We are delighted to welcome our new graduate students to the Center’s MA program: Terri L. Bailey, Priya Gurjar, Bailey Haas, Maria Saldana, Jessica “Jess” Trochez, and Lucy Xie. These students bring a range of rich experiences and interests to the Center:
Terri L. Bailey graduated from Bethune Cookman University in 2009 with a BS in Elementary Education (Magna Cum Laude, ESOL Certification) and from Southern New Hampshire University in 2016 with an MA in English and Creative Writing (with the distinction of Outstanding Graduate Student). She is a Community Educator/ Advocate and the founder of the nonprofit organization, the Bailey Learning and Arts Collective, Inc (BLAAC2basics). BLAAC’s first official program is the Queens Room Women’s Empowerment Group that focuses on women’s self-care and emotional wellbeing. Her area of interest is the reemergence of women in leadership in African Traditional Religions. She is a poet, spoken word artist, and Afrofuturistic/ Black Horror writer and a firm believer that all social justice movements must include some form of artistic expression.
Priya Gurjar graduated from the University of Florida in 2019 with a BA in Women’s Studies and a BS in Psychology. Her research interests include genderbased violence, healing narratives, and women’s health.
Bailey Haas graduated from Macalester College in 2019 with a BA in Psychology and Sociology. Her research interests include identity as an individual experience and social positionality, meritocratic beliefs and systems, and social movements and collective action.
Maria Saldana graduated from the University of Florida in 2020 with a BA in Women’s Studies and a BS in psychology. She is part of the WELLS Healing and Research Collective, which focuses on promoting the wellness and liberation of marginalized communities. Her research aims to explore how Queer and Transgender People of Color and Indigenous People move towards healing and activism, particularly through testimonios and storytelling. Her heart continues to be in Iquitos, Peru where her family resides.
Jessica “Jess” Trochez graduated from the University of Florida with a BA in both Psychology and Women’s Studies. Her pronouns are she/her/ they/them. They are a pansexual, first-generation college student and first-generation Honduran -American with invisible disabilities and a proud member of the WELLS Healing and Research Collective at UF. She envisions herself as a counseling psychologist with an emphasis on social justice and Black and feminist of color frameworks to advocate for Black, Indigenous, and queer and transgender people of color. They are also hopeful and motivated to bridge more Central American representation in Psychology and Women’s Studies scholarship by amplifying grassroots organizations that are dedicated to critical consciousness and dismantling antiBlackness in Central American communities. Her research interests also include decriminalization of sex work, accessible trauma interventions that are healing centered, dismantling violence against women and gender nonconforming people, and abolishing white supremacy.
Lucy Xie graduated from York University in Toronto in 2019 with a BA in Psychology. Her research interests primarily involve sociocultural and environmental determinants of mental health. She hopes to pursue feminist counseling psychology.
Graduate Student Update
News from Current MA Candidates
Our new students join our current MA candidates who have been hard at work on their exciting and diverse research projects, and have news and updates to share:
Sunshine Adam is currently starting their second year in the Women Studies MA program. Their research explores the collective healing of Black and Afro-diasporic communities and interventions that facilitate Black liberation. As a member of the WELLS Healing and Research Collective, they are also engaged in research in the field of Psychology. Ultimately, they aim to work full-time in providing accessible and free wellness and healing practices for Black and/or queer communities.
Chelsea Gifford is a second year MA student working on her non-thesis research project under the supervision of Dr. Trysh Travis as chair. Her research is centered on the impulses and motives behind sexual storytelling and queer print culture. She will spend her remaining semesters curating these topics as undergraduate and graduate course syllabi. They will explore the definitions and purpose of these subjects, how they take form in historical and contemporary practices, and the ways in which commodity culture has impacted these modes of queer identity. In addition, Chelsea is an instructor for “What is the Good Life” here at UF.
Sky Martin is a second year MA student currently working on her thesis project with Dr. Alyssa Zucker. Her thesis focuses on Black women’s experiences of embodiment and how these experiences are affected by Black racial identity development and womanist identity development. Sky will continue her research and will be applying to counseling psychology PhD programs this year.
Justine Veras is a second year MA student currently working on her thesis project on Afro-spirituality and brujeria in popular culture under the supervision of committee chair Dr. Jillian Hernandez and committee member Dr. Tanya Saunders. She will continue her research and graduate assistantship work this semester.