🌟 Presented by African American African Studies

The first Brown Bag Speaker Series event will feature Marisa Raya. Join us for a great presentation, conversation, and food! 

This presentation explores how California’s public equity and reparations initiatives translate into land access and governance policies. Drawing from testimonies in the state’s Reparations Task Force, Truth and Healing Council, and Agricultural Land Equity Task Force, it highlights how Black Geographies and Black Ecology reveal histories of erasure, harm, and resilience. These narratives guide policymakers toward equitable rural development and land restoration for descendants of enslaved African Americans within a multiracial context.

Marisa is a Geography PhD candidate at UC Davis and advisor to California’s Agricultural Land Equity Task Force. With 15 years in economic equity strategy and a background in spatial planning from KTH, she links reparative and equity goals to land use, infrastructure, and conservation policies. She has also taught and revised planning courses at Stanford for a decade. For more information, visit this page.