On Living Life and Dissertating

Veronica B. Salcedo (she/siya) is a 5th year PhD candidate in Sociology at Georgia State University and researches racialized, gendered, and classed experiences of cisgender Pinays, or cis women of partial or full Filipino descent, who are romantically attracted to other women.  She utilizes critical race feminism and Peminism/Pinayism to recognize sexually nonconforming (SNC) Pinay cultural contributions as rich sources of knowledge. In her dissertation, Veronica incorporates this knowledge with semi-structured interview data to better understand how SNC Pinays come to recognize their authentic selves and navigate systems of power impacting their families of origin and choice. She hopes to build on this study through community based research with SNC Pinays in the Philippines. Veronica earned her master's in Sociology at GSU, where she was recognized as an outstanding graduate student instructor. You can find her at local dessert spots, especially if ube is somewhere on the menu.

Jackie Colting-Stol (she/her) a 4th year PhD Candidate in the School of Social Work at McGill University in Tiohtià:ke or Montreal, Quebec. Her dissertation uses Photovoice and Kuwentuhan participatory methods to explore the community-building, advocacy and solidarities of LGBTQ+ Filipino/a/x of the diaspora, especially the relationships between gender identity, sexuality and diasporic experiences. She has worked in a wide range of community and social service roles in immigration, community health and youth sectors, and has been involved in Filipino/a/x youth and migrant justice organizing in the past several years. She is also interested in funding and governance structures of non-profits and grassroots organizations in the area of more sustainable, transformative and decolonial approaches that tie to broader movement-building. In the past few years, she has been engaged with arts and cultural approaches to gathering, re-sharing and archiving stories of community, queerness and migration, alongside her community fam, kapwa and kin. Personally, she's a chosen fam Tita, a newbie kickboxer, and a cycling fan.

Katherine Nasol is a earned her doctorate degree at UC Davis in Cultural Studies, finishing up her dissertation in Spring of 2023. Her research focuses on theorizing care and care work as it relates to racial capitalism and critical immigration studies, especially through the lives of immigrant women and women of color who perform paid and unpaid care labor. Beyond her scholarly work, she is a community organizer and educator at heart, organizing around immigrant and housing justice for the past decade. She was the former Director of Policy and Community Engagement at the Bulosan Center for Filipinx Studies and currently, she is a Senior Research Coordinator at AAPI Women Lead where she leads national community-led research programs around how Asian and Pacific Islander communities experience & heal from racial and gender based violence. She is also an auntie to two babies, a partner, & an avid lover of all things boba and the outdoors.