The Transnational Solidarity Initiative was an endeavor of the 'Rethinking Transnationalism in the Age of Mediatized Social Protest' research group, generously supported by the first Focal Point Breakthrough Grant 2014-15 of the Graduate College at UIUC. Led by international graduate students across various departments, the initiative included diverse faculty and community members in an effort to interrogate the nature of solidarity networks across borders.
2014-15 Focal Point Awardees
Aristotelis Panagiotopoulos, Ph.D. Student, Department of Mathematics
Aristotelis received his Bachelor's degree in Applied Mathematics and Physics at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). Occasionally, he works as a tutor at the Danville Correctional Center for the Education and Justice Project (EJP) of the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.
Estibalitz Ezkerra, PhD Student, Program in Comparative & World Literature
Estibalitz is the 2014-15 John Doyle Klier Scholar at the Program for Jewish Culture and Society. She holds a MA in English from the University of Nevada, Reno, and a BA in Journalism and a BA in Art History, both from the University of the Basque Country. Her research focuses on literary and visual representations of violence, discourses on nationalism, citizenship and human rights, memory, and trauma in contemporary Basque Country and Ireland. She is currently conducting a writing workshop at the Danville Correctional Center as part of the Education Justice Project (EJP).
Ezgi Guner, Ph.D. Student, Department of Anthropology
Ezgi received her Bachelor's degree in Cultural Studies from Sabanci University, Istanbul. Her current academic interests are neoliberalism, immigration and social movements.
Itxaso Rodriguez-Ordóñez, Ph.D. Student, Department of Spanish and Portuguese
Before arriving at UIUC, Itxaso received her Bachelor’s degree in English Philology from the University of Deusto in Bilbao, Basque Country. Her work involves researching ongoing language change processes from a linguistic and ideological perspective in Basque as a product of its contact with Spanish. Her research interests include language contact, linguistic ideologies and grammaticalization.
Meghan Bohardt, M.A.
Before completing her Master of Arts in Latin American Studies, with a FLAS Fellowship for Quechua (2012-2014) at UIUC, Meghan received a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Cleveland State University. She is currently working to further the community acupuncture movement in Urbana-Champaign as part of a larger network of clinics supported by the People's Organization of Community Acupuncture. She has previously volunteered at the Family Resource Center, Dayton Children's Hospital and canvassed for Ohio Citizen Action and Working America, a community affiliate of the AFL-CIO. Her research interests include critical cultural studies of food and health care systems of the Americas, social movements, alternative economies, and engaged/activist scholarship.
Utathya Chattopadhyaya, Ph.D. Student, Department of History
Utathya earned his Bachelor's degree in Economics from Delhi University and a Master's degree in Modern History from the Center for Historical Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University. He works on the social and cultural histories of the drug trade in colonial South Asia and the Indian Ocean World and is currently an INTERSECT Fellow at the Cultures of Law in Global Contexts Initiative at the University of Illinois.
Aristotelis Panagiotopoulos, Ph.D. Student, Department of Mathematics
Aristotelis received his Bachelor's degree in Applied Mathematics and Physics at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). Occasionally, he works as a tutor at the Danville Correctional Center for the Education and Justice Project (EJP) of the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.
Estibalitz Ezkerra, PhD Student, Program in Comparative & World Literature
Estibalitz is the 2014-15 John Doyle Klier Scholar at the Program for Jewish Culture and Society. She holds a MA in English from the University of Nevada, Reno, and a BA in Journalism and a BA in Art History, both from the University of the Basque Country. Her research focuses on literary and visual representations of violence, discourses on nationalism, citizenship and human rights, memory, and trauma in contemporary Basque Country and Ireland. She is currently conducting a writing workshop at the Danville Correctional Center as part of the Education Justice Project (EJP).
Ezgi Guner, Ph.D. Student, Department of Anthropology
Ezgi received her Bachelor's degree in Cultural Studies from Sabanci University, Istanbul. Her current academic interests are neoliberalism, immigration and social movements.
Itxaso Rodriguez-Ordóñez, Ph.D. Student, Department of Spanish and Portuguese
Before arriving at UIUC, Itxaso received her Bachelor’s degree in English Philology from the University of Deusto in Bilbao, Basque Country. Her work involves researching ongoing language change processes from a linguistic and ideological perspective in Basque as a product of its contact with Spanish. Her research interests include language contact, linguistic ideologies and grammaticalization.
Meghan Bohardt, M.A.
Before completing her Master of Arts in Latin American Studies, with a FLAS Fellowship for Quechua (2012-2014) at UIUC, Meghan received a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Cleveland State University. She is currently working to further the community acupuncture movement in Urbana-Champaign as part of a larger network of clinics supported by the People's Organization of Community Acupuncture. She has previously volunteered at the Family Resource Center, Dayton Children's Hospital and canvassed for Ohio Citizen Action and Working America, a community affiliate of the AFL-CIO. Her research interests include critical cultural studies of food and health care systems of the Americas, social movements, alternative economies, and engaged/activist scholarship.
Utathya Chattopadhyaya, Ph.D. Student, Department of History
Utathya earned his Bachelor's degree in Economics from Delhi University and a Master's degree in Modern History from the Center for Historical Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University. He works on the social and cultural histories of the drug trade in colonial South Asia and the Indian Ocean World and is currently an INTERSECT Fellow at the Cultures of Law in Global Contexts Initiative at the University of Illinois.
Co-curators on Struggle and Solidarity: A Democratic History of Champaign-Urbana
Anna Trammell is a student in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. She works as a graduate assistant in the University of Illinois’ Student Life and Culture Archives and the Rare Book and Manuscript Library where she is currently processing the papers of poet Gwendolyn Brooks.
Cristina Díaz is an undergraduate student at the Department of Anthropology and Latina/Latino Studies. She is currently a co-chair of M.E.Ch.A. de UIUC (Movimiento Estudiantil Chican@ de Aztlán). She is also the outreach intern for La Casa Cultura Latina and the Anthropology Department. Her academic research interests include the immigration industrial complex, social movements, and Latinidad.
John McKinn (Maricopa) is an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Community and serves as the Associate Director of American Indian Studies at UIUC.
Noah Lenstra is a Ph.D. candidate in Community Informatics at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. Lenstra has worked closely with Urbana-Champaign’s African-American community to collect and digitize local history through a project that placed 60,000 documents, 30,000 photos, and 7,000 hours of video online. He was also instrumental in the efforts to preserve the Katherine Dunham Archives located in East St. Louis, Illinois. He was the recipient of the GSLIS Social Justice Award in 2009 and the Campus Award for Excellence in Public Engagement in 2015.
Anna Trammell is a student in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. She works as a graduate assistant in the University of Illinois’ Student Life and Culture Archives and the Rare Book and Manuscript Library where she is currently processing the papers of poet Gwendolyn Brooks.
Cristina Díaz is an undergraduate student at the Department of Anthropology and Latina/Latino Studies. She is currently a co-chair of M.E.Ch.A. de UIUC (Movimiento Estudiantil Chican@ de Aztlán). She is also the outreach intern for La Casa Cultura Latina and the Anthropology Department. Her academic research interests include the immigration industrial complex, social movements, and Latinidad.
John McKinn (Maricopa) is an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Community and serves as the Associate Director of American Indian Studies at UIUC.
Noah Lenstra is a Ph.D. candidate in Community Informatics at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. Lenstra has worked closely with Urbana-Champaign’s African-American community to collect and digitize local history through a project that placed 60,000 documents, 30,000 photos, and 7,000 hours of video online. He was also instrumental in the efforts to preserve the Katherine Dunham Archives located in East St. Louis, Illinois. He was the recipient of the GSLIS Social Justice Award in 2009 and the Campus Award for Excellence in Public Engagement in 2015.
Advisory Faculty
Antoinette Burton, Professor of History, Gender & Women's Studies, Interim Head of Sociology, Bastian Professor of Global and Transnational Studies.
Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi, Associate Professor of Sociology, History, and LAS Global Studies.
Jodi Byrd, Associate Professor of American Indian Studies, English, and Gender & Women's Studies.
Jessica Greenberg, Assistant Professor of Anthropology.
Markus Schulz, Assistant Professor of Sociology.
Antoinette Burton, Professor of History, Gender & Women's Studies, Interim Head of Sociology, Bastian Professor of Global and Transnational Studies.
Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi, Associate Professor of Sociology, History, and LAS Global Studies.
Jodi Byrd, Associate Professor of American Indian Studies, English, and Gender & Women's Studies.
Jessica Greenberg, Assistant Professor of Anthropology.
Markus Schulz, Assistant Professor of Sociology.
Note of Thanks
We would like to thank all the people who spoke at our events and helped us organize them. We would like to specially thank Siobhan Somerville for her encouragement of this project in its infancy. It was a pleasure collaborating with Austin McCann at the Art Theater Co-op (Champaign) and Sophia Lewis and Dean Carr at the Independent Media Center (Urbana). Caitlin Stamm, Nicholas Hopkins and Ellen Swain at the Student Life and Culture Archives were exceptionally helpful.
Zachary Riebeling, Mark Sanchez, Rajashekar Iyer went out of their way to help with our final exhibition. We would also like to thank David Aristizabal and Ozan Kahraman for their help with different events.
Our greatest debt is to Thomas Bedwell and Tricia Warfield for everything that they have done for this project.
We would like to thank all the people who spoke at our events and helped us organize them. We would like to specially thank Siobhan Somerville for her encouragement of this project in its infancy. It was a pleasure collaborating with Austin McCann at the Art Theater Co-op (Champaign) and Sophia Lewis and Dean Carr at the Independent Media Center (Urbana). Caitlin Stamm, Nicholas Hopkins and Ellen Swain at the Student Life and Culture Archives were exceptionally helpful.
Zachary Riebeling, Mark Sanchez, Rajashekar Iyer went out of their way to help with our final exhibition. We would also like to thank David Aristizabal and Ozan Kahraman for their help with different events.
Our greatest debt is to Thomas Bedwell and Tricia Warfield for everything that they have done for this project.
For more information e-mail us at [email protected]