2022 Presidential Postdoctoral Fellows

Evelyn Saavedra Autry’s research creates a conversation between various fields of knowledge, particularly Indigenous epistemologies and pedagogies, literature, cultural studies on (de)coloniality, and gender studies through the analysis of a specific identity experience: Andean women’s identity formation. 

Jennifer S. Sun’s research combines her expertise in microbiology, entomology, neuroscience, and biochemistry to investigate how insects’ sense of smell can be altered by the bacteria which reside in their gut. Insects use their sense of smell to locate mates and food sources which, for biting insects, may include human hosts. 

Teona Williams is a critical human geographer who specializes in Black and Indigenous Geographies and Black ecologies. Her research and work show how a focus on the histories of rural Black women re-map the contours of antiblackness, the Black Radical Tradition, ecological degradation, and settler colonialism. 

Carla Macias' research lies at the intersection of computational methods and cognitive psychology. More specifically, her research surrounds cognitive development and how children and adults use their expectations about the world to guide their attention and memory. Dr. Macias continuously explores how learners decide what information to attend to, keep track of, and encode from their environment for later use. 

Kareem K.M. Willis is a social justice scholar-practitioner who explores the underlying social equity and social justice issues defined within public administration, nonprofit management, leadership, and philanthropy. His recent research project, Sustaining Safe Spaces, directly engaged social justice philanthropy to assess how the philanthropic community hinders or advances social justice work.