Elena Gambino is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University. She works at the intersections of feminist, queer, and critical race theories, focusing in particular on how everyday political actors have developed and deployed these traditions to build coalitions, how they seek to contest and repair the inequalities that underpin modern political communities, and how they imagine radical futures premised on racial and sexual accountability.

At Rutgers, Elena teaches courses in the Women and Politics subfield, where she brings together ideas at the intersection of political theory, feminist theory, and histories of sexuality. She offers a range of courses, including The Nature of Politics, Gender and Political Theory, Contemporary Feminist Theory, and Queer Power and Politics. At the graduate level, she teaches courses in feminist political theory and feminist methods.

Elena’s work has been published in Political Theory, Contemporary Political Theory, and Signs, and she is the recipient of the 2020 Leo Strauss award, presented by the American Political Science Association for the Best Dissertation in Political Philosophy. Her paper “Politics as Sinister Wisdom: Reparation and Responsibility in Lesbian Feminism” was also selected for the Best Paper award by APSA’s Women, Gender, and Politics section in 2020.

Aania Arslan is a Junior at Rutgers University pursuing a double major in Political Science and Economics. She is particularly passionate about comparative literature, postcolonialism, feminist, queer and critical race theories, and political theories located in South Asia and the MENA region.

At Rutgers, Aania has been part of the Aresty Research Undergraduate Center as a Research Assistant. She has also previously worked in VPVA (Violence Prevention and Victim Assistance), RUPA (Rutgers University Programming Association), and RWJMS as a Women’s Health Intern.

Outside of Rutgers, Aania has worked in advocacy and research roles in non-profits such as the Legal Aid Society Karachi. She has also previously worked in administrative internship roles at the Union County Prosecutor’s Office and as a Campaign Intern for LD-11.

Charu Jain is a Sophomore at Rutgers University majoring in Public Health with a minor in Women’s and Gender Studies. Her interests lie in health disparities, maternal and child healthcare, public health management, and postcolonialism, among others.

Charu has been involved in the Project SUPER Research Program, where she was a research intern working in public outreach regarding maternal health legislation and how Covid-19 affected maternal healthcare. She is also involved in the Douglass Residential College (DRC) and the Bioethics Society.