Congratulations to our REPAIR Project Post-Doctoral scholar reelaviolette botts-ward on receiving the FOUNDATIONS FOR CHANGE: Thomas I. Yamashita Prize! This Prize is awarded annually to an outstanding emerging social change activist in California. The award honors a person whose work transforms the existing social landscape - often in subtle and previously unappreciated ways - and serves as a bridge between the academy and the community. An awardee helps to build the capacity of community-based organizations and social movements to confront pressing issues by applying their academic expertise. Simultaneously, the awardee enriches academic scholarship by sharing the insights and knowledge produced from community engagement with the broader academic community.
Reelaviolette researches Black women's healing spaces in Oakland as radical sites of health care and spiritual well-being. As founder of blackwomxnhealing, ree curates healing circles, exhibitions, courses, and research for and by Black womxn. She remains invested in making her academic work accessible to community audiences, using art, poetry, and the digital humanities as tools of translation.
For more information on this prize: Please visit the UC Berkeley Institute for the Study of Societal Issues at https://issi.berkeley.edu/research-programs/issi-prizes/yamashita-prize/honorees For more information on the UCSF REPAIR Project: Please visit the website https://repair.ucsf.edu/home
