CLACX awards over $75,000 to 16 students for research, language study in summer 2022

Posted by mccoyce1 on Monday, May 23, 2022 in Uncategorized.

Sixteen students received CLACX funding to study languages or conduct research in Latin America during Summer 2022.

Carlos Caballero (English and LAS major), Faith Viers (LAS major), Safi Chalfin-Smith (Tufts University; Political Science and International Relations major), and Emilu Warwick (University of Virginia; doctoral student in Foreign Affairs) received summer FLAS funding to study Portuguese through the Summer in Brazil program in São Paulo hosted by Tulane and CLACX.  Madison Crow (MA in LAS) received summer FLAS funding to study K’iche’ through the Mayan Language Institute in Guatemala.

CLACX awarded funding from the Tinker Foundation and Vanderbilt’s School of Arts and Science to support seven students to carry out fieldwork in Latin America:

• Lucas Borba de Miranda (Political Science) will conduct interviews and focus groups in São Paulo, Brasilia, and Recife for his project “The Impact of Election Rigging Messages on Voting Behavior,” that will inform his dissertation prospectus and contribute to scholarship on the impacts of voter fraud allegations.
• Luis Caraval Osorio (Economics) will travel to Bogotá to access restricted-use educational data for his project on the indirect effects of merit-based financial aid to low-income students in Colombia, “Spillover Effects of Financial Aid on the Educational Choices of Younger Siblings.”
• Maria Corado (Anthropology) will carry out archaeological investigations in San Andrés Semetabaj, Guatemala as part of her preliminary dissertation research to determine absolute dates of archaeological settlements in the Lago de Atitlán region.
• Rebecca Estrada Aguila (Anthropology) will conduct archaeological research at the Classic Maya site of Tzikin Tzakan near Melchor de Mencos in Guatemala where she will analyze soil samples for evidence of stone tool production and other human activity for her dissertation project.
• Allie Reichert (Anthropology) will conduct research in the Napo Province of Ecuador on maternal mortality among Kichwa women in the Napo province of Ecuador as part of her larger project examining Kichwa attitudes towards biomedical care and ancestral health systems.
• Paola Torres (LAS) will conduct archaeological research in Guatemala for her project, “Systematic topographic and surface exploration at the site of La Linterna and its surrounding region in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala” which will provide data for her MA thesis.
• Alexander Tripp (Political Science): will travel to Barraquilla, Colombia, where Venezuela migrants make up 12% of the population, to carry out initial dissertation research on his project examining local governmental responses in high migration contexts and corresponding community attitudes.

Simon Collier Travel Grants will support five students to conduct research this summer:

• Giovanni Bastiani Roggia (Political Science) will travel to Rio to conduct research for his dissertation prospectus on how victimization by the state affects civilian’s social identities in impoverished and marginalized urban communities for his project, “Victimization Identity and Support for Police and Local Organized Crime in Brazilian Favelas.”
• Lorely Chavez (LAS and MPH) will travel to Quetzaltenago, Guatemala where she will conduct research with staff at the Primeros Pasos clinic and the rural K’iche’ Mayan communities served by the clinic to collect data on community health care gaps and demands, which will inform her MA thesis.
• Maria Ramirez Bustamante (Political Science) will conduct interviews in Peru’s Monzón Valley, in thedepartment of Huánuco, to explore why voters support political candidates with ties to drug trafficking organizations to obtain qualitative data to ground her dissertation hypotheses.
• Brayan Serratos (Spanish and Portuguese) will travel to the Archivo General in Mexico City to identify primary sources and authors supporting his dissertation research on narratives and cartographic representations of Mexico, Manila, and Spain during the 16^th and 17^th
• Estelle Shaya (undergraduate major in LAS and Earth and Environmental Sciences) will spend her summer in Bolivia conducting research with the University Network for Human Rights. The research will inform her senior thesis addressing abuses against indigenous populations.