Student
2026 Projects
Sofia Alfaro carried out research in Managua to examine how biomedical and other assistive technologies can be designed, adapted, and implemented in resource-constrained clinical settings. The project builds off her previous work at a public hospital in Managua, Hospital Aldo Chavarría, and her experience co-founding “A (3D-Printed) Hand for Nicaragua.” Through participant observation and discussions with providers, Alfaro evaluated user needs, infrastructural constraints, and cultural considerations that shape the adoption of this assistive technology. As a major in Engineering Science with a concentration in Biomedical Engineering, her research offers her the opportunity to apply classroom concepts, such as human-centered design and materials selection to international clinical sites.
Darla Hennesee conducted an exploratory study to examine how local organizations conceptualization migration in relation to security in Costa Rica. Hennessee conducted her research at three different sites (San José, Cartago, and Guanacaste) and will focus on NGOs, advocacy groups, and legal aid organizations that work with migrant populations. The project compared the difference between community organizations’ focus on legal access, social stability and wellbeing compared to national frameworks that emphasize borders, policing and enforcement. Carrying out this research in Summer 2026 provided her with the opportunity to capture attitudes at a critical time, given the centrality of crime as an issue in the recent national elections. The project complements her major in Political Science with a focus on National Security, and her minor in Spanish.
Kelsey Herndon conducted archaeological research to identify ancient cacao groves in the Mayan lowlands of Belize. While the importance of cacao to the Maya has been well documented through iconography, hieroglyphic texts, and residues on ceramic vessels, archeological evidence of cacao cultivation is rare in this region. Herdon focused her research on rejolladas, which are depressions formed by collapsed sinkholes in the karstic landscape and used by ancient and contemporary Maya for agricultural purposes. Working with the Belize Estates Archaeological Survey Team based at Chan Chich, she validated the presence of rejolladas recently identified through LiDAR, mapped them to determine their form and chronology of use, and collected soil samples to determine whether cacao was cultivated in these areas. The research contributes to her dissertation project on how ecological niches, such as rejolladas, were integrated into broader systems of agriculture in the Maya lowlands.
Maanas Garimella conducted research in Guatemala to identify patterns of untreated or previously unmanaged medical conditions among patients in a medical outreach clinic. The project and mobile clinic will be carried out through Global Brigades in Sololá, a predominantly Indigenous region that faces persistent health disparities. Garimella, a neuroscience major, will test the viability of DiffEx, a diagnostic tool he co-founded, during the 5-day clinic. The research builds off Garimella’s experience organizing community medical outreach clinics for underserved populations and his interest in addressing international healthcare inequities.
Lizbeth Ramirez examined intra-national economic inequality in Mexico by comparing infrastructure access, tourism-driven development, and cost-of-living dynamics in Mexico City and Tlapa, Guerrero. While Mexico City has benefited from its global visibility and investment in urbanization, Tlapa has historically faced infrastructure limitations, including inconsistent access to running water, limited transportation networks, and constrained public services, all which impact economic mobility and opportunity for its residents, many of whom speak Mixtec. Ramirez’s fieldwork combines qualitative and quantitative approaches, including structured field observation and infrastructure mapping, systematic cost-of-living data collection, and semi-structured interviews. The project builds on her coursework in Latin American Economic Development and will provide a foundational experience for her future career in international economics and infrastructure policy.
2025 Projects
Sophie Kavalali, a rising junior pursuing majors in Anthropology and Economics & History, received funding to travel to Neltume, Chile and San Martín de los Andes, Argentina to conduct research on climate mitigation efforts by Mapuche residents of the region in the face of environmental disasters. With guidance from Dr. Jacob Sauer (Anthropology), Kavalali analyzed water and clay samples to reconstruct environmental history and conducted ethnographic research to uncover oral tradition within the Mapuche community. The team of Vanderbilt students and faculty also used drone LiDAR with partners at the Universidad Autonoma and Universidad Austral de Chile and surveyed a series of Capuchin churches and residential schools across the Chilean-Argentine border that conducted forced assimilation of Indigenous communities from the late 19th to early 20th centuries.
Fernando Martín Gou received funding to explore how institutions with historical legitimacy and symbolic importance shape perceptions of what constitutes violations of democracy in Latin America. He conducted four focus groups in Argentina and four focus groups in Mexico to examine the issue in these two countries, which have different institutional structures and democratic trajectories. Gou also used an interactive research methodology, Q sorting, to have study participants rank and categorize various political actions based on their perceived democratic legitimacy. This approach allows Gou to capture the underlying logic behind individuals’ categorizations of political actions as democratic or undemocratic.
Doctoral student in Anthropology Ema Perea Rios received funding to conduct an archaeological reconnaissance project in the Shunte and Mishollo Forest Preserve in Peru. While archaeological research in the Amazon has produced some of the most revolutionary data in recent decades, little is known about the relationship between the cultural region of the Amazon and the neighboring Central Andes, in part because transitional zones, such as the eastern Andean slopes below the Amazon headwaters like the Shunte and Mishollo Forests, remain understudied. Her research addressed how pre-Hispanic societies adapted to and transformed Amazonian landscapes, in the context of interaction between highland and lowland groups. The project provided preliminary data for her dissertation research, allowing Perea Rios to build collaborations with Peruvian institutions, and contribute to cultural heritage preservation in San Martín.
Erica Scarpitti, doctoral student in Earth and Environmental Sciences, received funding for her project, “Timing and Mechanisms of Fluvial Responses to Climate and Land-Use Changes in the Southern Pantanal of Brazil.” As the world’s largest tropical wetland and one of the most biodiverse regions in South America, the Pantanal highlights the susceptibility of such ecosystems to anthropogenic pressures and climate change (Schulz et al., 2019). Scarpitti’s research investigated fluvial landscape variability in the Pantanal through analysis of sediment cores, geochemistry, remote sensing, and geochronological dating. Her study will provide data on the impacts of natural hydrological and climatic processes, historical land-use changes, and recent shifts in flooding and fire activity to better understand landscape evolution and ecosystem resilience.