Rebekah Simcha Otto

Rebekah Otto was born and raised in Alaska. She graduated with a Bachelors in English from North Central University (2018), her MA in Critical Ethnic Studies (2022) and received a Graduate Certificate in Women and Gender Studies from DePaul University (2022).  Her research focuses on Black bodily being in northern rural spaces, interrogating how understandings of not only bodies, but the landscapes people come from impacts their ability to survive and/or escape reproductions of violence unique to rural communities.  She enjoys creatively theorizing about "healing," methods of being beyond (and after) violence, and the ways Black survivorhoods engage with cooking, nature, oral storytelling, and communal artistic activities.