Jersey Cosantino

Doctoral candidate and Mad trans oral historian cultivating oral history methodologies rooted in Mad Studies, Trans Studies, disability justice, healing justice, peer support, and anti-oppressive, intergroup dialogue-based pedagogies, frameworks, and praxis.
Syracuse University
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jersey-cosantino/
Jersey Cosantino (they/them), a former K-12 educator, is a doctoral candidate in Cultural Foundations of Education at Syracuse University, holding certificates of advanced study in womens and gender studies and disability studies. Jersey's scholarship resides at the intersections of Mad studies and trans studies and, utilizing disability and transformative justice frameworks, their research centers the experiences and subjectivities of Mad, neurodivergent, Autistic, trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming individuals. Through oral history and autoethnography, Jersey seeks to construct Mad trans archives that create pathways and portals to Mad trans futures, imaginaries, and elsewheres. Using Mad trans methodologies that challenge sanism, ableism, and transmisia, Jersey's research confronts medical model discourses and the pathologizing gaze of the psychiatric industrial complex. Jersey identifies as Mad, neurodivergent, Autistic, queer, trans, and non-binary and is white with education and citizenship privilege. They are a co-facilitator for SUs Intergroup Dialogue Programs course Dialogue on Racism and Anti-Racism, a co-editor of the International Mad Studies Journal, and a consulting editor for the Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education. Jersey holds a masters degree in high school English education ('14) and a graduate certificate in mindfulness studies ('19) from Lesley University, and a bachelors degree in English and studio art from Wellesley College ('09). Additionally, for the past four years, Jersey has engaged in peer support work via an abolitionist framework as a volunteer call operator with the Trans Lifeline. You can access Jersey's most recent publications by following them on Google Scholar.

Experience

I am a doctoral candidate with master's in education and over 15 years of teaching and curriculum development experience. I have been an active oral historian and scholar since 2019. My dissertation will be completed and defended by summer of 2025 and will become a book that speaks to my oral history methodology and Mad trans archival work.

Services

Trainings and workshops; qualitative research and analysis; transcription; creating more accessible oral history practices; peer support and harm reduction trainings at the intersection of oral history work; introductions to intergroup dialogue pedagogy and practice, including trainings on facilitating dialogues, as applicable to focus groups or small group oral history practices; trainings specific to working with trans and queer populations, disabled populations, neurodivergent populations, Mad and psychiatric survivor populations (including folks currently institutionalized), and Autistic populations, particularly at multiply-marginalized identity intersections; conducting oral histories online; crafting interview questions with the needs of these populations in mind; trainings on conducting oral histories in ways that are sensitive to intersecting disability access needs; trainings and mentorship on navigating being a disabled oral historian, a trans oral historian, etc.; teaching courses in the academy and in the community and to an array of age groups and learners, including curriculum development; collaborations including oral history projects, grants, publications, research, etc.; oral history jobs - full time and consulting; archival justice, including via a Mad trans lens; copy editing; writing and publication; conference organizing and presenting; creative writing and Mad trans poetic transcription.

Languages

Regions Available for Work

Other Regions: U.S. Northeast and Eastern Canada are the closest geographical locations to me but I am available to travel as needed and I can also work remotely.

Purpose of Contact

  • I am available to answer questions, or provide mentorship to other oral historians
  • I am available for hire - as an oral historian, consultant, presenter, educator, or related services
  • I am available to collaborate - on research, community projects, artistic endeavors, or other joint undertakings with peers
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