Dissertation Scholars

Geremy Lowe is a PhD Candidate in the History of Health Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, whose academic path began as a transfer student, earning an AA in Journalism from Laney College and a BA in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. He also holds an MPH in Population and Health Sciences from the University of Michigan and a Master of Studies in Law from the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco. His research examines the emergence of violence epidemiology as a scientific field, focusing on the Atlanta Missing and Murdered Children cases (1979–1981) as a pivotal moment in applying epidemiological methods to violence and shaping public health approaches to youth violence in urban Black communities. Drawing on archival research and oral histories, his work traces how institutions, data, and lived experiences came together to construct new forms of public health knowledge and intervention. His teaching centers on helping students analyze how medical and public health knowledge is produced, contested, and institutionalized, with courses that emphasize active learning, archival inquiry, and connections between historical case studies and present-day inequities. Born and raised on the South Side of Chicago and a Bay Area resident for over 15 years, he is also a licensed cosmetologist who enjoys spending time with his puppies (Chico and Sergio) and his husband (Anthony), unwinding with a good HBO Max binge, and never misses a chance to attend a Beyoncé concert.

www.kaaronicaevans.com

kaaronica@ucsb.edu

Kaaronica Tæfé Evans is a Doctoral candidate in the Department of English at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she focuses on 19th- and 21st-century African American literature and literature of the African diaspora, and is an author. Kaaronica’s dissertation is titled "Mystical Islam and the Black Speculative Imagination," which attends to under-examined Islamic influences shaping representations of mystical phenomena in African American and Caribbean speculative neo-slave narratives written by Black women. Kaaronica holds a Bachelor of Communication degree from Northwestern University. While completing her undergraduate degree, Kaaronica wrote and published her first book, a humorous non-fiction handbook titled The Art of Bitchcraft: The Only Guidebook to the Magic of Getting What You Want (2007). Kaaronica is also the author of Fire & Clay (2013), a speculative fiction novel set in an Islamic and Africana fantasy world, infused with real historical events and settings. Born and raised in the Midwest, Kaaronica considers herself a citizen of the world, having lived in many countries. She spends her free time in quiet reflection or in some form of physical activity, typically pilates, dance, or hardcore weight training.