2020 Organizing Committee
Event Co-Creators
Christina Crespo is a PhD student in Integrative Conservation and Anthropology and is completing the Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies. Her broader academic aim is to address how alternative approaches to science and collaboration can generate knowledge—in more inclusive and equitable ways— to confront the challenges of a changing world. She has done research in Florida, Cuba, and Australia.
Samm Holder (she/her/hers) is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology and is working toward an Interdisciplinary Certificate in University Teaching. Her research explores how human agency and social structures shaped human biology in the past. She has conducted bioarchaeological fieldwork in Peru, Lithuania, Egypt, and in Athens, Georgia.
Symposium Chair
Olivia Ferrari is a third-year Ph.D. student in Anthropology & Integrative Conservation. Her background has involved research on human interactions with wildlife habitat in the UK and Latin America. Her current work focuses on how political conflict intersects with environmental change in Colombia’s urban peripheries.
Session Organizers
Akanksha Sharma is an international PhD student in Integrative Conservation & Ecology. Her research uses connectivity and diversity as linking concepts to explore socio-ecological complexities relating to migration, environmental change, conservation, forest rights, and development in East-Central India. Her fieldwork and research have focused in India (Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, & now eastern India) and United States (southeast Arizona, western North Carolina).
Rachel Arney is a PhD student in Integrative Conservation and Geography working with Dr. Jennifer Rice. She is a trained field ecologist whose past experiences led her to the field of political ecology and the politics of knowledge. She is interested in the production of ecological knowledge in politically charged spaces specifically how science is produced along the U.S.-Mexico border. Her research has taken her to the Virgin Islands, the sub-tropics of South Texas, the Mojave desert, and Costa Rica.
Mansi Hitesh is a candidate for the MPhil in Gender Studies at the University of Cambridge. Rooted in trans theory and transnational feminisms, her research examines the centrality of a race/gender (dis)analog to feminist comprehensions of racial malleability as a form of subject constitution in the United States.
Jordan Chapman is a 3rd year PhD student in the Department of Anthropology at UGA. He attended Penn State University as an undergrad and graduated with B.A.s in Anthropology and Geoscience with a minor in Geography. The year before attending graduate school, he began reaching out to friends, who had similar interest in uplifting Black and minority communities in science and STEM related fields, and eventually they became the Black Science Coalition and Institute (B-SCI), a 501c3 nonprofit. Even though their time has been short, it's been an honor to serve among them. B-Scientists, their official podcast, is an extension of their mission to encourage everyone to engage in the scientific process.
Jana Carpenter is a first-year PhD student in the Chemistry Department at the University of Georgia. She received her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Young Harris College in North Georgia. She moved to Athens, GA shortly after, working as a lab technician at the Center for Applied Isotope Studies before applying to Graduate School. Her plans for research surround using analytical techniques to study the implications of antibiotic resistance through the scope of metabolomic changes in bacteria under the direction of Dr. Kelly Hines. Jana has a strong passion for community involvement and engagement, so joining the Black Science Coalition and Institute (B-SCI) as Research and Development officer in 2018 felt second nature. Jana is also co-host for the B-SCI podcast, B-Scientists, which she comments, arose from conversations with B-SCI president, Jordan Chapman. "There is a lack of space for minority voices in and out of the STEM fields. B-SCI wanted to encourage those in our community to find their passions and pursue them with B-SCI as an open resource. We structured the podcast to showcase our own experiences to create an environment of inclusion and open dialogue coupled with relevant science news and research."
Social Media Coordinator
Rachel Arney is a PhD student in Integrative Conservation and Geography working with Dr. Jennifer Rice. She is a trained field ecologist whose past experiences led her to the field of political ecology and the politics of knowledge. She is interested in the production of ecological knowledge in politically charged spaces specifically how science is produced along the U.S.-Mexico border. Her research has taken her to the Virgin Islands, the sub-tropics of South Texas, the Mojave desert, and Costa Rica.
Virtual Technical Coordinator
Alec Nelson is a fourth-year PhD student in Integrative Conservation and the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. His research consists of watershed conservation planning, with a focus on cross-scale collaborations and unpacking stakeholder decision-making practices. He has conducted field work in Colorado, Vermont, and New York, and is an avid audio-visual enthusiast.
Communications Coordinator
Kristen Morrow is a fourth-year PhD student in Integrative Conservation and Anthropology at the University of Georgia. Her research examines human-primate coexistence in Indonesia, focusing particularly on human-orangutan relationships in community managed forests in Central Borneo. Kristen is also passionate about science communication and youth science outreach.
