Working Groups

We are a team of scholars from various disciplines working on the common problem of how to make a more truly democratic society in which power is more equitably distributed by and for all. Our initiative brings together an intergenerational community of undergraduate and graduate students, artists, community-based organizations, activists, and faculty members.

Our approach is rooted in collaboration. Each of our working groups is led by community fellows who guide and support the research.

Undoing Imperialism: Activism and Scholarship from the Inside Out

  • Militarism is Anti-Democratic

    This project examines the U.S.-backed militarism of the 21st century including U.S. support of local police and militia with arms sales and training in the hemisphere. Media includes infographics, actions, podcasts, and short videos.

  • JOHonduras

    This project focuses first on the current trial of former president Juan Orlando Hernández (JOH), who was the US backed president of Honduras now being tried for drug trafficking. We will produce a dossier based on analysis of this case including preceding trials, and any funding from U.S. to operatives of the JOH regime.

Rethinking Democracy: Participatory Assemblies, Regional Power, and the Buen Vivir

  • The Tribunal Project

    This project is research preparation for an Indigenous feminist-led Peoples Tribunal of collective memory and human/land rights in California. The group will also be focusing on the history of farmworker rights in the North Bay Area and investigating the human rights atrocities against indigenous people due to mining across the hemisphere. 

  • Pedagogies of El Buen Vivir

    Participants will engage in curriculum design to support indigenous language and cultural rights in part to begin constructing an alternative set of principles for political formation that align with future generations of Mayan peoples in the Bay Area and region wide. Media produced includes a short film, posters and Zine. 

  • Dialogos of Knowledge

    Los Diálogos of Knowledge (Dofk) is a methodological approach to fostering democratic engagement and decision-making processes within communities, rooted in Mayan oral traditions and storytelling. This project seeks to provide an alternative methodology to ensure that those most affected by inequities are actively engaged in shaping policies and solutions