Samuel Puliafico (MA 2017) is a Southern California native who earned his undergraduate degree from UC Irvine in 2014. While at UC Irvine his research focused on spectacle and performance in American state fairs, festivals, and carnival. After earning his degree in Cultural Anthropology,...Read more about Samuel Puliafico
Molly (MA 2021) joined the Folklore Program to explore the material and cultural histories of the so-called American South. She examines how these histories are brought to life in Gullah figurative painting and other art forms created in the part of the southeastern United States...Read more about Molly Robinson
Leah (MA 2021) arrived from New York City after finishing her undergraduate work at the NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study. A current member of the Folklore program at U.C. Berkeley, she is motivated to research how nationalism and visual media inform sexual subjectivities. In her...Read more about Leah Simon
Nalin (MA 2022) received her BA from Chulalongkorn University in Thai language and literature with a focus on folklore. After graduating, she began researching the two decades that have ensued since the violence of the Khmer Rouge government in neighboring Cambodia. For her MA Thesis, she...Read more about Nalin Sindhurprama
Tok Thompson was born and raised in rural Alaska. At the age of 17, he began attending Harvard College, where he received his bachelor’s degree in Anthropology. In 1999 he received a Master’s degree in Folklore from the University of California, Berkeley, and three years later received a...Read more about Tok Thompson
Joining the folklore program after receiving her BA in art with a minor in folklore and popular culture at USC, Nicole finds her academic interests lie in the study of the Afro-Cuban religion Santería (also referred to as Lucumí). Having first been introduced to the religion through an...Read more about Nicole Tubman
Brenda Umutoniwase (MA 2023) joined the Folklore Program at UC Berkeley after finishing her undergraduate degree from Cornell University in International agriculture and rural development and Africana Studies. A member of Sistah Circle Collective, a radical black feminist Collective based...Read more about Brenda Umutoniwase
Elaine Y. Yau is Associate Curator of the Eli Leon Living Trust Collection of African American Quilts at the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA); where she is curating an exhibition from Leon’s historic bequest of approximately 3,000 quilts. She...Read more about Elaine Yau
