Team

 Sneha Sumanth

Sneha Sumanth is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. She is an interdisciplinary researcher at the intersection of geography and architecture. After completing her bachelor and masters degrees in architecture in 2017, she had the opportunity to work on housing projects and policy research in Toronto including homeless shelters, social housing, and community health centers. This work, which often entailed understanding the lived experiences of housing and health insecure communities, exposed her to broader social, political and economic questions on why housing crises continue to deepen in Canadian and US cities. She was particularly invested in understanding why housing insecurity disproportionately impacts Indigenous people, Black people, and women and gender diverse people. This initiated questions on the structural inequalities already embedded in Canadian and US housing and property systems, and expanded her work beyond architecture into urban geography.

Sneha continues to work and teach between the fields of geography and architecture. She is part of public-facing research projects on housing and health, shelter and housing construction projects, community land trust initiatives, and advocacy research.

 Edith Ritt-Coulter

Edith Ritt-Coulter is a Ph.D. Candidate in the History Department at the University of North Texas and an assistant professor in the History and Political Science department at Southern Nazarene University. She received her bachelor's degrees in history and museum studies from the University of Central Oklahoma in 2016. Her work in the museum field focused on education and exhibit design. She developed a traveling exhibit entitled "Black Masculinity and the Lynching Tree" that received an award for exhibition under 5,000 dollars from the Oklahoma Museum Association in 2017. She used this exhibit to explore how in the museum field, we can use environmental factors such as music, lighting, colors, and choice of language to create public spaces that allow for the discussion of complex historical topics. She received her master's degree in history with a focus on African Diaspora and Gender studies in 2018 from the University of Central Oklahoma. Her thesis, "Gendering the Black Body," explored issues of body, gender, and identity during the First World War era. During her time at the University of Central Oklahoma, she worked with Dr. Lindsey Churchill and her cohort to establish the Women's Research and BGLTQ+ Center.

In 2018, Ritt-Coulter began her doctoral studies and specialized in the concepts of body, place, and identity in the African Diaspora, focusing on the African American experience during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Her dissertation explores the development of ethnic urban enclaves in territorial Oklahoma from 1889 to 1960. Her research explores the intersections of race and place within Black community building.

Ritt-Coulter has published articles and edited chapters on African American identity, foodways, and racialized violence in the United States. Her most recent publication in, Persving During the Pandemic: Stories of Resilience, Creativity, and Connection, examined how performative food practices acted as comfort mechanisms during the COVID-19 Pandemic.