Prior to studying at Cal, Megan graduated from Boston University, receiving their Bachelor’s in Mass Communications with a Public Relations emphasis along with minors in African American Studies, Medical Anthropology, and Music. While working for a small public relations firm, they joined
Before entering the folklore program, Sophia Okada Callahan received her BBA from Parsons the New School for Design in Strategic Design and Management. After graduating, she worked in consumer insights and trend forecasting for various global brands and organizations. While working, she...Read more about Sophia Okada Callahan
Ciarán was born and raised in Ireland, moving to the Bay Area with his family 25 years ago. After a career spent in the tech industry, he changed direction to pursue his academic ambitions in anthropology and folklore, receiving his BA in anthropology from Cal in 2024. Through the masters...Read more about Ciarán Doyle
Meikko has spent nearly a decade as an educator and lifelong learner, specializing in Afrofuturist media and its capacity to capture the hopes and histories of Black Americans. She holds a B.A. in English from UC Santa Barbara, and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Mills College....Read more about Meikko Lee
Marilyn Petersen joined the Peace Corps in 1996 and served in Uzbekistan for three and a half years. Her main project was teaching English at the University of Bukhara. As her Secondary Project, she chose to collect the national folklore and write a book as an education tool for the schools in...Read more about Marilyn Petersen
Lola holds a BA in Anthropology from Wesleyan University, where she wrote an urban anthropology thesis examining Angelenos' relationships with their cars and the freeway infrastructure of Los Angeles. After working in cultural analysis for a market research company, Lola moved to Galicia...Read more about Lola Sounigo
Micah's research practice explores how communities, states, and artists craft and deploy Jewish folklore across the diaspora. Drawing on oral history, decolonial psychoanalysis, and the Black radical tradition, they explore how archival absences produce spaces for both reactionary...Read more about Micah Wilson
Daisy is a PhD candidate in Italian Studies with a Designated Emphasis in Folklore. Her dissertation examines ruins, ruination, and archaeology in Rome during Italian Unification (1870–71), a moment when the emerging field of anthropology (demoetnografia...Read more about Daisy Ament
Lauren Bartone is a PhD student in Italian Studies with a designated emphasis in folklore.
Her background as a visual artist strongly informs her approach to studying Italian culture. Before joining the Department of Italian Studies...Read more about Lauren Bartone
Environmental Science, Policy, and Management (ESPM)
Mairi is a doctoral student in UC Berkeley's Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management's Division of Society and Environment, with a designated emphasis from the Folklore Graduate Group. She is a data driven storyteller, seedkeeper, writer, and researcher...Read more about Mairi Creedon
Michele Segretario is a Ph.D. Candidate in Italian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.
His dissertation, Diasporic Soundscapes of Fascism: Radio, Music, and Religious Festivals in Italian America, is an investigation of Italian diasporic...Read more about Michele Segretario
Hanqing Zhao is a doctoral student in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning and is pursuing a designated emphasis in Folklore.
Hanqing cares about the vast availability of meanings that rest in the indeterminacy of the human visual field, which encompasses ordinary, everyday...Read more about Hanqing Zhao
