Meet Our Editorial Board
Maija Brown
Maija Brown, Ph.D. is the Associate Director of Transition and Retention in the Graduate School Diversity Office (GSDO). In that capacity, she has the privilege of leading the Community of Scholars Program (COSP) and the First Year Institute, both signature programs of the GSDO. She is proud to work alongside the SPARK Editorial Board, SPARK contributors, and Graduate School staff who are committed to bringing to life the mission of SPARK by amplifying the research, experiences, and voices of COSP scholars.
John Dieck
John Dieck (he/him) is a Ph.D. candidate in History at the University of Minnesota. His research examines the onset, experience, and legacies of European colonialism in the modern Maghrib. John’s dissertation project centers Moroccan tobacco and cannabis–two economically, socially, and politically important commodities–within the history of the country’s colonization by France and Spain in the 20th century. He draws from a source base spanning the Arabic, English, French, and Spanish languages collected in Morocco, France, Spain, and the United States. Financial and logistical support come from various organizations, including the Fulbright-Hays Program, the American Institute for Maghrib Studies, and the Centre Jacques Berque in Morocco. John has taught history courses covering the Middle East, North Africa, and the Mediterranean. He actively encourages his students, particularly those that identify as BIPOC, to study, research, and participate in language immersion abroad. He is originally from Miami, Florida and is of Colombian descent.
Isabella Irtifa
Isabella Irtifa (she/her) is a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at the University of Minnesota, where her research focuses on the intersections of abolition and critical race theory. She holds a master’s degree from the Institute for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University and a bachelor’s in sociology and ethnic studies. As a bi-racial, second-generation Pakistani immigrant, Isabella’s lived experiences shape her scholarship and commitment to building communities of care through organizing against settler colonialism and state violence. She is passionate about advocating for a world without borders and carceral systems. She has co-run free legal clinics for people seeking asylum, organized mutual aid initiatives, and worked on campaigns to end prison slavery. Her writing can be found in Routed Magazine, Unwinnable Magazine and The Sociological Review, among others.
Hannah Jo King
Hannah Jo King (they/she) is Ph.D. scholar in the Natural Resources Science and Management program at the University of Minnesota. They are committed to Black and BIPOC liberation and believe that healing our relations to both human and non-human relatives is essential to that liberation. Hannah Jo conducts social science research with Kawe Gidaa-naanaagadawendaamin Manoomin, a tribal-university collaborative to protect Manoomin/Psiŋ (Wild Rice) in the Great Lakes. They also practice and theorize in the space of Black-Native land solidarities with dissertation research on the history of all-Black townships in Oklahoma as formed through the interweavings of enslavement, Native allotments, and Black homesteading. Hannah Jo is a plant medicine nerd and farmer in training. She is a recipient of the UMN Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship (2024-2025) and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (2021-2024).
Risa Lama-Luther
Risa L. Lama-Luther (she/her) is a Ph.D. candidate in the Biological Anthropology program at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, specializing in the dietary ecology of both living and fossil non-human primates. Her research examines how dietary behaviors are reflected in tooth shape, with a particular focus on how tooth wear patterns and their implications for understanding climatic and evolutionary adaptations of apes. Risa’s passion for fieldwork often leads her to rainforests, excavation sites, and museums, where she thrives in the hands-on aspects of her research. She is a strong advocate for inclusive science communication, striving to make anthropological and scientific knowledge more accessible to diverse communities. Risa has been honored with several awards, including the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship, the Leakey Foundation Research Grant, the NSF Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant, and, most recently, a Graduate Research Fellowship with the Bell Museum of Natural History. When not conducting research or teaching, Risa is usually playing with her baby, throwing sticks for her dog, or attempting to find time to read a good sci-fi or fantasy novel.
Lindsey Willow Smith
Lindsey Willow Smith (she/her) is a Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians citizen, muhkwa odoodem, born and raised in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. She earned her undergraduate degree in history at the University of Michigan and then worked at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian before beginning her Ph.D. in history at the University of Minnesota. Her research is rooted in concepts of relationality stemming from her experiences learning Ojibwemowin and is deeply grounded in Indigenous feminisms, Indigenous oral histories, and critical Indigenous studies.
