Fast Fashion

Melba I. Amador Medina is an Assistant Teaching Professor of Spanish at Penn State New Kensington, where she teaches the beginning and intermediate courses of Spanish, along with the Ibero-American Civilization class. She studied at the University of New Mexico and her doctoral research examines gender, race, and identity in the work of three Caribbean women writers writing in English from the United States. Her current interests include the interactions between Latinx and Chicanx writers and their counterparts in the fine arts, in particular contemporary printmakers and performance artists. A little-known fact is that in her twenties, Melba worked as a fashion designer before deciding to continue her studies in art and literature.

Gillian Russell is an undergraduate student and Paterno Fellow at Penn State University who is double majoring in Anthropological Sciences and Global and International Studies. Her interests are very broad, but they center on topics such as history, culture, conservation, environmental advocacy, and public outreach. She is currently working on her honors thesis which will be about human-environmental interactions in National Parks around the world, with a focus on indigenous land rights. In Gillian’s free time, she enjoys running, knitting, kayaking, reading, hiking, and listening to music.