Headshot of Gineen AbualiGineen Abuali

Gineen Abuali is a third-year student at Saint Peter’s University. As an undergraduate, she is studying history and political science with a focus on the stories of individuals who are often left out of history books. Gineen is an active student who seeks to campaign for human rights through her work and writing. She is also the president of the Muslim Student Association and a senator for the Class of 2021 where she represents the voices of Muslim women on campus. Gineen’s research interests include the formation of identity, and how identity is shaped by factors such as society, discrimination, and assimilation. As a Palestinian-American Muslim woman, she is well aware of the bias and discrimination Palestinians, Muslims, and women can face, and she is dedicated to fighting those biases through activism, writing, and here future work as an attorney.

 

Headshot of Gurjinder Kaur BrarGurjinder Kaur Brar

Gurjinder Kaur Brar has done Ph.D. in Anthropology from Panjab University Chandigarh, India. She did her Ph.D. dissertation on the topic entitled “Cognitive Impairment and Depression in relation to nutrition and physique: an anthropogenetic study of Palwal District of Haryana”. Her research work is one of a kind in Indian context based on the social and biological aspects of Neuro- anthropology. She received University Grants Commission (UGC- JRF) fellowship, which is a national award that is granted to research scholars with superior academic achievement to allow them to perform research in a university for a period of five years. She also works on HIV interventions among Men who had sex with Men and also on their psychological syndemic conditions. Being an anthropologist, she loves travelling to different places in order to better understand the culture of that area.

Headshot of Melanie MattelianoMelanie Matteliano

Melanie Matteliano is a graduate student at the University of Colorado Boulder, currently pursuing a master’s degree in cultural anthropology and a graduate certificate in Native and Indigenous studies. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology from Colorado State University. Melanie’s interest in how people engage with landscapes began as an intern with the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe’s Environmental Department in the desert ecosystems of the Southwest. Her graduate research explores human ecological relationships in Colorado’s North Fork Valley focusing on small-scale farmers, ranchers, gardeners, and homesteaders. This research digs into 1) the motivations behind individuals choosing to pursue land-based livelihoods; 2) the intentional choices that frame their growing practices; and 3) how these choices inform relationships between people, landscapes, and communities which in turn impact the well-being of either or all of these. In engaging with her research community, her methodologies were informed by a desire to address overt and implicit power dynamics embedded in research design and implementation.

Headshot of Christopher TharpChristopher Tharp

Christopher Tharp is a doctoral candidate in the department of political science and international relations.  In his dissertation “#PuertoRicoSeLevanta: Rethinking Freedom & Sovereignty throughout the Emergency of Decolonization,” he asks: “What might sovereignty mean in a place without formal state sovereignty or national self-determination?” He attempts to locate sovereignty in its diversity of articulations by examining the specific postcolonial context of Puerto Rico, theorizing sovereignty as a political process rather than a political status.