Performance Studies

Objects of resistance: Protesting the feminicide of girls and women at the border (Berkeley News)

September 22, 2020

The first time that Laila Espinoza crossed the U.S.-Mexico border was as a young girl with her grandmother. “I’ve always been a border crosser,” said Espinoza. “It’s who I am.”

Espinoza grew up in Ciudad Juárez, a border city in Chihuahua, Mexico. As a child, she crossed the border hundreds of times — usually with her grandmother, who worked in El Paso cleaning houses. Every time they walked over the Paso del Norte International Bridge, Espinoza would look over the edge at the Rio Grande rushing below. “When I was child, the river was full — it was very, very alive,” said Espinoza...

https://news.berkeley.edu/2020/09/22/protesting-feminicide-at-the-border/

#SandraBlandMystery: Aaminah Norris on the transmedia story of police brutality

July 5, 2019

Aaminah Norris is an assistant professor at Sacramento State in the College of Education. She has more than 20 years of experience supporting schools and nonprofit organizations in addressing issues of educational equity for low-income students from historically marginalized communities. She researches, teaches and advocates for the use of digital and social media in formal and informal learning environments to address racial and gender inequities.

Norris, who received her master’s degree and Ph.D. in education from UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education, sat down with Abigail...

https://news.berkeley.edu/2019/07/05/berkeley-talks-aaminah-norris-transmedia-st…

Madam Ambassador: The unusual trip from Barbados to Berkeley to Brazil (Berkeley News)

July 18, 2019

For Tonika Sealy-Thompson, the road to becoming Barbados’ ambassador to Brazil runs straight through UC Berkeley.

The post had been open since August 2017, and there were hints that Sealy-Thompson was on the short list for the job. Late last year, Mia Amor Mottley, Barbados’ recently elected prime minister and the first woman to hold that position, appointed Sealy-Thompson to the role.

At 42, Sealy-Thompson is Barbados’ youngest-serving woman ambassador and one of the youngest ambassadors to Brazil. She credits her time at Berkeley as being integral to her readiness to take...

https://news.berkeley.edu/2019/07/18/madam-ambassador-the-slightly-weird-trip-fr…