Uploaded January 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Meet Shakti Castro, a PhD Candidate in the Department of History at Columbia University and Dissertation Fellow for 2024-2025 of Rooted + Relational!
With a B.A. from Hunter College and an M.A. from UMass Amherst, Shakti’s research explores the intersection of public health, harm reduction, and Puerto Rican activism. Her dissertation, "Agenda of Survival: Puerto Ricans, Public Health, and the Politics of Harm Reduction, 1965-2000," explores the history of needle exchange programs and AIDS activism in both New York and Puerto Rico.
Shakti’s work has been supported by prestigious fellowships, including the Smithsonian’s Latino Museum Studies program, and her writing has appeared in NACLA Report and Public History News. She's also an active member of the National Council on Public History and the Urban History Association.
Meet Shakti Castro, a PhD Candidate in the Department of History at Columbia University and Dissertation Fellow for 2024-2025 of Rooted + Relational!
With a B.A. from Hunter College and an M.A. from UMass Amherst, Shakti’s research explores the intersection of public health, harm reduction, and Puerto Rican activism. Her dissertation, "Agenda of Survival: Puerto Ricans, Public Health, and the Politics of Harm Reduction, 1965-2000," explores the history of needle exchange programs and AIDS activism in both New York and Puerto Rico.
Shakti’s work has been supported by prestigious fellowships, including the Smithsonian’s Latino Museum Studies program, and her writing has appeared in NACLA Report and Public History News. She's also an active member of the National Council on Public History and the Urban History Association.
