Dr. Adonia E. Lugo
I started in this work as a co-creator of bicycling promotion projects, and over time my focus shifted to agenda-setting within bicycle advocacy itself. As much as I love getting around without a car, I know that walking, biking, and using public transit can be shameful because they make you look poor, or fearful because they expose you to unwanted attention. Street and mobility change efforts should be shaped by these realities. In an era when walkability and bike infrastructure are used as selling points in gentrifying neighborhoods, design alone cannot eliminate the vulnerability caused by racism, sexism, poverty, and other human-made problems. That’s why since 2008 I’ve undertaken activist and research projects that reveal what bicycling is like for environmental justice communities. From my interventions I’ve concluded that “human infrastructure” plays a major role in how we value transportation, so I work to cultivate culturally and racially diverse networks around low-resource travel. Bicicultures uses the concept of human infrastructure to ground future mobility visions in how people use streets today.
I am a sustainability educator in Southern California and received my Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California, Irvine in 2013. You can learn more about my work on my site, Urban Adonia.
Dr. Sarah Rebolloso McCullough
I care about meaningful and respectful knowledge exchange across boundaries that typically divide—between universities and communities, activists and researchers, scientists and humanists, workers and policymakers. The challenges we face moving forward require fostering a spirit of generosity, openness, and playfulness in our work. Everyday practices and cultural expertise can be extremely valuable tools for doing this work and enacting change; they can challenge and stretch our typical ways of moving about the world. This philosophy influences my work running the cross-disciplinary research projects in the University of California system.
I received my Ph.D. in Cultural Studies from the University of California Davis researching the origins and growth of mountain biking. As part of this project, I am curator of the Mountain Biking History & Culture Archive. I am is also involved in a study of the role of emotions on bicycling attitudes and practices. I also work as the Associate Director at the Feminist Research Institute at UC Davis, and previously worked at the Center for the Humanities at UC San Diego. Learn more about my work at my website or by signing up for my e-newsletter.
Bicicultures 