The Institute for the Study of Societal Issues is proud to announce Clara Pérez Medina (they/them) as the recipient of the 2024 FOUNDATIONS FOR CHANGE: Thomas I. Yamashita Prize. Awarded annually, this prestigious honor recognizes an emerging leader in California whose work for social change bridges the worlds of academia and community, transforming the social landscape in profound and often unrecognized ways.
Clara Pérez Medina is a PhD candidate in the Department of Geography and a gifted photographer and filmmaker whose artistic and scholarly practices illuminate the power of community, care, and resistance. As a child of Venezuelan immigrants who experienced significant geographic displacement—moving four times before finishing high school—Clara developed a deep-rooted commitment to place, memory, and the role of visual storytelling in preserving and envisioning liberatory futures.
In their dissertation work, Clara creates community-based research films that explore memory, aesthetics, place, and belonging in Oakland and Berkeley. Their projects, shaped by archival research, oral history, and collaborative visual production, engage with organizations such as the La Peña Cultural Center and the Archive of Urban Futures—a Black Oakland history collective led by their mentor, Dr. Brandi Summers.
Clara’s films serve as living archives and acts of reciprocity: they preserve place-based memory, elevate the voices of emerging artists and organizers, and provide critical visual resources for community advocacy and funding. Their work functions not only as an academic contribution but also as a public pedagogical tool—spotlighting the visionary strategies of Black and Latinx movement organizations in the Bay Area and celebrating their beauty, rigor, and resilience.
Please join us in congratulating Clara Pérez Medina on this well-deserved recognition of their visionary, justice-oriented work.