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Mary B. Bialas Prize Winners

About Rachael Wachera Wanjagua (2023) Heading link

Building Towards Feminist Futures tote bag. Image created by GWS alum Monica Trinidad. Screenprinting completed by Hoofprint Workshop.

Rachael Wachera Wanjagua is a PhD candidate in Disability Studies who was trained as a physiotherapist in Kenya and South Africa. Since 2006, Rachael has worked in rural communities of Kenya, providing the only available and much needed physiotherapy services to children, conducting trainings for mothers to understand disability, and developing holistic community care networks to support families of children with disabilities. This award will support Rachael’s ongoing transformative work, specifically research in Kenya, where Rachael is “training two people with intellectual disabilities to conduct research on their support needs and those of their caregivers.”

About Lynn Darwich (2022) Heading link

A person with glasses, brown hair, and blue scarf is in front of a window.

Lynn is a cultural anthropologist in the making whose research and activism are grounded in queer grassroots organizing and feminist cross-movement building. She dedicated the past decade to realizations of social, economic, racial, ecological, and gender justice. Her research interests are in exploring non-oppressive forms of solidarity and coalition building within and across social movements for justice.

About Jayre Vazquez (2022) Heading link

A cartoon drawing of a person with long ombre purple and black hair and glasses, reaching up toward a heart. A map and blue water is behind them.

For me, this achievement is a way to support my abolitionist activism. And a reminder that we continue to dismantle oppressive structures by creating community and supporting one another. Thank you.

About Nirupama Jayaraman (2021) Heading link

A person with brown skin and long brown hair is centered in this selfie, with a museum in the background.

Nirupama is a socio-cultural anthropologist whose research interests span the interdisciplinary fields of sociocultural anthropology, cultural geography, science and technology studies, gender studies and urban studies. She studies urban transportation networks in South Asia, centering narratives of feminist/queer/trans knowledge production that usually exist in the liminal spaces of South Asian scholarship, especially in infrastructure studies.

About Priscila Pereira (2021) Heading link

A person with glasses and black hair is centered in this selfie, with a brick wall in the background.

I am honored to be a recipient of the 2021 Mary B. Bialas Award. Working to improve the lives of Black girls and women is already a life rewarding endeavor, but being recognized for that work makes it even more especial. Thank you to the Bialas Family and the GWS community!

Earlier Awardees Heading link

2020 Nirali Shah, Lakshita Malik, Ranae Mijares Encinas
2019 Sangeetha Ravichandran, Dyese Moody, Stella Udoetuk
2018 Franziska Andonopoulos
2017 Lulu Martinez, Sara Rezvi
2015 Sandra Galicia
2013 Fransely Robles
2012 Sarah Davis
2011 Kathryn Lerman
2010 Elsascha Madison
2008 Tara Theobald
2007 Ausra Buzenas
2006 Elisa Green
2005 Alaine Kalder
2004 Jemimah Noonoo
2003 Ariella Rotramel
2001 Alaine Kalder