Silia Dimasi (2026)

Silia Dimasi (she/her) is a religious listener of The Moth, a lover of long walks, and an avid people watcher. Born in Genova, Italy, she moved to the U.S. with her family as a little girl and has since called the New Jersey suburbs her home. In May 2026, Silia completed her bachelor's degree at American University as part of a three-year program in international studies. During her undergrad, Silia published her first piece of research entitled, ‘In Drag, I Am A Healer; ’Post-colonial Evolutions in Queer Acceptance and the Emergence of an ‘un-African’ Identity.” A pivotal first step into narrative work, this project enabled Silia to further explore queerorganizing and storytelling through study abroad in Nairobi, Kenya.

The practice of translating and recounting the human experience has been an art Silia has studied her entire life. For as long as she can remember, Silia has been dancing. She thanks her training in modern dance for teaching her strength and Flamenco for teaching her listening. In tandem with dance, Silia has explored the intersections of storytelling and global politics through poetry. Her pieces “Rotting Oranges,” “The Sunbird Sits Amongst the Violets,” and “Where Worth Lies (Wild Things)” can be found in various D.C.-based publications.

Silia joins the OHMA program eager to learn from current practitioners of oral history. She cannot wait to see what stories this program takes her to!

KK Ottesen (2026)

KK Ottesen is an award-winning storyteller whose powerful, humanizing narratives seek to break down barriers and stereotypes and allow for the discovery and celebration of common good. Ottesen has shared the stories of individual lives from all walks of life, through first-person narratives and photographic portraits, as a regular contributor to The Washington Post Magazine and at other publications, and through her books, Activist: Portraits of Courage; Great Americans: Famous Names, Real People; and the shared book project, When You Hear Me, You Hear Us: Voices on Youth Incarceration, undertaken with the nonprofit Free Minds. Ottesen is currently at work on Whose Streets? Our Streets: January 6, The Local Story, an oral history project funded by the DC Oral History Collaborative.

Aminah Gassama (2026)

Aminah is endlessly curious about the stories people carry, the histories we inherit, and how they shape our understanding of justice and care. Growing up in Atlanta, Ga and with roots across Senegambia, she is inspired by Black feminist schools of thought and how diaspora, identity, and culture inform one another. She enters OHMA with a practice built around the conviction that what counts as educationally significant must be as nuanced as the communities it is meant to serve, and that film, audio, and mixed media do not supplement scholarship, they are the mediums that expand its access and memorialization.

Professionally, Aminah has served as a Communications and Research Intern at Noor, a transnational feminist think-and-do-tank combating fascism and fundamentalism, where she supports the production of multimedia content. She has also served as the Assistant Director on a documentary about freedom of movement with the UndocuBlack Network, conducting interviews with Black immigrants navigating international borders. Currently, she is developing an independent documentary on Black migrant self-preservation in Athens, Greece. Aminah holds a Bachelor of Arts in Critical Theory and Social Justice with a minor in Black Studies from Occidental College. She believes that first-hand testimony and community collaboration is infrastructure for collective repair, and she is excited to deepen that conviction at OHMA.

Livi Greco (2026)

Bozho! Livi Greco is a theatre maker and historian from Philadelphia! Her passion for storytelling stems from hearing her grandfather her tell stories about their Potawatomi heritage around the fire as a child. After all, there is no fourth wall if the audience is in a circle! She received her BA in Theatre and History from The College of William & Mary in Virginia, and has been working to amplify Native voices in theatrical spaces since then.

Ia Shalamberidze (2026)

Ia Shalamberidze is a researcher from Georgia interested in questions of migration, memory, identity, and social change. Her work explores how individual experiences are shaped by broader historical, cultural, and social contexts, with a particular focus on mobility, belonging, and the ways people construct meaning across transitions and change.

Working across interdisciplinary approaches, she is interested in connecting personal narratives with wider social processes and examining how stories, experiences, and forms of knowledge travel across communities and generations.

Ia is attentive to questions of gender, violence, and femicide in contexts of conflict and post-conflict societies. She is a co-author of a forthcoming Routledge publication on femicide during the war in Georgia, based on oral history narratives.

Through OHMA, Ia looks forward to engaging with diverse perspectives on migration and global transformation, strengthening interdisciplinary dialogue, and contributing to collaborative approaches to understanding contemporary social challenges.

Hanna L. Kawamoto (2026)

Hanna L. Kawamoto (they/them/theirs) was never one to stray too far away from the water’s edge. Born in Long Beach, California, they grew up in swimming pools and oceans along the western coast. Their love for the water grew into a passion for competitive swimming and ocean lifeguarding. At seventeen, they started working as an ocean lifeguard for the Long Beach Fire Department’s Marine Safety Division.

It was through their work that they developed a greater appreciation for the job’s versatility and history. They quickly learned that to protect their community, they had to connect with their community. From the stories of lifeguards and the public alike, blossomed their interest in the history of lifeguarding...and the silent struggle of preserving it.

Now finding themselves here on the East Coast, they intend to develop archival and research methodologies to help preserve this occupation.

Their research interest in lifeguarding is heavily inspired by their previous work in early American history. They critically focus on the histories of gender and sexuality, further expanding their knowledge through queer and trans studies. They studied and earned their B.A. and M.A. in History from the University of California, Santa Barbara and Irvine.

Outside of their studies, they (still) enjoy swimming, reading comics, and listening to music.

Simone Moise (2026)

Simone Moise (they/he)  is a writer, researcher, and academic born and raised in the greater Boston area, with a Bachelors in History from Boston University. Their research interests have ranged from night life culture during the fall of the Soviet Union; techno music and racial self determination in post industrial Detroit; and most recently, the role of neocolonial liberalism in urban planning and city building in suppressing communities of color. With professional experience in museums, non-profits, film and literature, Simone utilizes a drastically cross disciplinary approach in academic and professional opportunities. In their free time, they enjoy cooking, dancing, and vintage leather restoration. As a multi-generational New England resident, they love exploring themes of family, gentrification, harm-reduction, and class in local communities.

Kristina Mullenix (2026)

Kristina Mullenix is a public historian from Alabama with a deep love for storytelling and weaving together aspects of oral history with genealogy, history, and community archiving. She is particularly drawn to social justice issues and recovering silences within Deep South history. As someone who listens deeply to better understand herself and the world around her, Kristina uses her projects to not only document and preserve, but to search for the truths that come through metaphor and mythic narratives within the communities she researches. 

She holds a BA in History from Mount Mary University and an MLIS with specialty in Archives Management from Indiana University. She received the 2023 Cauthen Fellowship from the Alabama Folklife Association for a collaborative oral history project related to labor history. Previously, she held positions within historical archives and special collections libraries. She teaches online courses in genealogy, community archiving, oral history, and preservation. Kristina’s work has been published in Tributaries, a journal of the Alabama Folklife Association, and in Alabama Heritage Magazine. She has collaborated on community archiving projects, and digital humanities initiatives. 

As a believer in the power of oral history to diversify collections and histories, Kristina strives to contribute to the field through telling more stories that help us understand and make better sense of our world, honoring what is both truthful and factual in ourselves, our lineages, our current society, and the dreams we wish to carry forward for future generations to come.

Caroline Wells (2026)

Caroline Wells is a proud seventh-generation Texan and a sixth-generation Tylerite. She completed her Bachelor’s in Fine Arts at Baylor University, studying Theatre Design & Technology with a Secondary Major in History and Honors through the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core. Caroline has experience researching the thematic design of American zoos, serving as Production Manager on collaborative data visualization projects, and even pursuing student research while working on a live archeological site. In developing her passion for blending disciplines, she strives to continue her work in research and design by bringing thorough multisensory, multidisciplinary explorations to audiences.