Javiera Benavente is an artist, cultural organizer, facilitator, and educator dedicated to creating and practicing collective freedom and new futures of care. Born in Santiago, Chile (Wallmapu) just months before the Unidad Popular government of Salvador Allende was overthrown by a military coup, she has been deeply engaged with the legacy and failure of this utopian political project and its aftermaths throughout her life. 

Javiera’s current work explores collective grief, loss, and memory; cultivating right and reciprocal relations with land and more than human relatives; and communal, embodied practices of surrender and belonging.  She is the co-curator of Chile Nunca Más: making memory, making future, an exhibit and memory making project that marks 50 years since el golpe (the military coup) in Chile and the subsequent 17 years long dictatorship.

She serves as the Assistant Dean of Collaborative and Community Engaged Learning at Hampshire College where she is the co-chair of the Decolonization & Reciprocity Working Group. Javiera lives on the ancestral homelands of the Pocomtuc, Nonotuck, and Nipmuc Peoples with her partner, young child, and dog.

jbDO@hampshire.edu

Noah Romero (Filipinx – Ilocano/Visaya) is an Assistant Professor of Native American and Indigenous Studies at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA. He holds a Ph. D. from the University of Auckland in the fields of Critical Studies in Education and Māori and Indigenous Education. 

Bridging Critical Indigenous Studies and Education, Romero’s research examines how dispossessed and deterritorialized people redefine learning and identity in subcultural contexts, with a focus on Indigenous and immigrant communities in the U.S., Aotearoa (New Zealand), the Philippines, and the Philippine diaspora. His first book, Decolonial Underground Pedagogy: Subcultural Learning for Peace and Human Rights (Bloomsbury) will be released in September 2024.

Romero has won awards from UNESCO and the National Endowment for the Arts for projects that examine the anti-colonial pedagogies found in minority-led punk, skateboarding, and unschooling subcultures. His work deepens our collective understanding of liberatory learning and appears in publications like the Oxford University Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Education, Educational Philosophy and Theory, and the Bloomsbury Handbook of Indigenous Education.

nerCSI@hampshire.edu

Gaurav Jashnani is a scholar, educator, and organizer working at the nexus of psychology, Black studies, and critical university studies. They hold a master's in counseling from Columbia University and a doctorate in psychology from the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center with certificates in Africana studies and American studies. Prior to Hampshire, they were a postdoctoral fellow at CUNY's Institute for Research on the African Diaspora in the Americas and the Caribbean. Their work on institutionalized racism, social change, and embodied experiences of harm and healing has been published in psychology, criminology, and education journals as well as popular venues. 

Gaurav has been fortunate to work or partner in the past with Critical Resistance, Creative Interventions, generation FIVE, Generative Somatics, Global Action Project, and Communities United for Police Reform. They are also a licensed psychotherapist and co-founder of the Challenging Male Supremacy Project, a ground-breaking organization that collaborated with primarily BIPOC and LGBTQ+ feminists to bring abolition, transformative justice, and somatic healing and leadership to NYC activists and organizers from 2008–2015. 

You can learn more about their research here.

gjFC@hampshire.edu

Mia is a Division II student at Hampshire College, studying critical media and intersectional activism. She is a student coordinator for the In/Justice Learning Collaborative, which brings students, staff, and faculty together to explore issues related to social justice. Mia is dedicated to finding and implementing ways to strengthen bonds within and across different communities to bolster our fight for mutual liberation.

miss22@hampshire.edu

Malena is a student, an artist, and an outdoor enthusiast, currently studying at Hampshire College. She is a sophomore, majoring in American Studies with a focus on Indigenous Law.

She joined the Decolonization and Reciprocity working group at the start of F24, and since then, she has put together “An Activists Guide to Federal Indian Law,” a beginners' guide to the basics of Federal Indian Law and the ways it has and can be changed. 

Since she arrived at Hampshire she has spent time identifying the effects of settlement around the Hampshire woods and the neighboring Mt. Norwottuck, which is suffering an ecological recession; through her art, writing, and films (Private Ownership of Mt. Norwottuck, Skating on the Grand Old Ditch, Rematriation, Dream 5, What do I say?...) she processes the changes happening around and inside her, questions her assumptions of truth and hopes to create connection “Being a part of the D&R working group has given me the space to do these things, it has become a haven” 

mbp23@hampshire.edu 

Lucero is a proud Paraguayan, organizer, and learner at Hampshire College. Currently, she is in her last year studying Education and Cultural Studies and is a Five College Native American and Indigenous Studies Program Candidate. 

In her research, she explore ways to uplift indigenous voices, perspectives and ways of being overlooked in Paraguayan academic settings. She joined the Decolonization & Reciprocity Working group during the Fall 2023 to create spaces where indigenous students can find community and thrive. Since then, she worked in different things including hosting student-led community engagement events and updating this Google Site.

Outside Hampshire, Lucero enjoys hiking, cooking, crocheting, learning languages, and backpacking around the Global South. 

mld21@hampshire.edu

Emily Landeck grew up in Santa Cruz, California and after receiving degrees in biology and environmental studies in Washington, made her way out east through various farm jobs—both education and production-based. 

She has most recently been the owner-operator of her own 40-acre wholesale vegetable farm here in the Connecticut River Valley, but has experience with smaller scale vegetable and livestock farms as well, including a draft-horse-powered vegetable and livestock operation. 

She is passionate about the multitude of discussions and inherent forever learning that farming promotes. She lives in Greenfield with her family and has a young kiddo who may be seen running around the farm in addition to her very enthusiastic border collie, Caol Ila. 

When not farming Emily loves to bike, hike, camp and generally spend time outdoors with family and friends, and particularly loves time near the ocean. She also loves cooking and baking and will happily chat recipes anytime!

erlFC@hampshire.edu

Tammy is a queer, earth loving, rabble-rousing, justice oriented resident of western Massachusetts. Tammy's life is deeply intertwined with the elements and the natural world. Over the course of decades, she traveled across North America immersing herself in natural medicine and sustainable farming practices. This journey provided the privilege of living and working alongside Indigenous communities across the United States and Canada, allowing her to learn directly from their wisdom and traditions.

Through her work in growing food and medicine, Tammy has become actively engaged in her local community. She is passionately involved in the ongoing effort to rematriate the Lampson Brook Farm to the Hassanamisco Nipmuc Band. Tammy continues to honor the land, deepen her connections with the community, and support Indigenous sovereignty through her work and advocacy. Decolonization and Reciprocity is the work of a lifetime and Tammy is honored to be involved with this group of dedicated and passionate humans looking to make Hampshire College a more equitable and loving home.