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 2024

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

Yonatan Ambrosio, Psychology

LAS 324/ POL 455 Dynamics and Narratives of the Latin American Drug Trade

Jesus Adam Arroyo, Psychology            

LAS 324/ POL 455 Dynamics and Narratives of the Latin American Drug Trade

Paul-Louis Biondi, Comparative Literature      

“Il regarde. Mais il n’a pas u.”: Suzanne Césaire, Visual Poetics, and Cultural Hybridity

Samuel Bisno, History               

LAS 318/ HIS 319/ AAS 343 Race and Nation in Modern Latin America

Robert Franklin Britt, Spanish & Portuguese   

Investigating Health Access, Experience, and Outcome of Latin American Immigrants in Trenton, New Jersey through an Intersectional Lens

Marlene Esmeralda Cardoza, Psychology       

SPA 304 / LAO 304 Spanish in the Community

Luke Matthew Chan, Politics  

¿MAS o Menos China? The Effects of Chinese Belt & Road Initiative Investments on Public Opinion and Voting Behavior in Bolivia

Alaina Chiriyankandath Joby, School of Public & International Affairs              

LA ISLA DEL ENCANTO: THE ISLAND OF ENCHANTMENT OR THE ISLAND FORGOTTEN? An Investigation Into La Reforma's Impact on the Quality of Health Among the Elderly Populations in Puerto Rico

Kateri Caridad Espinosa, School of Public & International Affairs       

“Añoro mi Pueblo”: Migrant Remittances and Public Goods Provision in Mexican Origin Communities

Tobias Jacob Fishman Janowitz, School of Public & International Affairs        

A Tale of Two Nations; A Comparative Analysis of Divergence between Haiti and the Dominican Republic

Kristen Alexis Fonseca, Anthropology               

The Privilege of Reverence in a State of Denial After the Dirty War in Argentina: Murals and Graffiti as Collective Resistance

Zaiya Patel Gandhi, School of Public & International Affairs   

“Le Llaman Puebladelphia”:  A discussion of Immigrant Entrepreneurship and Community Organization in Philadelphia’s Italian Market

Faraaz Ahmed Godil, School of Public & International Affairs 

Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative (SINSI)

Kristal Hailie Grant, African American Studies

"Monstrous" Mothers: Exploring the Pathologization of Black Women's Reproduction in Victorian Jamaica

Carrington Symone Johnson, Spanish & Portuguese 

De almas assassinadas aos espíritos vivos: Embodied Liberation and Community Reimagining in Cuban, Brazilian, Panamanian and Puerto Rican Afro-Diasporic Performance

Sydney Simone Johnson, Spanish & Portuguese          

"A (Brief) Black, Panamanian History of Reggaeton: Connecting The Streets of Panamá to New York, Puerto Rico, and the World"

Mae Margaret Kennedy, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology          

LAS 317/ ENV 376 /ANT 317 Political Natures: The Politics of Nature and Development in Latin America

Isabel Byers Kingston, Comparative Literature             

In Search of "Bodies of Rhetoric": Diamela Eltit’s Lumpérica and the Legacy of Chile’s Disappeared

Elise Hamilton Kratzer, Computer Science    

SPA 350/ LAS 349 Topics in Latin American Cultural Studies

Ellen Li, Comparative Literature            

Mixed Bodies: A Translation

Clariza Marie Macaspac, Spanish & Portuguese          

Untold Stories of Women in the Philippines during the 17th and 18th Centuries

Clara Jane McNatt, Anthropology         

ENTRE DOS: Reflections on the Tango Embrace

Ana Lucia Palacios, Anthropology        

“Siendo Solidarias Alcanzaremos la Prosperidad”: Belonging, Empowerment, and Prosperity in a Colombian Ecovillage

David A. Palomino, Politics     

Proximity to Whiteness: COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution and Indigenous Diversity in Peru*

Sydney Pargman, Economics 

School Finance Reforms (SFRs) and English Language Learner Outcomes in American Public Schools

Kennedy Primus, African American Studies    

Still Waters Run Deep: Enslaved Resistance within the North Atlantic, 1700-1850

Laura Robertson, History         

"“Luchando Por Comida Justa”: The Legacy of Guatemalan History and Organizing on Florida’s Farmworker Movement"*

Erik John Roll, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology               

LAS 324/ POL 455 Dynamics and Narratives of the Latin American Drug Trade

Michael Jacob Salama, History             

FLUID IDENTITIES: THE SUBALTERN POLITICAL HYDROLOGY OF THE URUS OF LAKE POOPÓ

Luz Victoria B. Simon Jasso, Sociology             

SPA 236/ LAS 236  Pajaros en la boca: Latin American Women Writers and Artists' New Languages

Julia Brooke Stahlman, Anthropology 

What Grows Inside the “White Cube:” Contending With New Climate Futures by Queering the Anthropological and Anthropologizing the Queer Inside the Modernist Art Gallery

Sebastian Suarez, Independent | Linguistics  

Maltiosh, Gracias, Thank You: The Language Situation of K’iche-speaking Guatemalan Migrants to the Trenton Area

Katherine Elliotte Van Dusen, School of Public & International Affairs             

Sin Recurso: Immigration Relief for Victims of Latin American Non-State Armed Groups

Gabriela Isabel Veciana, Music            

Breaking the Sound Barrier: Investigating Latine Racial Bias Through Reggaetón Music

Myla Eleanor Isenberg Wailoo, African American Studies      

The Greatest Technologies are Ours: Carrying the Legacy of Quilombola Culture and Life through Contemporary Afrofuturist Brazilian Art

Marquez Christopher White, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology 

Marvels of Manatee Rehabilitation: Factors Influencing Rehabilitation Outcomes of Amazonian Manatees in the Peruvian Amazon