Gabrielle Santas

Gabby Santas is a graduate of Brown University, where she concentrated in socio-cultural anthropology. Her senior capstone project, exploring contemporary efforts to “decolonize” museums, won the Watson Smith prize for best departmental paper, and is published in the Theory and Practice journal for emerging museum professionals. Since graduating, Gabby has worked as a field organizer, a middle school teacher, and an intern with the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Restorative History. In her current role as a research assistant with the California Migration Museum, she works to bring together stories not only of arrival and welcome but also exclusion, displacement, and resistance, exploring how California was—and continues to be—profoundly shaped by migration. She is passionate about public history and hopes to continue learning how cultural institutions can leverage community-based knowledge and innovative storytelling to support ongoing movements for justice.