Allen Micheal Wright (he/they) is a Ph.D. student in Sociology at UC Berkeley, where he studies urban inequality, law and organizations. His research examines the relationships between deurbanization, social institutions and inequality. Beyond his academic research, Allen Micheal enjoys mentoring undergraduate students, particularly first-generation college students and students from other underrepresented backgrounds. As a Black man and a first-generation college and graduate student, he has first-hand experience facing the challenges of learning...
Tony (he/him/el) is from the Decoto district of Union City, CA., and a third-year graduate student in Sociology at Rutgers University with an emphasis on Crime and Social Control. He has ample research experience having been a Ronald E. McNair scholar at UC Berkeley, where he developed a qualitative study examining gang discourse and its effects on racialized communities in South Alameda County, California. He has one article pending publishing through the McNair scholars journal titled, “Marked for Death: The Necropolitics of Gangs”. ...
Maria Smith (she/her) is a fourth-year doctoral student in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, and a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellow. She researches the way in which people deploy social and technical structures and techniques to make visible and actionable human differences. Primarily, her research aims to conceptualize and investigate the uses and social consequences of artificial intelligence and data surveillance in the criminal justice system. As a Graduate Student Researcher and Instructor...
Meghna (she/her) is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Sociology, studying social inequity arising alongside reproductive and genetic technologies. Prior to graduate school, Meghna worked in the nonprofit and social development field in New York City and pursued research related to commercial reproductive labor policies in India. Meghna holds an MA in Sociology from UC Berkeley and a BA in Sociology (honors) and Human Rights from Columbia University. She tries her best to continue contributing to these spaces as a graduate student,...
Xavier (he/him) is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Sociology that studies private policing and the reproduction of inequality in the United States, with a particular emphasis on private campus police forces. In addition to his research, he is committed to supporting underrepresented students in the academy, from scholarship assistance to interview prep. As of June 2021, Xavier has helped students earn more than one million dollars through the NAVCAL program. In his free time, he enjoys musical theatre, baking banana bread, and reading...