Biography
After graduating with a B.A. in Community Studies from UCSC in the early 1990s, I spent a majority of the next 10 years with two grassroots organizations working in communities affected by hate group organizing. As a full-time researcher on the far right I had with me, at all times, a pen, paper and either a camera or a tape recorder. I found that the function of documenting proved to be an extremely powerful tactic in social justice work. Since those times I have moved the focus of my political studies to include issues of global justice and more specifically the link of what we call the "local" with that often separated idea of the "global". Along with traditional mediums of dissemination I also use Internet technologies to expand the ways in which I broadcast my works. While my interests include the development of audio, photographic and video works I am currently concentrating on the medium of audio documentary.
My Master's Thesis seeks to answer the question: How do localized organizations, in the face of globalization and neo-liberalism, move beyond insular and service model structures to effectively integrate regional and global organizing? My project concentrates on the Atlanta, Georgia-based SisterLove, a grass-roots organization working with women of color around HIV/AIDS issues in the United States and South Africa. The voices of women and people of color are often left out of the "globalization" debate -- especially when it comes to finding alternative realities. Therefore, my project seeks to both offer examples of progressive social organizing but also to challenge who it is we look to for the answers.
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