People / Graduate Students

Graduate Students

Pilar Jefferson

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Bio & Research Interests

Pilar Jefferson is a PhD student in the department of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Pilar graduated from Vassar College in 2015 with a BA in Art History and Native American Studies focused on 20th century Native American art and cultural resilience. She is an experienced museum educator and has worked as a program coordinator and teaching artist at institutions including the Museum of the City of New York and the Studio Museum in Harlem. Pilar’s pursuit of a PhD comes out of a desire to understand and support better representation of Indigenous people in museums. Her research interests include contemporary Indigenous art, representations of race in institutional spaces, theorizing museum education as a tool for decolonization, and histories of Black and Indigenous cultural resistance and resilience in the Northeastern US.