Magdalena Koháková Haakenstad, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at IREACH. Dr. Haakenstad is a cultural anthropologist with over 10 years of experience conducting qualitative and mixed method research in historically underserved communities in Mexico, the US, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. As a part of her research, she had an opportunity to work with underrepresented communities on public art projects, storytelling, photo essays, and filmmaking to help amplify their voices. Dr. Haakenstad’s main research interests are collective identity, means and strategies of political negotiation, visual communication in public space, structural inequalities, and decolonization. In her free time, she enjoys doing yoga, hiking with her family, and dancing with friends.