Jersey Cosantino (they/them), a former K-12 educator, is a doctoral candidate in Cultural Foundations of Education at Syracuse University holding certificates of advanced study in women’s and gender studies and disability studies. A former co-facilitator for SU’s Intergroup Dialogue Program Jersey infuses anti-oppressive, mindful, embodied practices into dialogues across differences, approaches that can be explored in their publications in The Journal of Contemplative Inquiry and the Western Journal of Communication.
During the 2024-2025 academic year they are developing and co-facilitating workshops at ÓûÂþɬ on using IGD and peer support frameworks to support neurodivergent and neuroexpansive learners. A Mad studies and trans studies scholar Jersey’s research employs Mad trans oral history methodologies that center the experiences and subjectivities of Mad, neurodivergent, neuroexpansive, trans and gender expansive narrators. Utilizing IGD as a methodology Jersey is helping to create a new, intertwined field of Madtrans studies that dialogically contends with Mad studies and trans studies’ histories of trans and Mad disavowal, respectively.
Jersey identifies as Mad, neurodivergent, Autistic, queer, trans and non-binary and is white with education and citizenship privilege. They are also the co-editor of the International Mad Studies Journal and a consulting editor for the Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education. A former Trans Lifeline call operator, Jersey holds a master’s degree in high school English education (’14) and a graduate certificate in mindfulness studies (’19) from Lesley University and a bachelor’s degree in English and studio art from Wellesley College (’09).