Joseph is a 3rd year Ph.D. student in Cultural Anthropology at the CUNY Graduate Center. His research interests are located in the intersections of History and Anthropology, Political Economy, Economic Anthropology, and consumption. His current research project is based in Puerto Rico, studying coffee consumption, coffee shops, baristas, and barista training schools on the island.

Joseph wears many hats at CUNY: he works as a research assistant at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy in the project “Social Networks, Acculturation, and Food Behaviors and Values among Mexican-American Families” (PI, Dr. Karen Florez), where he is collaborating in the qualitative analysis of the study. Simultaneously, he is a MAGNET Fellow with the Office of Educational Opportunity and Diversity Programs at the CUNY Graduate Center, where he mentors undergraduate students who are part of the CUNY Pipeline Program. He is also an Adjunct Lecturer at the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at Brooklyn College, where he teaches courses in Anthropology, with a particular geographic focus on Latin America and the Caribbean.

Joseph is interested in Teaching and Pedagogy, particularly in Open Educational Resources (OER), Public Scholarship, and integrating technology in the current and future courses that he teaches. Joseph also integrates technology into his research, by documenting social media traffic (Instagram posts and Facebook posts) related to coffee, coffee shops, baristas, and latte-art published by users that are part of the coffee culture in Puerto Rico. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences from the University of Puerto Rico, a Graduate Certificate in Latin American, Caribbean & US Latino Studies and a Master of Arts in Anthropology, both from the University at Albany, State University of New York. He has been a Graduate Fellow at the Health Equity Alliance of Tallahassee – Ethnographic Fieldschool (2016, NSF – University of Florida), a Survey Assistant at the Center for Landscape Conservation (2015, San Juan, PR) and a Research Assistant at the Cuban Research Institute (2013, Florida International University).

Braelyn is a 2^nd year Ph.D. student in the Sociology Department at the Graduate Center. Her research interests are in science and technology, as well as inequalities, race, gender, sexualities, social change, and much more.

Braelyn works as a research assistant at the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, investigating the political ideologies of the richest people in the technology industry. Simultaneously, she teaches at The City College of the City University of New York as a Graduate Teaching Fellow. Here, she developed two courses that had not previously been offered at this department: Science, Technology, and Identity, as well as Digital Sociology.

Braelyn has a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry with a Biology emphasis from the University at Albany, State University of New York. She has experience working in libraries at SUNY Albany as well as work at the Westchester County Laboratories and Research Environmental Lab. When she finds time, she indulges in too many hobbies including (but certainly not limited to) PC building, 3D modeling, sculpting, and epoxy resin craft. She has recently spent time building an ecommerce store and learning related skills such as search engine optimization (SEO) with a business partner.

Ryan McKinney is a theatre artist, educator and emerging scholar working in theatre arts and performance. As an actor, director & theatre manager, he has worked at Manhattan Theatre Club, The Garden Theatre, Harbor Lights Theatre Company, The Contemporary American Theatre Festival and the touring productions of I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change and Forbidden Broadway.

Having taught at several colleges and universities, Ryan currently serves as a Professor of Theatre Arts at Kingsborough Community College where he is also the Director of the Theatre Arts program. He is the recipient of the Kennedy Center Gold Medallion for service to theatre education and the co-recipient of the ATHE/KCACTF Region 1 Prize for Innovative Teaching.  

As an emerging scholar, Ryan’s work explores musical theatre and politics, global theories of actor training, and gay & lesbian representation on stage. A community college educator of twelve years, Ryan is also interested in theatre as social practice and civic engagement. He holds an MFA in Musical Theatre from San Diego State University, an MA in Theatre Studies from Hunter College and is a second-year, Level II student in the PhD Program in Theatre & Performance at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Sandy is the digital communications assistant at PEN America, where she oversees and creates digital/web content across PEN.org.

Sandy’s background is in journalism, having covered a mix of topics in hard news, features, entertainment, opinion, and sports. Her interest in digital media expanded as she branched out in her writing and worked on social media, digital campaigns, websites, layout, podcasting, and e-newsletters. Before joining PEN America, Sandy was the communications associate at WITNESS and digital intern at Everytown for Gun Safety. Her current interests lie in supporting human rights and a free press.

Sandy has a B.S. in journalism and media studies from the Macaulay Honors College at Brooklyn College. In June 2019, Sandy received the Vanguard Prize in Journalism — a prestigious award given to a Brooklyn College journalism student for their commitment to protecting and advancing First Amendment rights. She is currently pursuing her M.A. in liberal studies — with a track in digital humanities — at the CUNY Graduate Center.