clara pérez medina | bio
Clara is a queer/nonbinary Venezuelan documentary photographer and filmmaker based in Oakland, California who shines a loving light on transformative community work in the world. They blend their academic training in oral history and political economy with their cinematographic eye for the relationalities of care that make and unmake systems of domination. They are working towards their PhD in Geography at the University of California, Berkeley and have showcased their photographic and film work in community screenings and festivals around the Bay Area.
Currently they are working on a collaborative film project with Moms4Housing about the intergenerational lines of care that they have sustained in Oakland, before and after their famous 2019 occupation of a developer-owned house where they asserted that Housing is a Human Right!
Education
2017
Emory University, BA - Major: Sociology, Minor: Sustainability
2023
University of California, Berkeley - Masters in Sociology
In Process
University of California, Berkeley - PhD in Geography
Awards & Recognition
2024
University of California Humanities Research Institute -Multicampus Faculty Working Group, with Brandi Summers & juleon robinson
2023
Institute for the Study of Societal Issues, Graduate Research Fellow
2019-
2024
National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship
Teaching and Mentorship
2020
Reader & Guest Lecturer, "Political and Economic Development in the Third World," African American Studies, with Dr. Tianna Paschel
2021
Graduate Student Instructor, "Sociology 101," Sociology, with Dr. Tianna Paschel
2022
Graduate Student Instructor, "Latinx Sociology," Sociology, with Dr. Cristina Mora
2022, 2024
Graduate Student Mentor, Berkeley Bridge Connect
2019-
2024
Mellon Mays Graduate Mentor, four undergraduate theses, Sociology, Geography, Political Science, Ethnic Studies
2022-
2023
Geography Undergraduate Mentoring Program Mentor, one undergraduate thesis, Geography