Paula is a part of a genealogy of thinkers & healers.

Paula grew up in Bucharest, Romania to a family of political dissidents who resisted an authoritarian regime and censorship structures. Due to increased scrutiny and harassment, Paula’s family eventually obtained political refugee status in the United States. She arrived to Portland, Oregon as a teen who did not speak English but who loved to learn about others. Motivated by an intuitive curiosity about oppression and justice, Paula embarked on a long quest to understand the causes of social inequalities in the U.S.

Paula studied Philosophy and Sociology as an undergraduate at Swarthmore College and continued her studies with Drs. Angela Y. Davis, Neferti Tadiar, George Lipsitz, and Tricia Rose in the History of Consciousness program at University of California, Santa Cruz.

After graduating with a concentration in American Studies, she relocated to the east coast to teach comparative race and ethnicity studies in Ithaca (Upstate), New York.

In 2015, she published her first book, The Emotional Politics of Racism: How Feelings Trump Facts in an Era of Colorblindness (Stanford University Press). The book examines the role of socially shared emotions in contemporary instances of racial violence and discrimination. It argues that people’s emotional perceptions about crime, terrorism, immigration, and welfare programs often trump what empirical facts say about these issues. Thus, in understanding and challenging systemic oppression, it is critical to take the unique logics of racialized emotions seriously. In 2019, she co-edited an anthology titled Antiracism Inc.: Why the Way We Talk about Racial Justice Matters (Punctum Books) about new ways of struggling toward racial justice in a world that constantly steals and misuses antiracist ideas and practices.

As committed as Paula is to teaching students inside the classroom, she has always had equal footing in community teaching, training, and organizing. Critical of the pervasive ills of mass incarceration, she led two grassroots campaigns against jail expansion in upstate New York. In partnership with the Ultimate Reentry Opportunity (URO) initiative, she helps undergraduate students conduct research on systemic barriers to successful reentry for formerly incarcerated people and is working with employers to adopt fair and inclusive practices for prospective applicants with criminal records.

As a white woman, Paula plays a mindful role in racial and gender justice education and equity building. Since people of color have always pioneered the most astute ideas and activist models against racial and gender oppression, Paula fundamentally believes that equity building must necessarily involve cross-racial and cross-gender collaboration. Because LGBTQ and gender non-conforming women of color often face interlocking forms of discrimination, she looks especially to their leadership, knowledge, and testimonies for guidance. Indeed, being mentored by extraordinary Black women like Angela Y. Davis and Ruth Wilson Gilmore irrevocably shifted Paula’s understanding of the world and solidified her commitment to racial and gender justice. Paula believes she has a unique responsibility to teach others about systemic oppression. As someone who benefits from various unearned advantages and privileges, Paula is committed to leveraging her resources and gifts toward a more equitable and thrivable world.


 
 

RECENT WORKSHOPS & TRAININGS

 

  • SC Johnson College of Business, Cornell University

  • Baker’s Real Estate Program, Cornell University

  • Diversity Consortium of Tompkins County

  • Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) of Tompkins County

  • Department of Human Resources, City of Ithaca

  • Tompkins County Public Library

  • Human Services Coalition, Tompkins County

  • Human Services Coalition, Cayuga County

  • Southern Tier AIDS Program (STAP)

  • Ithaca College, Office of Residential Life

  • Greenstar Cooperative Market