We are delighted to welcome our new graduate students to the Center’s MA program: Alissa “Sunshine” Adam, Chelsea Gifford, Sky Martin, and Justine Veras. These students bring a rich range of experiences and interests:
Alissa “Sunshine” Adam graduated from the University of Florida in 2019 with a BA in Women Studies and a minor in African American Studies. They are a very proud member of the WELLS Healing and Research Collective, which focuses on promoting the wellness and liberation of marginalized communities. Their ultimate goal is to continue this work and provide accessible psychology, wellness, and healing, particularly to Black and diasporic communities.
Chelsea Gifford graduated from the State University of New York – College at Cortland in 2018 with a BA in English and a minor in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality studies. She aims to focus her research on how individuals navigate through the tensions between their private and public selves and distill their sexual identities. She is passionate about sexuality in literature, queer theory and sexual/reproductive health.
Sky Martin graduated from the University of Florida in 2018 with a B.A. in Women’s Studies and a B.S. in psychology. Her research interests include feminist counseling psychology, mental health, and gendered practices of the body.
Justine Veras graduated from the State University of New York at New Paltz with a double major in Black Studies and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Her research interests include AfroLatinidad, Afro-spiritualities, and postcolonial theory.
News from Current MA Candidates
Our new students join our current MA candidates who have been hard at work on their exciting and diverse research projects, and have news and updates to share:
Shyamala Engelhart continues her research on women and aging. Her MA project will focus on feminist perspectives on aging. She is also getting a certificate in gerontology to enhance her knowledge of the current research on aging.
Andreina Fernandez is currently working on her MA thesis under the supervision of committee chair Dr. Jillian Hernandez and committee member Dr. Manoucheka Celeste. Her research engages with a selection of memoirs written by queer women of color to analyze how these authors craft their narratives and the traditions of women of color feminist life-writing they implement in their works. In November, Andreina presented her research titled “Where is the Queer Migrant Future? Looking Towards Queer Migrant Cultural Production” at the National Women’s Studies Association Conference.
Kaylee Kagiavas is a second year MA student working on her non-thesis research project chaired by Dr. Connie Shehan. Her research is centered on mentorship as feminist praxis, power-differentials, and hierarchical institutions. She will spend her remaining semesters drafting a workshop outline and accessible materials that coincide with the theory component of her project. In March 2020, she will present her research at Florida Atlantic University’s Graduate Symposium on Questioning, Challenging, and Organizing: Turning Feminist Theory into Praxis.
Logan Neser is a second year MA student working on completing his thesis and applying to PhD programs. His thesis seeks to explore how transgender people use means of cultural production to communicate with each other, taking into account themes of surveillance, biopower, and hypervisibility. Logan collaborated with fellow CGSWSR graduate student, Melissa Powers, to create a project on Black Trans Afrofuturism, which they presented at the 2019 National Women’s Studies Association conference held this November in San Francisco, CA.
Melissa Powers is a second year MA student currently working on her thesis project with Dr. Jillian Hernandez. Her thesis explores futures and utopias through use of queer and posthuman frameworks, with an emphasis on climate change and the Anthropocene. During the summer, she spent a week in Utrecht, Netherlands taking Dr. Rosi Braidotti’s summer school course on post-humanism. She also presented her research with colleage Logan Neser at the National Women’s Studies Association this November.
Nik Wiles successfully defended their non-thesis project in fall 2019. This project is a memoir-style book that uses the viewpoint of a genderqueer parent to tackle parenting outside of the gender binary. As Nik wraps their time with the Women’s Studies program at the University of Florida in preparation for graduation, they will continue to pursue publication for their book while maintaining their teaching post at Santa Fe College. Nik has also accepted a teaching post at a second institution, which will begin this late winter to coming spring, at which time Nik will be given the opportunity to pursue not only teaching in English and Writing but also, teaching in gender studies.
Alexandria Wilson is continuing as a joint MA/ PhD student. She continues to focus on the issues of violence against women and women’s exploitation in Central Eastern Europe. For her final project in the Center she is working on a journal article in which she explores how women’s organizations in the Czech Republic and Slovakia are resisting the new “gender backlash” movement which has taken hold across Europe.