Samantha Almeida

Samantha Almeida is a Ph.D. student in the Interdisciplinary Humanities program at UC Merced, where she specializes in African American culture and documentary photography. She works under the advisement of Professor Kevin Dawson. She earned her B.A. in American History from the University of La Verne, where she wrote a cultural history for her thesis on the American dream during the twentieth century. She then earned her M.A in American History at the California State University, Fullerton, where she conducted research on lynching and 1930’s photography during the Scottsboro Case. She is now conducting research on twentieth century photography as it relates to the criminal justice system in connection to African Americans. Her other research interest includes the carceral system throughout Merced and the greater Central Valley through the lens of photography focusing on Brown and Black Americans and undocumented immigrants. She hopes with her combination of research interest she can build a visual project based on the carceral system in the Central Valley as a dissertation. She resides in Merced with her wife Nicole Almeida and their dog, Pancho.