Mission behind the blog:
I am a woman with lemon yellow (and I mean yellow), mermaid blond hair. It has been this color all of my life. It sometimes hides during snowy New York winters, dormant behind some brunette streaks, but introduce it to the sun and a love affair ensues. Many times it has cascaded down my back and tickled the top of my very rotund bottom. It is the crown of this body I live in, a body replete with interest: full lips, blue eyes, round belly, sloping hips. This body: the armor given to me to survive being female in a very female-unfriendly world. This body is my soul-vessel. And there are stories abounding about this vessel and its myriad battles fought against a world that sees it much differently than it wants to be seen. What has it meant to be me, growing up yellow-haired and big-bottomed in this world, where beauty is often an asset or a curse, depending upon circumstance? I have drawn so much attention that I have not wanted and so much that I have. This body has meant so many things, met so many experiences that it is finally time to tell the story of the girl with the yellow hair.
My Background:
I am a political scientist who has always been interested in gender. Ever since I took my first Women’s Studies course, I have used gender as a filtered lens to understand the world around me. There is something intensly empowering about understanding gender, especially for women and girls but also for men. For me, it has allowed to be more offensive-ly compassionate rather than defensive in my day to day life which has made me a stronger more understanding person, both to others and to my inner critic. I hope you enjoy my blog.
More on my education:
I have a BA in political science with a minor in gender and development (University of Florida). I also have two Master’s Degrees. One is in teaching English to speakers of other languages (Pace University/Teach For America) and the other is in Comparative Politics and Quantitative Research Methods (Columbia University). I am currently starting my Phd in political science at the graduate center at CUNY.
My current research interests are:
- -Collective action costs and electoral violence
- -Gender structures in post-conflict developing states
- -Effect of gender quotas in developing democracies
- -Gender and political development
- -Sexual violence as a weapon of war
- Regional focuses: Latin America and Africa
Previous/Current research:
- Gender-Based Violence: A Model of Justice for Conflicts in Africa
- Current Research: Tempering Electoral Violence in African States: The Importance of Electoral Engineering in First Time Free and Fair Elections
- Factor Analysis: Measuring Gender Parity
- Theorizing Democracy in Botswana
- Changing Gender Structures in Post-Conflict Guatemala
