Rachel Parks

Rachel (she/her) is a PhD candidate at UCLA in the Psychological/Medical Anthropology subfield. She is also pursuing an MD at UCLA, which she will complete after her PhD. Her dissertation research is an ethnographic study of a clinical project looking at ways to better recognize and communicate pain in nonverbal pediatric patients. Her work incorporates themes of disability, expertise and the communicability of pain, and she is exploring ways to incorporate autoethnography and visual and multimodal ethnographic practice. Her dissertation chair is Jason Throop. Outside of her studies she enjoys cooking, gardening, and playing with her cats.

Gloria Sosa

Gloria Sosa is a MA candidate in the Department of Anthropology at California State University, Los Angeles. Her own migration story inspired her to pursue social inclusion and justice for the undocumented immigrant community. Gloria is currently working on a community-based project compiling her community members’ oral histories to uplift their victories and bring awareness to the structural violence they experience. Gloria’s compromise with her community goes beyond engaging undocumented folks in research. For the past five years, she has served as a volunteer English teacher for adults. Gloria wishes to continue her volunteer work while advancing toward her goal of becoming an anthropology professor.