Senior Thesis Titles

Bringing together the insights gleaned through the course of one's studies, the completion of a thesis in a student's major discipline on a Latin American or Caribbean topic is one of the capstone experiences of the undergraduate certificate program. Below, you can get a sense of the impressive and broad-ranging scholarship produced each year.

Class of 2023

Students may write a senior thesis, an independent research paper (*), or take an additional LAS course to fulfill the final requirement for the certificate.

Hilcia Acevedo, Anthropology
Transnational Dreamscapes: The Dance Between a Multi-Dimensional Love, Embodiment, and Preservation in the Afterlives of Migration

Sofia Alvarado, School of Public and International Affairs
From Crisis to Opportunity: A New Vision for U.S. Migration Policies towards Venezuelan Migrants

Ana Blanco, School of Public and International Affairs
ENG 358 / LAS 385 / AMS 396 / AAS 343 Caribbean Literature and Culture: Island Imaginaries: Movement, Speculation and Precarity

Kaelani Burja, Anthropology
¡La Gran Cumbia Espectacular!*

Lawrence Chen, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Spatiotemporal Comparisons of Panamanian P. volitans Diet and Parasitism: Continued Enemy Release and Implications

Rene Cruz, History
SPA 350 / LAS 349 Topics in Latin American Cultural Studies: Latin American Imaginaries of Extraction: Rubber, Bananas, and Other

Gisell Curbelo, School of Public and International Affairs
The End of Cuban Exceptionalism: A Post Wet-Foot/Dry-Foot Analysis of Cuban Migration

Hannah Faughnan, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
¡La Gran Cumbia Espectacular!*

Rodrigo Fernandez, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
SPA 335 / LAS 397 / GSS 354 Mexico's Tenth Muse: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

Alex Giannattasio, School of Public and International Affairs
It Isn’t Easy Being Green: Assessing Accelerators and Bottlenecks to Green Hydrogen Development in the Context of Chile’s National Green Hydrogen Strategy

Isamar Gonzalez, School of Public and International Affairs
SPA 350/ LAS 349: Topics in Latin American Cultural Studies: Latin American Imaginaries of Extraction: Rubber, Bananas, and Other

Sarah Grinalds, School of Public and International Affairs
The Photography of Paz Errázuriz: an Activism of Emphasizing Margins*

Emma Harlan, History
"What is Going on in Cuba?": African American Connections and Reflections on Cuba, 1930 to 1942

Londy Hernandez, Spanish and Portuguese
Ver demonios es un don:  A Look at (Swimming, Horseback-Riding, Retching) Guatemalan Demons

Anna Hiltner, Sociology
Immigrant Perspectives of Environmental Hazards in Newark's Ironbound*

Axidi Iglesias, School of Public and International Affairs
Remain in México… Indefinitely? U.S. Border Externalization Policies to México & the Northern Triangle: A Growing Humanitarian Crisis for Migrants & Government and Non-governmental Organizations

Gawon Jo, Comparative Literature
“Piecing together a skeleton”:  Alternative Frameworks and Re-imaginings Confronting Feminicide

Jessica Lee, History
GHP 350 / SPI 380 / ANT 380 Critical Perspectives in Global Health

Caitlin Limestahl, Anthropology
LAS 234 / ANT 333 Rethinking the Northern Triangle: Violence, Intervention, and Resistance in Central America

Coley Martin, Civil and Environmental Engineering
On Sunken Land: The Environmental and Social Impacts of the Itaipu Hydroelectric Dam in Brazil

Cody Mui, Molecular Biology
LIN 360 Linguistic Universals and Language Diversity

Jose Ortiz, Spanish and Portuguese
Challenges Faced by Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Type 2 Diabetes and Hypertension Patients in Monterrey, Nuevo León (México): A Qualitative Study from the Healthcare Provider Perspective

Joann Perez, Anthropology
The Human Cost of Healthcare Inequity: An Anthropological Study of Healthcare Access and Structural Violence Faced by Peruvian Immigrants

Karla Perez-Gazca, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
GHP 351 / SPI 381 / EEB 351 Epidemiology: An Ecological and Evolutionary Perspective

Rooya Rahin, Politics
JRN 449 / LAS 439 International News: Covering Conflict, Human Rights and Displacement Beyond the Front Line

Arielle Rivera, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Planning for Resilience to Hurricanes: Modeling to Generate Alternative Grid Hardening Options for Puerto Rico in Its Energy Transition

Taryn Sebba, School of Public and International Affairs
LAS 339 Art Archives in Latin America

Liam Seeley, Spanish and Portuguese
Vegetal Cartographies: Plant Aesthetics for After the End

Dylan Shapiro, School of Public and International Affairs
Reforming Review: Reconciling Majoritarianism with Marginalized Groups’ Rights in Constitutional Courts

Sofia Teixeira, School of Public and International Affairs
“Giving Mercosur a Human Face”:  An Evaluation of Civil Society’s Role in Latin American Regional Integration

Jack Thompson, Spanish and Portuguese
Brazil and the Venezuelan Migrant Crisis: Operação Acolhida, a Portrait of the Crisis, and the Politics of Venezuelan Migration in Brazil

Daniel Trujillo, Civil and Environmental Engineering
HIS 306 / LAO 306 / LAS 326 Becoming Latino in the U.S.

Vian Wagatsuma, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
The Future of Air Conditioning and RSV Transmission in Miami, FL and Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico

Gordon Walters, History
Torn from their Gods, their Land, their Habits: The Miskitu People, Moravian Christian Missionaries, and Imperialism, 1849-1909

Jia Yu, Economics
What Makes a Precious Stone? Analyzing the Intrinsic and Acquired Values of Pre-Columbian Jade through Cultural, Mercantile, and Technological Lenses.*

Natalia Zorrilla, Philosophy
LAS 362 / ANT 362 Central Americans and Asylum in the United States