Melissa Cheyenne Stevens

Cheyenne received her B.A. in Ethnic Studies from UC San Diego in 2010, with a minor in gender studies. Her senior research honors project explored issues of food justice in poor communities of color, looking at issues of access to healthy food, and at the experiences of those who have adopted veganism for reasons of health and as a statement about political resistance and the rights of the vulnerable, both people and animals. Her focus here will be on queer of color feminist theory. She will continue to explore the complex relationships between the environment, social justice for humans, and animal rights, questioning traditional ideas of humanism that have constructed problematic race and gender narratives, underwritten colonial subjugations, and placed white male humans at the apex of models of value. The first person in her family to attend university, Stevens was an activist throughout her undergraduate career, co-founding Student Promoted Access Center for Education and Service, a student-run recruitment and retention center, and working with Queer People of Color to recruit and retain underrepresented high school and UCSD students.