Contributors
Director Betsy Hartmann is a Professor of Development Studies at Hampshire College and a longstanding activist in the international women’s health movement. She writes and speaks frequently on the intersection of reproductive rights, population, environment, and security issues. Her books include Reproductive Rights and Wrongs, the co-edited anthology Making Threats: Biofears and Environmental Anxieties, and the recent political thriller Deadly Election. See her website for other publications and information.
Assistant Director Katie McKay Bryson works with students in Hampshire’s School of Critical Social Inquiry, and co-edits the free feminist article series, DifferenTakes. An activist and writer who grew up on occupied Athabaskan land in Alaska, she’s worked on issues of environmental justice and military contamination in rural communities, as well as access to housing, education, and free legal aid. She’s spent eight years in the Northeast now, but still misses real smoked salmon and 20-hour summer days.
Reproductive & Environmental Justice Fellow Courtney Hooks is a former RRASC intern and has worked with HIPS (Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive), The Doula Project, and Justice Now. She’s helped start a syringe exchange program, collaborated with activists inside womens’ prisons to create a guide about Hepatitis C & HIV, written about forced and coerced sterilization of people inside California women’s prisons, supported people giving birth, getting abortions, and going through miscarriage, and was co-coordinator of the 2010 From Abortion Rights to Social Justice conference.
2011 Political Writing Interns
Each year, the program works with a cohort of emerging political writers
who bring their own life experience, expertise and perspective to the articles on this blog.
Leticia Contreras ventures from deep in the heart of Texas to work with PopDev and our sister program CLPP. Leticia was one of the 2011 student co-coordinators for the annual From Abortion Rights to Social Justice conference, and worked as a RRASC intern at the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health during the summer of 2009. Entering her fourth year as a Div 3 student at Hampshire, she’s looking forward to exploring her Queer Afro-Chicana identity through oral histories and photography/mixed-media.
Marianna Luna is a 2nd year Hampshire student from the Bronx, studying social justice and aspects of identity, who spent last summer interning with the Third Wave Foundation through the Reproductive Rights Activist Service Corps internship program.
Breonna Mabry is a first year student who is currently investigating Cognitive Neuroscience studies. Her interest in human and environmental rights was sparked in her junior year of high school while taking a Social Justice course conducted by Christopher Greenslate. She aims to explore the human consciousness in regards to social prejudice and transgression. Other ambitions include the completion of a creative novella, and writing a cheesy pop song that will live on past her death.
Merri Nicholson spent this summer interning with Ibis Reproductive Health through RRASC, after spending the spring 2011 semester abroad in southern Spain. They study Spanish and American government at Smith College while living in a progressive-minded co-op which is nothing short of an amazing space. Ultimately, Merri aspires to be a member of the U.S. Cabinet, which really does indicate how much of a policy wonk they are. Merri’s also passionate about disability justice, vegan cooking & baking, and traveling by foot whenever possible.
Sophia Olkhova is a Division 3 student at Hampshire, where she studies the intersections of cognitive science, anthropology, and art. Her burning questions revolve around overlooked social justice issues in the sciences, and breaking down the forces at work on “objective” conclusions. She aims to explore these socio-cultural inequalities within cognitive science, as well as the cognitive science of social justice issues, actions, and repercussions. Other ambitions include perfecting an arsenal of ukulele songs, and a handstand on varying ground textures.
Martha Pskowski studies political economy at Hampshire, focusing on the environment, labor, race, and migration. Growing up outside DC, she got involved in the environmental movement in early high school. She’s written for the Center for New Community‘s Race, Migration and the Environment series on topics ranging from international climate negotiations to local action against coal. She is also a program leader for Summer of Solutions Pioneer Valley, a local program in sustainable community development, where she gets to farm, work on bikes and swim in the Connecticut River.
Molly Schlesinger is in her final semester at Hampshire. She studies children and the media, in an interdisciplinary concentration on youth, media, culture, education, and psychology. She has worked for the Media Education Foundation, Media Education Lab at Temple University, and the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. Molly is an avid consumer of media and advocate for accessible education, and enjoys modern feminist lit.
Senti Sojwal is a third year Hampshire student from New York City concentrating in race and gender theory and creative writing. In her academic and creative work she has been exploring the ideas of cultural appropriation, misrepresentation, identity politics and feminist theory. In the past she’s worked with sexual health awareness initiatives in Pune, India, volunteered with NARAL Pro-Choice New York, and helped organize the annual From Abortion Rights to Social Justice conference last spring.
Danielle Spears is a member of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians in Northern Minnesota. She is in her third year studying Visual Art and Native American Studies at Hampshire College. Danielle is interested in museums, identity, and understanding the social and natural laws that underlie nature and social movements.
Luis Vargas is a Div 2 student at Hampshire, studying post-colonial studies, history, and literature. He spent the summer as a RRASC intern with the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health. He is committed to community organizing at the local and global level, and he enjoys playing soccer and music.
