2024-2025 Executive Board Members
President — Tayla Straub
Vice President — Hannah Karim
Secretary — Grace Wright
Treasurer — Kazuma Morita
Conference Coordinator — Kristen McCallum
Vice President — Hannah Karim
Secretary — Grace Wright
Treasurer — Kazuma Morita
Conference Coordinator — Kristen McCallum
Meet the Board!
Tayla received her M.A. in English Literature at Stony Brook University in 2021. She is currently a third-year PhD student in the English department at University at Albany, where she studies ecocritical and ecofeminist critiques of the Anthropocene in contemporary American and Asian literature. She is serving as the president of the English Graduate Student Organization at UAlbany, and is a prose reader for Barzakh literary Magazine. When she is not hitting the books, she enjoys spending time with her two cats, Waffles and Maple, and diamond-art painting.
Hannah is a current English Master’s Student whose research often investigates gender and sexuality, medical humanities, and postcolonialism. Adopted from China at the age of one, Hannah is especially interested in writing that explores cultural identity formation, female commodification, and the impacts of assimilation. Her in-progress Master's Thesis investigates questions of postcolonial subjectivity, agency, and consent within the context of Jane Eyre's Bertha Mason. She is a current Writing Center Tutor, Research/Program Assistant for the Center of Advanced Studies, and Community Assistant for the World of Writing Living Learning Community. Her prose poetry is published in Arch Literary Magazine and some of her favorite writers are Alejandro Zambra, Mary Gaitskill, and Weike Wang. Aside from reading and writing, she enjoys going on runs and skiing.
Grace is an MA student in Liberal Studies at UAlbany, with a specialization in Medieval and Renaissance Studies. Their research is on identity formation in the Early Modern Period, with a focus on gender and sexuality. They have a love for creative writing and are especially interested in writing surrealist horror. They are serving as Art Editor for Barzakh Literary Magazine and also work at the NYS Library in Manuscripts and Special Collections. When they aren't doing work or school, you'll find them playing Animal Crossing or spending time with their dog, Sully. Their favorite activity is visiting museums and discovering new art with their friends.
Kazuma Morita is an MA student in English at SUNY Albany. His research interest includes American modernist and contemporary poetry, trauma studies, health humanities, and the U.S.-East Asia relations. His Master’s thesis focuses on how postwar poets bridge the gap between the public and the private by means of the image of everyday life.
Kristen is currently a second-year MA student in English at the University of Albany with a special interest in creative writing. As a storyteller, Kristen's work prioritizes creating space and opportunities to share and explore dynamic narratives of historically marginalized lives and relationships. She credits growing up with the adventures of her Jamaican family as the beginning of her fascination with stories, and the ways they could be shared. Kristen's debut fiction novel, FREE GIRLS, will be published by Flatiron Books in 2026. When she isn't racing to a deadline, she's usually watching foreign thrillers or trying to make a dent in her TBR stack.
