Join the GSC grad peer mentor program for a workshop and discussion on identity, belonging, and community. All grads welcome!

From left to right – Lorato Anderson, Marilia Kaisar, Radhika Prasad

Lorato Anderson is the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Graduate Studies at UC Santa Cruz. Her role centers on advancing initiatives for minoritized graduate student support across multiple campus-wide projects, as well as providing direct support to students, staff, faculty, and programs. Lorato graduated with a B.A. in Literature/Writing from UC San Diego and received her M.S. in Higher Education Administration and Policy from Northwestern University, where she researched and developed assessment models for English Language Learners and created multiple DEI programs that are still active today. She has extensive experience in grant writing, teaching, advising, assessment, and creating long-lasting research-backed programs to promote minoritized undergraduate and graduate student success. Lorato has worked on campus for six years and received the 2020 Outstanding Staff Achievement Award in Social Sciences; her previous roles include Graduate Program Advisor and Coordinator for Latin American and Latino Studies (LALS) and Politics, as well as Undergraduate Advisor for Psychology. She takes pride in incorporating social justice, as well as empathetic advising strategies and teaching pedagogies, in her work in advising, administration, and grant and program development.

Marilia Kaisar (Lead Mentor – Arts) is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Film and Digital Media at UC Santa Cruz. She holds an MA in Media Studies from Pratt Institute and a Diploma in Architecture Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Her experimental practice uses affect theory and a feminist perspective to explore intersections of media, technology, and desire, using the body as the nexus point. Currently working on her dissertation titled “F*cking with the Virtual”.

Radhika Prasad (Lead Mentor – Humanities) “I’m a sixth year PhD candidate in the Literature department with a Designated Emphasis in Feminist Studies. My academic interests include South Asian literature and history, translation studies, language politics, and feminisms in the Global South. As a sixth year international student and a woman of color, I have found the university to be a space of immense possibility, but also great inequity. Peer mentorship programs are an important step towards bridging the knowledge gap, and making universities, classrooms, graduate programs, and research into more equitable spaces, and I am excited to contribute to this one.”

This workshop is presented by the Graduate Student Commons (GSC) and co-sponsored by The Humanities Institute as part of our 2022-2023 PhD+ series. The Graduate Student Commons workshops are for current UC Santa Cruz graduate students and postdoctoral scholars and require an active UC Santa Cruz email address.

This event will be held in Graduate Student Commons Room 204 and on Zoom.

About the PhD+ Workshop Series

Join us for the seventh year of PhD+ Workshops, hosted by The Humanities Institute. We meet monthly to discuss possible career paths for PhDs, internship possibilities, grant/fellowships, work/life balance, elements of style, online identity issues, and much, much more.