Olivia Ortiz (they/them) is a 3rd year doctoral student. They are firm in their belief of police and prison abolition, and their work both in and outside of academia centers on the liberation of all colonized, occupied, and multiply-marginalized people of color.
Born and raised in Los Angeles County, Olivia has been a long-time participant in community-based and -led learning spaces. Building from their experiences, they've grown into a community educator working alongside youth and adult learners alike across the Bay Area and New York City. They strive to co-create and facilitate curriculum alongside learners, and appreciate the ways their educator practices continue to shift and expand.
Ortiz's work attends to (1) the entanglements of community-based education, colonial/carceral logics, and learning; and (2) how community educators build relationships with one another and young people in efforts toward liberation. To carry forth these interests, Olivia builds with interdisciplinary work, engages activist methodologies, and welcomes the innumerable contradictions that qualitative research may bring.
Olivia received their B.A. in English Literature and Social Welfare from the University of California, Berkeley, and their M.A. in Sociology of Education from New York University. Through their days, they enjoy mixing music, browsing staff recommendations at bookstores, and going on long walks with loved ones.