About
My name is Cesar Estien and I'm currently a graduate student at UC Berkeley where I research how sociological factors interact with stressors in urban environments to influence urban mesocarnivores (specifically canids). I'm interested in various sub-disciplines within ecology and if you're interested in hearing about that (or my research) check out my main site here.
I've named this blog "Concrete Canid" for several reasons but mostly because I study urban canids and I think there's something about urban wildlife, especially canids, that is special. These are animals that persist in spaces they aren't wanted in. Ones that are often demonized even though they are beautiful and meek. Despite all of that, they take up space, persevere, and continually surprise us with what they are capable of.
As for me, I grew up in Tampa, FL with a family who immigrated from St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. I can attribute much of who I am to my mother and aunts who raised me and heavily influenced all aspects of my childhood. Being the first-generation on the mainland and having family members invest in me their hopes of going to college caused me to grow up in predominately white-spaces. I went to an essentially all-white elementary, middle, and high school. This led me to be involved in lots of predominately white organizations which further cemented this idea of being as tangental to whiteness as I could. I was more often than not the "only" in a room across organizations and classrooms, even in undergrad. The past four years has been me slowly unlearning what these things have done to my perception of the world, my own communities, etc. along with learning things like what decolonization looks like and how to work towards liberation for all oppressed folks within the US and abroad (and of course science-related things).
And that's what this space is. Somewhere I can empty my scattered thoughts on what I'm learning, unlearning, and exploring. Whether in science or not.
Thanks for hopping on this journey with me.
Godspeed,
C
I've named this blog "Concrete Canid" for several reasons but mostly because I study urban canids and I think there's something about urban wildlife, especially canids, that is special. These are animals that persist in spaces they aren't wanted in. Ones that are often demonized even though they are beautiful and meek. Despite all of that, they take up space, persevere, and continually surprise us with what they are capable of.
As for me, I grew up in Tampa, FL with a family who immigrated from St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. I can attribute much of who I am to my mother and aunts who raised me and heavily influenced all aspects of my childhood. Being the first-generation on the mainland and having family members invest in me their hopes of going to college caused me to grow up in predominately white-spaces. I went to an essentially all-white elementary, middle, and high school. This led me to be involved in lots of predominately white organizations which further cemented this idea of being as tangental to whiteness as I could. I was more often than not the "only" in a room across organizations and classrooms, even in undergrad. The past four years has been me slowly unlearning what these things have done to my perception of the world, my own communities, etc. along with learning things like what decolonization looks like and how to work towards liberation for all oppressed folks within the US and abroad (and of course science-related things).
And that's what this space is. Somewhere I can empty my scattered thoughts on what I'm learning, unlearning, and exploring. Whether in science or not.
Thanks for hopping on this journey with me.
Godspeed,
C