Julie Santella

Originally from South Dakota, Julie Santella earned her B.A. in political science and Spanish from Northwestern University. Research assistance on a project exploring religion and politics in African democracies kept Julie tied into Northwestern's Department of Political Science beyond graduation and extended her research interests from Latin America to Africa through fieldwork in Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. This experience fed into a 2014-15 Fulbright Student grant, in which Julie explored the work of the Interfaith Standing Committee on Economic Justice and the Integrity of Creation, an inter-religious coalition engaged in social and economic justice advocacy around Tanzania's dynamic extractive sector. Julie continues to pursue her interests in identity and the politics of resource contestation in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly Tanzania, through her Ph.D. studies in Minnesota's Department of Geography, Environment and Society.