Christian Alvarado is a Ph.D. candidate in the History of Consciousness Department, with a designated emphasis in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies. Christian’s dissertation will examine the history and historiography of Mau Mau within a transnational intellectual framework. He has taught courses in the history of education and pedagogical theory at San Jose State University and has served on teaching teams in History of Consciousness, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, and Feminist Studies at UCSC. More broadly, Christian is interested in approaches to teaching African history that center understandings of the Continent’s definitional status, struggles against colonialism and neocolonialism, and challenge the field’s legacy of marginalization within the historical profession.

Miranda Apfel is an Astronomy and Astrophysics graduate student whose research focuses on how galaxies grow and change over time. Her teaching focus is on sharing scientific knowledge with a wide audience, so she particularly loves working on intro level classes. She also enjoys mentoring undergraduate and high school students and introducing them to research. Her goal is to make science accessible to anyone, no matter their circumstances or background, especially through the use of technology.

Batu Aytemiz is earning his Ph.D. in Computational Media and is working to ensure no one feels helpless while playing videogames. He will spend one year traveling the world to teach game development after he gets his Ph.D. and he really really loves green apples.

As a Ph.D. student in Philosophy, Ghoncheh Azadeh aims to create atmospheres, both inside and outside of the classroom, that are meaningfully and practically equitable and inclusive. It is especially important to them not only to help students from all backgrounds feel they belong in higher education but also feel supported in fields, such as philosophy, where individuals from underrepresented communities make up a small portion of the community. They relish opportunities such as the CITL Pedagogy Program that allow them to improve their teaching practices in collaboration with other passionate educators.

Mareike Badstübner is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and studies the recruitment of the enzyme telomerase to telomeres. Mareike’s prior teaching experiences as a Tutor, TA and Graduate Mentor in her lab has inspired her interest in pedagogy and her desire to pursue a career in education. She is excited to have the opportunity to support the Chemistry & Biochemistry Department’s efforts to reshape their collective pedagogical thinking in order for their classrooms to be more equitable and inclusive.

Lauren Bell is a Ph.D. Candidate in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology studying the impacts of climate change on high-latitude marine ecosystems. She is passionate about sharing the wonder and discovery inherent in studying the natural world, and since arriving at UCSC her exposure to CITL’s exceptional resources have motivated her towards a teaching career. Lauren is interested in pairing local and traditional ecological knowledge systems with western science perspectives in both her research and teaching pursuits. As a 2021 Pedagogy Fellow, she is particularly excited to expand her training in equity-minded and anti-racist pedagogy, with the goal of collaborating within her department to enrich the training resources available for graduate TAs.

Anthony Bencomo is a doctoral student in the Politics Department. Previously, he graduated from San Jose State University with a Master’s degree in Mexican American Studies. His research examines the way Latinx street gangs rival and replace the local government at the community level. As a CITL Graduate Pedagogy Fellow, he hopes to improve his inclusive teaching practices and learn student-centered strategies for community building in our current remote environments.

Genesis Berlanga is a Ph.D. candidate in Earth and Planetary Sciences working on Mars mineralogy and spectroscopy through rover instrumentation and machine learning applications. Genesis’ teaching incorporates interdisciplinary STEAM perspectives through active learning and the use of technology to facilitate these approaches in-person and remotely. Genesis seeks to encourage and celebrate in-class community and identity building, and harbors intersectional, equitable, and asset driven mindsets in learning environments.

Mario A. Gómez-Zamora is earning his Ph.D. in Latin American & Latinx Studies. His research focuses on Indigenous P’urhépecha Sexualities and Gender in Michoacán, México, and the United States. As a Graduate Pedagogy Fellow, Mario hopes to improve his teaching practices by better understanding the learning challenges that college students face at UCSC.

Brenda C. Gutierrez is a Ph.D. candidate in Developmental Psychology. Her research aims to understand the development of sexism within cultural communities from an intersectional feminist perspective. She is a first-gen college and graduate student from Los Angeles. Her goal is to become a professor that creates an equitable, inclusive, and engaging class and research space for all students. She is excited to work towards this goal with the Graduate Pedagogy Fellows Program.

Morwenna Hoeks is a Ph.D. student in Linguistics, and in her research she focuses both on developing formal theories of meaning, as well as investigating the way in which interpretations are built up and processed in real time. Since her research is very interdisciplinary in nature, she’s naturally interested in ways in which we can facilitate meaningful dialogue among people with a diverse set of backgrounds—whether that’s among researchers working in different (sub)fields, or among students in a classroom setting. As a Graduate Pedagogy Fellow she’s therefore looking forward to working with educators from other departments, and to learn more about how to foster equitable and inclusive teaching practices in her own department.

David Laubner is a Ph.D. student studying astrophysics. He studies the relationship between galaxy evolution and star formation. David is passionate about equity and inclusion in the classroom, and hopes to become a professor in order to apply what he has learned throughout his graduate school career. He is excited to join a cohort of other STEM educators that share his enthusiasm for pedagogy, and in doing so help his department further develop its graduate TA training course for future educators.

shah noor hussein is a writer, visual artist, and scholar focusing on black feminism, art, diaspora, and liberatory pedagogies. They are a doctoral student and Cota-Robles Fellow at UC Santa Cruz in the Department of Anthropology, with a designated emphasis in Critical Race & Ethnic Studies. From 2016 – 2017, shah was a Writing Fellow at the California Institute of Integral Studies and from 2018 – 2019, served as a Teaching Fellow for the Peralta Community College System in Oakland. shah earned their B.A. from the University of South Florida, focusing on environmental policy and gender studies, and their M.A. in Anthropology and Social Change from California Institute of Integral Studies with an emphasis on Queer Black Feminism. With the support of the CITL Pedagogy Fellowship, shah’s research and teaching aim to (re)center marginalized voices in dialogues on alternative epistemologies and cultural reproduction.

image credit: Amina El-Kabbany

Nathan Xavier Osorio is the son of a Mexican grocer and Nicaraguan nurse. His poetry and translations have appeared in BOMB, The Offing, The Grief Diaries, Boston Review, and elsewhere. His reviews and interviews featuring poets such as Juan Felipe Herrera and Rigoberto González have appeared in Columbia Journal, Publishers Weekly, and Letras Latinas’ La Bloga. Before coming to UCSC, he was a community organizer partnering with parent leaders to improve educational experiences of Latinx, immigrant, and indigenous families in the South Bronx. He is currently a Ph.D. student in Literature and Creative/Critical Writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is excited to support the instructional community in the Literature Department and beyond as a graduate pedagogy fellow!

Esra Ozban is a Ph.D. student in Film and Digital Media with a designated emphasis in Feminist Studies. Their artistic, curatorial, and scholarly work intersects critical archival practices, sex work, pornography, feminist/queer film cultures among others. Esra holds a B.A. in Economics from Boğaziçi University and an M.A. in Film and Screen Studies from Goldsmiths College, University of London. Growing from their interest in feminist/ queer pedagogies, Esra is glad to be a Graduate Pedagogy Fellow hoping to become a better mentor, educator, teaching assistant, and faculty member in the future.

Linda Ulbrich is a Ph.D. student in History focusing on modern British History. Her research examines British First World War nurses, their diaries and letters, and their wartime experiences, particularly their experiences treating patients exposed to poison gas. Linda is committed to creating an inclusive and welcoming learning environment for her students and works to include a variety of learning activities and experiences tailored to students’ diverse learning styles. She is excited to use her experience as a Graduate Pedagogy Fellow to support her fellow TAs and help to build a rich pedagogy community within the History department.

Hannah Vicars is a Ph.D. student in the Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology program. She studies how cells cope with DNA damage during cell division using fruit flies as a model organism. She hopes to improve her teaching practices in inclusive and active teaching for S.T.E.M. topics. When she is not working in the lab, she enjoys taking her dog to the park, tending to her many houseplants, and painting.

Roxanna Villalobos is a Ph.D. student in Sociology with a designated emphasis in Latin American and Latinx Studies. Inspired by Women of Color feminisms, her research examines how rurality produces the spatial, temporal, and affective contours of the intersectional subjectivities of Latina girls. As a Graduate Pedagogy Fellow, Roxanna hopes to improve her pedagogical practices by better implementing universal design in curriculums and classrooms to make courses accessible and equitable for our diverse student population.