
• Lead Organizer and Moderator. “Expanding the Frame: Multiple Perspectives on Gentrification in Oakland.” Roundtable discussion hosted by The “Oakland School” of Urban Studies and Oakland Public Library. Oakland, CA. May 2016.
  • http://oaklandschool.ucdavis.edu/oakland-school-symposium/
• “The Ambivalences of Racial Liberalism: Michael Chabon and Ishmael Reed’s Black Power Imaginaries of Oakland.” Association of American Geographers. San Francisco, CA. March 2016.