Rachel Tan

B.A. Latin American Studies and Political Science, Macalester College, St. Paul, MN, USA

Rachel grew up in Singapore. At 17, she first listened to stories about Latin America generously shared by her peers from Peru, Costa Rica, Brazil, Haiti, Guatemala, Uruguay, and Mexico. Eager to learn more, the first class she enrolled in at Macalester College was Latin American Literature. Learning about the roots of environmental justice and indigenous struggles, she gravitated towards Latin American Studies. In Peru, Rachel has conducted fieldwork on indigenous movements and land conflicts in Cusco and Madre de Dios. For her PhD in Political Science, she is excited to continue her research in Latin America.

During college, Rachel developed a theatre curriculum in a school that served many Karen refugee students, which was when she decided to commit her life to education. Deeply inspired by Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, she is committed to growing in her pedagogy that dismantles power structures and enables students to interrogate their positionalities within sociopolitical systems, in order to learn about possibilities for solidarity, resistance, and transformation. She is learning how to decolonize curriculum, and to build democratic and equitable forms of education where students of varying identities and capacities are equipped with the tools to learn from community, and to teach each other.

Rachel has also facilitated programs in Timor Leste and Vietnam, and has taught at the high school and university level in Cambodia, Singapore, and the US. She has taught academic courses in politics, sociology, and geography, and community-oriented programs such as Intergroup Dialogue, where students engage with the intersections of their gender, sexual orientation, racial and class identities, and navigate experiences of privilege and oppression. Rachel is trained in responding to mental health crises, trauma-informed survivor support, conflict mediation, identity-based support, and restorative justice. She believes that being accountable to community is important, and strives to build relationships embedded with reciprocity and care.

Rachel speaks Spanish and Chinese, is learning Bahasa Indonesia, hopes to learn Quechua, loves riding motorbikes, and all things science fiction!