Seneca (she/her) is an aspiring abolitionist educator dedicated to emancipatory embodied equity and creative collective liberation. Seneca’s blood ancestors are from the lands geo-politically known as England, Germany, and Scotland and she was socialized as a middle-class, suburban, White girl in what is colonially called Arizona, in a small town near the Gila, Salt, and Verde Rivers. Among other things, Seneca identifies as queer artist-activist committed to co-creating a world in which all bodies and their cultures are respected, protected, and celebrated. Her research explores the intersections of embodiment, emancipatory pedagogy, abolition feminism, and early childhood education. She is honored to have worked as a Research Assistant with Growing Mathletes since 2022 and now serving as the Site Coordinator for the senior cohort of the Early Childhood Education Program.
Seneca has over two decades experience working in both in- and out-of-school educational spaces. Her passions and pedagogy are especially shaped by her time working with incarcerated adults in Arizona’s Maricopa County Jail, middle schoolers in San Francisco, 4th and 5th graders at The Mosaic Project, the Fierce Allies’ community of practice, the actors and abolitionists involved with End of Isolation, and the preschoolers at Carquinez Garden School, to name a few. Seneca finds joy being in the kitchen, hanging with her two rescue pups, learning from others (especially young children!), dancing, and making playlists.
Seneca holds a B.F.A in Photography and minor in Sociology from Arizona State University, an M.A. in Education from San Francisco State University, and is a now 3rd year doctoral student pursuing a major in Early Childhood Education: Family & Community Studies and a minor in Children's and Young Adult Literature in a Diverse World. Her full bio is available at bejustbodies.com.
