Personal
I was born and raised in the borderland city of El Paso, Texas. Growing up, I spent much of my time in a swimming pool — so much so that I decided to swim in college. I went to Henderson State University on a swimming scholarship and after a couple years, trasferred back home, where I received my BA and MA in philosophy from UTEP. Amy Reed-Sandoval supervised my M.A. thesis "On Racial Barriers" and trained me in Philosophy for Children (P4C) as director of the Philosophy for Children in the Borderlands program in El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.
After graduating from UTEP, I moved to Seattle to pursue my PhD at UW. While there, my research interests in justice and oppression shifted to the context of fatness/"obesity." This was in part because I was exposed to a department with strengths in philosophy of science and bioethics but also because of my experiences in recovery from an eating disorder. To recover, I have had to defend my right to eat whatever and however much my body wanted (which was a lot after years of deprivation) and not exercise unless I genuinely wanted to. I have also had to defend my right to take up as much space as I needed in order to recover. Even in recovery from an eating disorder, loved ones and my doctor at the time expressed concerns about me gaining too much weight. I learned to recognize the underlying biases and assumptions people were making about my health and had the fortitude to continue my recovery thanks to the books and Instagram accounts produced by fat activists and health at every size (HAES) and anti-diet dieticians/therapists. My education at UW also assisted in my recovery by giving me the tools to make sense of and analyze my experiences in the context of fat oppression and healthism.
Despite being a proud El Pasoan, I have greatly enjoyed living in the cooler climate of both the Pacific Northwest and the Northeast. I now live in Wilmington, DE, with my husband, Greg, and our cat, Ozzy. In my free time I enjoy hiking, cooking, watching various TV shows, and I still enjoy the occassional swim.
Here are just a few examples of the Instagram accounts that helped me in my recovery and that
I think everyone could learn from.