Erica Connerney is a writer, lecturer and transgender activist living in New York City. She spent her ICWA fellowship in India in 2004-2006 researching religion, culture and politics. She is author of The Upside-down Tree: India's Changing Culture and teaches philosophy at Pace University. She has worked as an editor for Tricycle Magazine and the Vera Lex Journal of the Natural Law Society. She holds a bachelor’s degree in religion from Wheaton College and a Master’s in religion from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.