Bio
Graciela Blandon is a Senior at NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Studies designing a concentration entitled “Class Struggle and Cultural Development.” She is interested in culture as an intervening force in class dynamics, especially along international borders and within diaspora communities. Previously, Graciela has organized with environmental and electoral community groups in her hometown of El Paso, TX, and has extended her work overseas with the Andalusian Association for Human Rights as a 2021 Gallatin Global Fellow in Human Rights. As a Gallatin Global fellow in Urban Practice, she is excited to expand on her previous experiences as an intern with Servicio Domestico Activo (SEDOAC). SEDOAC is a Madrid-based collective of migrant domestic workers organizing along the tenets of empowerment, political education, political activism, and network building. She is extremely grateful for the opportunity to further globalize her studies.
The Gallatin Global Fellowship in Urban Practice provides funding of up to $5,000 and support for 6-10 advanced BA and MA students to pursue extended, community-engaged, practice-based research projects in partnership with urban social justice organizations.
Mission Statement
This summer, I will be supporting the efforts of domestic workers in Madrid via an organization named Servicio Domestico Activo (SEDOAC). I first became interested in studying the informal care sector due to its prevalence along the US-Mexico border, where I’m from. I am extending my studies to Spain to explore the globalization of what I have seen in my hometown. I hope to learn more about national variations of international struggles and local interprative frames of global agendas. I also intend to draw the contours of the issue area’s field in Madrid through ethnographic immersion.
Professionally, this opportunity will allow me to develop my service leadership skills in a foreign context. As a student interested in transnational cooperation, interning at SEDOAC will be an invaluable demonstration of my commitment to the field, globally. I am also excited to hone my language skills, network with professionals, and convene with other researchers in preparation for postgraduate study.
