Class of 2022

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

Julian Alvarez, Spanish and Portuguese
From Biography to History: Frei Betto's Dialectical Pedagogy and the Comunidades Eclesiais de Base

Catherine Ardila H. Marques, Economics
Evaluating the Role of Information Acquisition in School Choice: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Brazil

Diego Ayala-McCormick, History
The Transition to Free Labor in Puerto Rico: Class and Politics in a Nineteenth-Century Colony*

Sofía Briones Ramirez, Psychology
LAS 325 / ART 381 / ANT 325 / SPA 397 Muertos: Art and Mortality in Mexico

Julia Campbell, Politics
POL 367 / LAS 367 Latin American Politics

Emily Cruz, Civil and Environmental Engineering
PHI 372 / SPA 393 / LAS 372 Latin American Philosophy

Willow Dalehite, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
SPA 363 / LAS 334 Critical Theory in Latin America and Beyond

Jacquelyn Davila, History
LAS 307 / ANT 307 / ARC 317 / ART 388 Indigenous American Urbanism: Teotihuacan and its Legacy in Comparative Perspective

Germalysa Ferrer, Sociology
Emotional Relief: A Study of International Crisis Response in Haiti

Alejandro Garcia, Politics
LAS 312 / HIS 313 Revolution in Twentieth-Century Latin America

Sophia Goldberg, Chemistry
LAS 313 / ANT 313 / LAO 313 / AMS 305 Race Across the Americas

Miguel I. Gonzales, Economics
SPA 406 / LAS 410 Dark Matters

Kenneth Gonzalez Santibanez, History
History, Race and Nation in Modern Latin America

Akiva Jacobs, Music
ART 220 / LAS 230 Modern and Contemporary Latin American Art

Maya McHugh, Civil and Environmental Engineering
ENV 455 / COM 454 / ENG 255 Sea Level Rise, Islands and the Environmental Humanities

Felipe Mendoza, Economics
Education’s Impact on Inequality: A Simulation Study in Colombia and Policy Alternatives

Nate Moore, Politics
LAS 234 / ANT 333 Rethinking the Northern Triangle: Violence, Intervention, and Resistance in Central America

Ashley Morales, School of Public and International Affairs
LAS 302 / HIS 305 Latin America in Modern World History: Global and Transnational Perspectives, 1800 to the Present

Daniel Moreno, Economics
LAS 217 / POL 271 / URB 217 / ANT 397 Culture, Politics, and Human Rights in Latin America

Mary Murphy, School of Public and International Affairs
Debtor Dispositions: A Mixed Methods Analysis of Ecuadorian Attitudes Toward China's Development Footprint

MC Otani, Electrical and Computer Engineering
LAS 313 / LAO 313 / AAS 331 Locked Up in the Americas: A History of Prisons and Detainment

Kathy Palomino, Sociology
LAS 420 / GSS 458 / SPA 420 / ANT 423 Coloniality of Power: A Gender Perspective

Noel Peng, Spanish and Portuguese
DIÓJUÀ (or Mai travels through Nepantla ... and not back)

Fernanda Romo Herrera Ibarrola, Politics
Theatre as Resistance in Guerrero: Contesting the Memory of State Violence from the Dirty War to Ayotzinapa

Emily Sánchez, History
Determining Freedom: Afro-Peruvians and the Meanings of Emancipation in Peru, 1850s*

Fatima Sanogo, School of Public and International Affairs
WWS 364 / LAS 391 Human Rights in Latin America

Leonela Serrano, History
Las Abuelas de la Plaza de Mayo and the Exceptionality of Children in Argentina Amnesty Law: Reconstituting Family and Democracy by Refuting Disappearance

María José Solórzano-Castro, Spanish and Portuguese
In Times of War: Salvadoran-American Counterpoetics

Peter Taylor, Comparative Literature
LAS 234 / ANT 333 Rethinking the Northern Triangle: Violence, Intervention, and Resistance in Central America

Hannah To, Economics
Gender Differences in the Impact of Gangs on Labor Force Participation: Evidence from El Salvador

Amy Torres, Art and Archaeology
"My Painting is an Act of Decolonization”: Viewing Wifredo Lam’s Vision of a Decolonial Future

Valeria Torres-Olivares, School of Public and International Affairs
Materializing the Mexico-U.S. Border: A Text & Sentiment Analysis Approach to Immigration and Border Enforcement Policy

Eric Velasquez, Economics
HIS 304 / LAS 304 Modern Latin America since 1810

Class of 2021

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

Lisa Abascal Larson, School of Public and International Affairs
An Investigation of the Link Between Remittances to Cuba and Economic Liberalization

Daniela Alvarez, Spanish and Portuguese
La Gran Cárcel: Two Militarized Borders, Two Failed Asylum Systems and a Mexico-Wide Prison

Celia Aranda Reina, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Mapuche Language and Culture (Study abroad in Chile)

Bruno Emilio Aravena Maguida, Economics
Discontinuity in Becas Chile: Evidence for the Merits of the Recently Cancelled Doctoral Grants Program

Germán Felipe Arrocha Boyd, School of Public and International Affairs
El progreso acaricia tus lares: The Republic of Panama’s Fiscal and Institutional Decentralization

Daniel Benitez, Spanish and Portuguese
Redefining Drag: The Art of Translating Gender

Brandon Shane Flora Dunlevy, Spanish and Portuguese
Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Clandestinity, Resistance & Perceptions of Indigenous People in Castile

Amanda Eisenhour, African American Studies
Quilombo Futurism: Translating Key Concepts in Afro-Brazilian Liberation

Erika Escalona Barragan, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
ANT 246/AMS 246 Native American and Indigenous Studies: An Introduction

Jocelyn Galindo, Anthropology
SPA 220/LAS 220 El Género Negro: Crime Fiction

Jessica Gaytán, Anthropology
“This Place is Sacred” Ecological and Community Regeneration in Pomona, CA Via Urban Farming

Roberto Hasbun, History
“Americanos Todos”: Redefining U.S. Latino and Latina Identity in the Second World War

Jimin Kang, Spanish and Portuguese
Tales from Indigenous Brazil: A Translation of Daniel Munduruku’s ‘Chronicles of São Paulo’ & ‘The Lessons I’ve Learned’ from the Portuguese

Rae Keazer, Spanish and Portuguese
“I just like to sing”: Exploring La Lupe’s Unique Performance Style as a Nexus of Her Cultural Identity, Spiritual Journey, and Uninhibited Love for Salsa

Joice Kim, Anthropology
The Words They Left Us: Examining the Sociopolitical Nature of Language*

Regina Lankenau, School of Public and International Affairs
Weathering the Storm: Harnessing Climate Migration from Central America to Advance the Sustainable Development Agenda

Stephanie Lytle, Spanish and Portuguese
HIS 303/LAS 305 Colonial Latin America to 1810

Jesús Martinez Garza, Spanish and Portuguese
Irene, Gerardo, y Yo: An Imperfect Political Screening of The other, its Memory, and its Extremes

Asia Matthews, African American Studies
A Story of Black Institutional Advocacy: The Journey of Arthur Alfonso Schomburg from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Harlem

Cierra Moore, Spanish and Portuguese
AAS 303/LAS 363 Topics in Global Race and Ethnicity

Anglory Morel Espinal, Sociology
Dominicano soy: A Comparative Study of Ethno-Racial Identity Transformation and Resistance among Dominicans in the United States and the Dominican Republic

Vic Panata, Art and Archaeology
LAS 306 Topics in Latinx Literature and Culture: Latinx Literary Worlds

Jorge Rafael Pereira, Politics
LAO 201/AMS 211/LAS 201 Introduction to Latino/a/x Studies

Alonso Perez Putnam, Politics
Batalla Espiritual: An Analysis of the Emergence of Evangelical Identity-Based Politics in Costa Rica’s 2018 Presidential Elections

Rodrigo Iván Pichardo Urbina, Spanish and Portuguese
God is Mexican American: Poetry Translations in Conversation with Historical and Contemporary Violence Towards Mexican Americans in the U.S.

Jacob Rob, School of Public and International Affairs
Ending the Cold War Against Cuba: A Policy Recommendation for the Biden Administration

Ashley Roundtree, Spanish and Portuguese
The Legend of Dandara: A Translation and Critical Analysis

Arianne Rowe, African American Studies
The Discourses of Blanqueamiento: A Multilateral Analysis of 19th Century Racial Ideologies in the Making of Modern Argentina

Trinidad Santos, Spanish and Portuguese
Fleeing on Foot: A Selected Translation of Alans Peralta’s Con el pais a cuestas

Lindsey Schmidt, School of Public and International Affairs
A Push Towards Security: Drivers of Migration from Guatemala and El Salvador and Implications for U.S. Policy

Hannah Smalley, Spanish and Portuguese
“Arquitectura Sin Arquitectura”: Reimaginando el Parque Biblioteca Espana Santo Domingo Savio Desde la Itinerancia

Leopoldo Solis Martinez, History
Global Seminar 333 Becoming Brazil (Fulfilled course requirements for LAS and Brazilian tracks)

Lydia Spencer, Spanish and Portuguese
Todo bicho que camina que siga caminando: Feminism, Politics, and Identity: an Ethnographic Look at the Burgeoning Porteo Vegan Movement*

Annie Sullivan Crowley, Politics
Democratic Disillusionment: Explaining the Rise of Far-Right Populism in Brazil

Alvin Synarong, Spanish and Portuguese
O progresso social pelas paradas: How the São Paulo Pride Parade Reflects Progress for Queer Equality in Modern-Day Brazil

Leila Ullmann, African American Studies
’Negra, tu voz enseña’: Contemporary Anti-Racist and Anti-Sexist Activism in Cuba*

Jackson Vail, History
Internationalist Science, Nationalist Geography, and Elite Notions of Progress: The Emergence of the Lima Geographic Society in Peru, 1888-1913*

Abraham Waserstein, School of Public and International Affairs
US Sanctions Against Venezuela: Another Case of Misguided Policy or a Crucial Tool in the Fight for Democratization?*

Marissa Webb, School of Public and International Affairs
Never Fully Recovered: Argentina’s Vicious Cycle of Economic Growth and Default From 1982 to Today’s Crisis*

Francisca Weirich Freiberg, Anthropology
POR 304/LAS 311 Topics in Brazilian Cultural and Social History: Listening to Brazil

Class of 2020

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

Karina Aguilar Guerrero, Spanish and Portuguese
Alas pa’ Volar: Poetic Counter-Storytelling

Taylor Branch, African American Studies
The Mark of Cain: Tattoo Surveillance and its Consequences in Brazil

Carolina Cantu, Anthropology
The Politics of Indigeneity in Brazil: From Colonial Representations to Indigenous Activism Today

Kenji Cataldo, History
“Somos más”: Decolonization and Environmental Activism in Contemporary Puerto Rico

Adam Chang, Operations Research and Financial Engineering
Networks in a World Unknown: Public WhatsApp Groups in the Venezuelan Refugee Crisis

David Cordoba, Molecular Biology
SPA 319/LAS 354 Topics in Cinema and Culture: White Men Gone Wild in Colonial Latin America

Maximo De La Cruz, Anthropology
The Neglected: Black Workers in Modern-Day Brazil

Rui De Oliveira, Operations Research and Financial Engineering
Whose Tweet is it Anyway? Classifying Tweets by Brazilian Users Through Supervised Machine Learning Techniques

Mabel Felix, Woodrow Wilson School
“The People” Have Spoken: Explaining the Rise of Populism in Mexico and Brazil

Monica Gomez, Woodrow Wilson School
A Study of the Colombian Venezuelan Migration Crisis: What Drives Colombia’s Open Arms Response?

Manuel Gomez Castaño, Politics
The True Politician: Miraísm’s Hope and Virtue Politics

Menelik Graham, Politics
Study Abroad Course: Caribbean Society: Continuity and Change

Bhadrajee Hewage, History
“It Is Not Our Concept Of Democracy Which Is Now On Trial, But Yours”: Cheddism and the Resilience of Cheddi Jagan’s People’s Progressive Party, 1953–1964*

Reed Hutchinson, Linguistics
SPA 534 Seminar in Medieval Spanish Literature: National Myths/Imperial Realities

Nourhan Ibrahim, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Shaping an Urban Landscape Through Community Engagement and State Support: An Analysis of Urban Agriculture in Havana, Cuba*

Nathalie Jimenez, Spanish and Portuguese
Don y Responsabilidad: Initiatives Towards Sexual and Reproductive Health Education Reform in Costa Rica

Rachel Kasdin, Sociology
GHP 350 Critical Perspectives in Global Health

Mikaylah Ladue, Anthropology
Scars of Recovery: Unregulated, Brutal Addiction Treatment Facilities in Mexico*

Curtis Leonard, Anthropology
LAS 414: Poverty, Inequality and Social Mobility in Latin America

Emma Louden, Astrophysical Sciences
HIS 484/ LAS 484/ LAO 484/ AMS 484 Borderlands, Border Lives

Franklin Maloney, Operations Research and Financial Engineering
LAS 376/ ECO 376 The Economic Analysis of Conflict

Anna Marsh, Architecture
Roberto Burle Marx’s Parque do Flamengo: The Paradoxical Promotion of Brazil’s National Landscapes Through German Constructs

Marisela Neff, Chemistry
LAS 328 Immigration Debates in the United States

Matthew Oakland, African American Studies
“Las Apariencias Engañan”: Exploring the Hidden Transcripts of Cuban Rap

Sophia Paredes, Politics
Free Will and Politics: Testing the Empirical Associations Between Free Will Beliefs and Political Ideology

Eduardo Paz, Economics
International Spillovers of the U.S. Fed’s Monetary Policy: The Effect on Latin America

June Philippe, Spanish and Portuguese
To Exist is to Resist: Black Transnational Thought & Aesthetic in Afro-Brazilian Identity, Appearance-Based Bias, & Hair Politics

Danny Pinto, German
Zwischen Chilenidad und Ostalgie:Hybridität, Solidarität, und das Fremde: Chile-DEFA Films as Transnational Sites of Medialized Remembrance

Nathan Poland, African American Studies
LAS 371/ SPA 372/ AAS 374 Cuban History, Politics and Culture

Katherine Powell, African American Studies
Throwing the Voice, Constructing the Self: Black Feminisms and Literature in Martinique and Sénégal, 1930s – 1970s

Alejandra Rincon, Spanish and Portuguese
Time Commences in Xibalba: A Queer Analysis of Gender Mestizaje and Trauma Temporalities

Gabriela Rivera, Anthropology
Community Comes First: Recognizing the Past and Reimagining the Future After Hurricane María in Barrio Mariana

Cecilia Rojas, Economics
Financial Inclusion as a Tool to Reduce Trafficking and Commercial Exploitation of Girls and Women in Mexico

Diana Sandoval Siman, Woodrow Wilson School
Gang Violence and the Politics of Popular Punitivism in El Salvador

Peter Schmidt, Spanish and Portuguese
A Mountain There

Emerson Thomas, Computer Science
LAS 328 Immigration Debates in the United States

Betsy Vasquez, Neuroscience
El Papel de la Santería en el Sistema de Salud Público de Cuba (Santeria in the Cuban Public Health System in Cuba)*

Katya Vera, Anthropology
Implicit Bias Training and Servicio Social: A Comparative Analysis of Medical School Curricula in the United States and Mexico

Krystal Veras, Sociology
¡Vecina,Tráeme una Leche!: An Ethnographic Study of the Formation of Social Life and Transnational Identities in Dominican Bodegas in Lynn, Massachusetts

Caleb Visser, Politics
Babies Across Borders: The International Politics of Adoption & Political Violence and ‘Dirty Wars’ in 20^th Century Latin America

Hadley Wilhoite, Spanish and Portuguese
Representations of a Dictatorship and its Dissidents: An Analysis of Gender and Genre in Three Illustrations of the Trujillato

Alice Wistar, Spanish and Portuguese
Eating Peru: Critical Analysis of the Gastronomic Revolution Through Food*

Class of 2019

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

Esteban Aguas, Economics
Las Esposas Trabajadoras: Examining the Effect of Marriage on Female Labor Force Participation in Latin America

Patricia Beltran-Cortez, Spanish and Portuguese
The Women of Calama Search for The Disappeared: Representations in Theory and Media

Luis Carchi, Woodrow Wilson School
Programming Development: Software as an Alternative for Effective Structural Change in Ecuador

Matthew Doyle, Politics
On Love and Life: Understanding Policy Outcomes of Marriage Equality and Abortion Legalization in Argentina

Alexander Fish, Neuroscience
Film: Inin Niwe: The Plant Healer*

Steven Gomez, History
The Memories of Imagined Communities: Constructing Historical Memories of the Armed Conflict in Colombia

Maria Heredia-Meza, Spanish and Portuguese
SPA 235/LAS 235 Of Shipwrecks and Other Disasters

Fritz Hillegas, Woodrow Wilson School
Constructing the Distrito Tecnológico: The Effect of Government and Media Discourse on Neighborhood Change in Parque Patricios, Buenos Aires

Isabel Hirshberg, Woodrow Wilson School
Teacher Quality in Costa Rica: An analysis of Teacher Educational Attainment*

Isabel James, Urban Studies
Life Under El Bloqueo: Cuban Public Opinion of US Policy

Samantha Jannotta, History
Seeking Sanctuary: How a Religiopolitical Movement Challenged Notions of Westphalian Sovereignty

Kauribel Javier, Sociology
LAS 372 Public Health and Private Healing in the Atlantic World

Maria Jerez, Woodrow Wilson School
The Venezuelan Exodus: U.S. Immigration Policy in the Face of a Humanitarian Crisis

Lindsey Kelleher, History
Confronting a Calamity: The Origins of the Salvadoran Civil War

Alexandra Kersley, History
“Com Asas Te Imagino” Brazil’s Amnesty Movement and the 1979 Lei da Anistia

Devin Blake Kilpatrick, Sociology
Sojourners from Central America: A Study of Contemporary Migrants & Migration from Guatemala to the United States

Chitra Kumar, Spanish and Portuguese
#AbortoLegalYa: An Analysis of the Systemic Obstacles to Legalizing Abortion and its Consequences in Argentina

Rodrigo Moretti, Economics
Meth-boom Mexico: How American Precursor Regulations fed Industrialized Cartel Production

Daniel Jose Navarrete, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
LAS 384 The Anthropology of Selected Regions (The Amazon)

Jose Pabon, Mathematics
Cryptocurrency: Past Fraud, Present State, Future Game Theory Model

Benjamin Perelmuter, History
Remembering the Revolution: Sergio Ramírez, the MRS, and the Sandinista Party*

Christian Ramos, Spanish and Portuguese
The Syncretism of Two Worlds: Modern and Traditional Medicine in Peru

Katharine Reed, History
Myths of Revolution: Development and State Violence in Mexico, 1968-1976

Jordan Salama, Spanish and Portuguese
The Illusion of Memory: Four Weeks Down Colombia’s Magdalena River

Nora Schultz, Politics
Anarchist Theories of Change and Action, with Practice in Uruguay

Janelle Spence, Spanish and Portuguese
Black Film as Art Conceptions of Black Film in Brazil and Cuba

Daniel Sullivan, History
The Southern Star of Empire: Shifting Attitudes Toward Mexico During the U.S. Civil War

Elizabeth Tian, Computer Science
Investigating the Emerging Technology Ecosystem within Peru*

Rachel Todd, Spanish and Portuguese
La Maldición de Antioquia: Stigma, Illness Metaphors and Caregiver Narratives of Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease in Colombia

Samuel D. Vilchez Santiago, Woodrow Wilson School
From Revolution to Diaspora: Societal Responses to Venezuelan Migration in Cúcuta and Boa Vista

Catalina Vives, Economics
The Effect of Crime Victimization on Institutional Disenfranchisement and Political Preferences in Mexico

Michael Wisner, Woodrow Wilson School
Argentina, Brazil, and the Politics of Desert Storm Decision-Making*

Class of 2018

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

Paloma Aguas, Spanish and Portuguese
Parliamentary Coup or Proper Impeachment? The Fall of Dilma Rousseff and the Collapse of Brazilian Democracy

Sophia Megan Alvarez, Anthropology
LAS 363/ANT 387 Medicine and Society in Contemporary Cuba

Alexandra Kaitlyn Aparicio, Politics
Sin El Campo, No Hay Futuro: Rural Protest in Argentina, 2007 - 2012

Chinenye Azoba, Molecular Biology
LAS 395 Caribbean Revolutions: From Plantation Slavery to Global Tourism

Kyle Michael Berlin, Spanish and Portuguese
Partial Catalogue of the End of the World: Fragments from Patagonia

Francisca Bermudez, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
SOC 210/LAS 210/URB 210/LAO 210 Urban Sociology: The City and Social Change in The Americas

Sarah Brennan, Spanish and Portuguese
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown: How Ibero-American Cinema Perpetuates and Dismantles Marianismo and Machismo-In uenced Gender Roles in Society

Alexandra Maria Corina Acevedo, Economics
Understanding the Impact of South-South Trade Agreements: An Analysis of the MERCOSUR’s Effects on Trade Patterns

Lila Margaret Currie, History
LAS 377/AAS 313/HIS 213 Modern Caribbean History

Samuel Davies, Politics
Dissecting Dominicanidad: An Analysis of The Dominican Diaspora and Its Effect On Northeastern, Tri-State Politics

Alexandra Diamond, Spanish and Portuguese
“¡Qué sucia está tu bebé!”: Medical Culture and the Doctor Patient Relationship in Argentina

Patrick Dinh, Spanish and Portuguese
An Examination of Afro-Latino Blackness

Gabrielle Escalante, Psychology
LAS 395 Caribbean Revolutions: From Plantation Slavery to Global Tourism

Maxwell Banks Grear, Spanish and Portuguese
El Paquete Semanal: Informal Networks and Emerging Infrastructures in Cuban Media Myesha

Dortaya Jemison, Spanish and Portuguese
LAS 395 Caribbean Revolutions: From Plantation Slavery to Global Tourism

Caroline Dwyer Jones, Woodrow Wilson School
Colombia’s Take Two: Applying Lessons from the Paramilitary*

Faridah Emily Laffan, History
“Philosophia a Vita Magistra”: The Order of Friars Minor in Colonial Salvador da Bahia

Jessica Lu, Comparative Literature
Journey to the Jungle: Formulating Community in Postcolonial Travel Narratives of
20th Century Latin America

Erin Hannah Lynch, History
Princeton in Cuba Study Abroad: Poetics, Analysis and Translation (course)

Kelly Ann McCabe, Spanish and Portuguese
ART 367/LAS 373 Inca Art and Architecture

Mary Katherine McDonough, Woodrow Wilson School
A Tale of 287(g) Counties: Diverging Municipal Immigration Policy in Hudson and Monmouth Counties, New Jersey

Gabriela Isabel Molina, Spanish and Portuguese
Can Trees Speak?: Decolonizing Amazonian Imaginaries

Soraya Alejandra Morales Nuñez, Politics
A Comparative Case Analysis of The International & Domestic Determinants of Judicial Reform in Mexico, 2012 – 2016

Victoria Navarro, Spanish and Portuguese
Radical Women in Mexico: Contemporary works by Mexican women that re ect on violence, the body, and the collective

Diego E. Negrón-Reichard, Woodrow Wilson School
Policy Responsiveness in Different Electoral Regimes: Majoritarian vs. Proportional Representation in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic

Camila Novo-Viaño, Woodrow Wilson School
Outsourced Justice: An Evaluation of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala and Its Potential for Replication

Maria De La Cruz Perales Sanchez, Woodrow Wilson School
SPA 335: Mexico’s Tenth Muse: Sor Juana de la Cruz

Isaac Piecuch, History
Endangered Species: Young Men Within Colombia’s Culture of Violence

Caitlin M. Quinn, Woodrow Wilson School
The Differential Effect of Brazil’s Bolsa Família on School Enrollment Across Age Levels*

Samuel Chambers Rob, Woodrow Wilson School
Reconciling Bioenergy and Food Production in Cuba: A Case for Integrating Competing Agricultural Models on the Caribbean’s Largest Island

Anna Amina-Rose Simon, African American Studies
ART 419/LAS 399 Theory, History and Practice of Textiles: The Andes

Nehemiah Melaku Teferi, Politics
Black, Queer, and Female: A place in the Cuban Revolution from 1959-Present*

Angélica María Vielma, Art and Archaeology
Exhibition - The Incorruptible Body

Diego Vives Toro, Economics
On the International Spillover Effects of the U.S. Fed’s Quantitative Easing: Lessons from Latin America

Joseph Edward Wood, Woodrow Wilson School
Health Suffering in Argentina’s Villa 21-24: Lessons Learned from Environmental and Urban Neglect

Class of 2017

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

Miranda Alperstein, Philosophy
The Construction of the Socially Conscious Hip-Hop Movement*

Dylan Blau Edelstein, Spanish and Portuguese
Saudade de Nise: Memory and Mental Health in Rio de Janeiro

Eliza Anne Davis, Woodrow Wilson School
Exploring Foreign Aid and Indigenous Populations in Latin America*

Jose De Alba, Economics
Patria Progreso y Procede: An Econometric Analysis of Mexico's Primary Land-Titling Reform and Its Impact on the Pre-Existing Effects within Rural Communities

Sofia Hiltner, Psychology
La Respuesta a la Escasez: El Agro y la distribución alimentaria en Cuba*

Ava Rose Hoffman, Independent Concentration in Comparative Urban Development Studies
Everyday Violence: Representation and Resistance in Complexo do Alemão, Rio de Janeiro - Brazil

Krishan Ramesh Kania, Spanish and Portuguese
The Politics of Art and Medicine: A Case Study on the Development and Exportation of Contemporary Cuban Art and Cuban Health Care

Anne Elizabeth Kartheiser, Woodrow Wilson School
Structural Risk and Cognitive Protection: Social Capital and Criminal Victimization in Latin America and the Caribbean

Sergio Leos, History
Dos Patrias: Global and National Communities in the Universal Thought of José Martí

Juliana Lopez, Spanish and Portuguese
The Housing Problem: Exclusionary Practices and Socialist Revisionism in Turn-of-the-Century Havana

Adjoa Mante, Spanish and Portuguese
“Incluir el Sentir del Pueblo" Healing la Comunidad Afro from Collective Trauma in Kilombo Niara Sharay

Erik Maritz, Spanish and Portuguese
Subversion through Self Starvation: Material and Symbolic Economies of Indigenous Women's Hunger in Bolivia

Francisco Martinez, Woodrow Wilson School
Uma Viagem Para Todos: Identifying and Analyzing the Determinants of Tourism Policy in Lula's Brazil

Lucas Mazzotti, Woodrow Wilson School
Understanding Environmentalism: A Comparative Case Study in Chile

Elizabeth McDonald, Operations Research and Financial Engineering
Situating Mexico’s New Electricity Auctions in Latin America’s Existing History of Electricity Auctions*

Lara Norgaard, Comparative Literature
States of Discourse Traces of Crime: Detective Fiction and the Social Construction of Memory in Post-Dictatorship Brazil and Argentina

Courtney Brittany Perales, Anthropology
Puerto Rico Nació En Mí:  Exploring Cultural Nationalism and Revolutionary Violence in Independence Movements

Vivian Ramirez, Woodrow Wilson School
More Money less Problems: Strategies in Mexican Education Reform

Edwin Rosales, English
Spring on Fire: A Guatemalan Story*

Jennifer Shyue, Comparative Literature
Independent Translation Project*

Vanessa Smith, Anthropology
Taking a Closer Look:  The Ethics and Implications of the Collection Curation and Display of Cultural Objects within Museums

Charlotte Morris Williams, Anthropology
Making the Descendants: The Return of Machu Picchu's Artifacts to an Inca Nation

Emma Scott Wingreen, Woodrow Wilson School
Candidatas No Electas: Evaluating Chile’s Legislative Gender Quota

Lacey-Ann Alissa Wisdom, History
Between the Third World and the Whole World: Michael Manley's Doomed Campaign for Economic Independence and Change in Jamaica 1972-1980

Margaret Wright, English
Soleida Ríos*

Yihemba Yikona, Politics
Let Their Voices Be Heard: Afro-Descendant Inclusion in the 2016 Colombian Peace Agreement

Class of 2016

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

Selome Rosalie Olivia Adechi, Spanish and Portuguese
Sell Thy Neighbor: Exploring Transformations in Cuban Art Financed and Sold Abroad

Sophia Celine Aguilar, Politics
The Implications of Labeling on Attention and Resource Allocation to Internally Displaced Persons in Mexico City

Alexander Davidson Beatty, History
El Conflicto Armado en Colombia: The National Front, Regional Elites, and the Rise of Paramilitarism

Dennisse Carolina Calle, Sociology
El Paquete: A Qualitative Study of Cuba’s Transition from Socialism to Quasi-Capitalism

Nathan Lang Eckstein, Woodrow Wilson School
Public Opinions of Free Market, Democracy, and the US in Latin America

Marlin Yoselin Paola Gramajo, Sociology
East LA’s “Beverly Hills:” Neighborhood Realities and Developers’ Fantasies in Tierra De Luz, Boyle Heights

Johannes Magnus Hallermeier, Philosophy
Refugees and Economic Migrants: Two Groups with Similar Claims to be Admitted to Foreign Countries

Megan Joanne Harewood, Politics
Apan Jhant / Vote for Your Own Kind: The Impact of Political Competition and Elite Frustrations on Ethnic Conflict in Trinidad and Guyana

Helena Michelle Hengelbrok, Anthropology
Water Belongs to Those Who Are Thirsty: An Ethnography of Water, Political Belonging, and Health in Urubamba, Peru

Benjamin Harper Hummel, History
The Case of the Cuban Poet Padilla: Contentious Negotiations and Fractured Relationships of the Latin American Boom Generation, 1971

Nicolas Hurtado-Ramirez, Woodrow Wilson School
FIFA’s Host Country Demands: A Comparative Case Study of Colombia and Mexico for the 1986 World Cup

Manuel Eduardo Marichal, Politics
Unveiling the Puerto Rican Debt Crisis: An Analysis of Federal and Local Level Political Catalysts

Mary Ann Ferguson McNulty, Woodrow Wilson School
When Environmental and Social Crises Collide: Problems in the Periphery are Center Stage in the São Paulo Water Crisis

Seth Merkin Morokoff, Economics
The Impact of Brazil’s Bolsa Familia on Child Labor Supply Effects by Age and Employment Sector

Isabela Maria Peña Gonzalez, Woodrow Wilson School
Putting a Price Tag on the American Dream: The Politics of the EB-5 Investor Visa

Isabella Marie Peraertz, Woodrow Wilson School
Democratizing Transportation: A Comparative Analysis of Accessibility and Public Private Partnerships in Bogotá’s TransMilenio and Rio de Janeiro’s BRT Rio

Kourtney Pony, Comparative Literature
Complicating the Narrative: Viewing Medicine through A Literary Lens in Brazilian Lupus Patient Testimonies

Melody Zhang Qui, Woodrow Wilson School
To Push or to Cut? Decision-Making in Childbirth Amid the Brazilian Cesarean Epidemic

Christian Eduardo Pérez Rodriguez, Economics
Remittances and Dutch Disease in Mexico: An Analysis of the Macroeconomic Effects of Surging Remittance Flows

Andrea Roxana Rodríguez Gallego, Woodrow Wilson School
The Electoral Returns of Hugo Chávez’s Bolivarian Missions in Venezuela

Abdiel Santiago, Politics
In the Shadow of the Stars and Stripes: An Experimental Analysis on the Manufacturing of Support for Puerto Rican Statehood

Kasturi Sanjiv Shah, Physics
Modeling Freshwater Supply from its Origin: At High-Altitude Glaciers

Jamie Lee Shenk, History
Where Were You When They Killed Lara Bonilla? Politics of Drugs and Peace in Colombia (1982-1984)

Alvaro Sottil, Philosophy
Defining the Problems of Carnap’s Aufbau*

Sol Taubin, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Modeling Dissolved Oxygen Levels in the Navarrete-Cañuelas Sub-Basin Of the Matanza-Riachuelo River Watershed Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina

Lea Mariah Trusty, Politics
The Transformation of Ser Negro: Afro-Colombian Social Movements in the Late Twentieth Century

Rachel Louise Updike, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Measles in the “Post-Elimination” United States: Threats and Implications of Vaccine Refusal and Domestic Immunization Policy in the Third Millennium

Adriana Thais Vitagliano, Woodrow Wilson School
Emerging Entrepreneurship and Foreign Investment in Cuba

Zachary Wilhelm Wall, History
Islands of Insanity: U.S. Intervention in Brazil and the Dominican Republic, 1964-1966

Alanna Williams, Economics
Democratic Deepening or Degradation? Economic Analyses of Municipal Participatory Democracy in Peruvian Security Administration

Karis Haejin Yi, Politics
State Incentives in Civil War Negotiations: Military Autonomy in Guatemala And Turkey

Class of 2015

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

Elise Rosalie Backman, Woodrow Wilson School
Nosso Norte é o Sul: Brazil’s Membership in Mercosul and Strategies for Institutional Reform

Logan Hall Coleman, Politics
Recontextualizing Las Maras: Policing Failures and the Evolution of Gang Violence in Central America

Celina Pearl Culver, Woodrow Wilson School
U.S. Impact on Democratic Civilian Control in Latin America

Brett Timothy Diehl, History
Between the Old Republic and the New State: Constructing Social Order in Rio de Janeiro, 1930–1937

Joan Fernandez, History
(Un)clear Transmission: Radio Marti and the Search for Miami’s Cuban Community, 1980-1987

Rafael Saiz García, Woodrow Wilson School
Lessons in Transitional Justice, Spain: The Dog That Never Barked

Maeli Ariel Goren, Comparative Literature
The Story of Mamãe: An Original Play for Young Audiences Inspired by José de Alencar’s Iracema

Alexandra Lâle Gürel, History
Conflict and Cooperation: The Rockefeller Foundation’s Relationship with the Medical and Nursing Schools of São Paulo, 1916-1944

Tyler Paige Hastie, Woodrow Wilson School
Seeking Success: A Comparative Study of Brazil and South Africa as Regional Powers

Daniel Paul Johnson Jr., Woodrow Wilson School
Neutralizing Fractionalization

Ariana Lieselotte Lazzaroni, Economics
Implementing Sterilized Intervention under an Inflation Targeting Regime: An ARCH Model Approach

Camille Yuying Lin, Woodrow Wilson School
Vaccine Procurement in Developing Countries: A Case Study of the Revolving Fund

Yessica Martinez, Comparative Literature
A Tale of Conquering

Rachel Parks, Anthropology
Bolivians in Brazil: The Interface of Culture, Race, and Health in an Immigrant Community of São Paulo

Shayla Reid, Spanish and Portuguese
Mulher como Protagonista: Women’s Experiences with Parto Humanizado in São Paulo, Brazil

Eleanor F. Roberts, Politics
Unaccompanied Alien Minors from Central America: For Expanding U.S. Immigration Protections

Marcelo Alonso Rochabrun Ore, History
In Search of a Liberal Mandate: The Political Campaign of Mario Vargas Llosa

Radha Sarkar, Politics
The Rebels’ Resource Curse: A Comparison of the Naxalites in India and the FARC in Colombia

Misha Semenov, School of Architecture
Playing by the Rules: Examining the Interactions of Rules, Built Form, and Social Behavior in American Residential Communities

Elizabeth Ann Tolman, Physics
Force-Free Magnetohydrodynamics Near Kerr Black Holes

Nshira Abena Turkson, Woodrow Wilson School
Litany for the Black City: Ghetto Reform Policy in South Africa, Brazil and the United States

Class of 2014

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

David Abugaber, Independent
Language Shift from Ixil Mayan to Spanish in a Highland Guatemalan Town

Miryam Amsili, History
Nazi-Fascist, Anti-Semite, or Anti-Zionist? The Roots of the Debates Surrounding Tacuara in Argentina

Alejandro Arroyo Yamin, Archaeology
Masked Exoticism: Relating Architecture to Authentic Experiences in Mexican Beach Resorts

Rachael Baitel, Politics
Rising Through the Ranks: A Comparative Analysis of the Pathways to Power of Current Women Presidents in Latin America

Cecilia Buerkle, Comparative Literature
Torn at the Border: Seeking Home and Identity on Mango Street

Madison Bush, History
The Books of Angelópolis: A Study of the Book Culture and Libraries in Puebla de los Ángeles: 1531-1640

Agnes Cho, Anthropology
Commodifying Cookstoves: Social Entrepreneurship and the Improved Cookstove Industry

Luc Cohen, Woodrow Wilson School
Exit, but Mostly Exclusion: Policy Options for Reducing the Size of Mexico's Informal Economy

Andrea DeLeon, Economics
Expectation and Utilization: Socioeconomic Determinants of Access to and Attitudes Towards Brazilian Health Care

Elizabeth Driggs, Economics
Positive Side Effects: The Interaction between Conditional Cash Transfer Programs and Women's Empowerment

Ryan Elliott, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Triatomines and Trypanosomes: Fitness Impacts of Trypanosoma cruzi and Trypanosoma rangeli Mono- and Co-infections in the Triatomine Vector Rhodnius prolixus

Lukas Gaffney, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Assessment of the Influence of Primate Species, Deforestation, and Tree Cover on Malaria Transmission in Latin America

Iara Guzman, Politics
Protracted Conflict in Colombia: How Incentive Structures Shape Negotiations and Their Outcomes

Emily Hill, Woodrow Wilson School
The American Human Rights Convention: Motivations and Efficacy

Damali James, Woodrow Wilson School
Dominican Denationalization: A Discussion of TC0168-13 and Factors of Dominican Immigration Policy

Kelsey D. Janke, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Human Land-Use and Forest Regeneration as Drivers of Bat Diversity and Activity in a Tropical Dry Forest

Abril Loya Enriquez, English
"El Olvido Está Tan Lleno De Memoria": Cultural Memory Salience in Chile and Mexico through Isabel Allende's "The House of the Spirits" and Roberto Bolaño's "Amulet"

Amanda Morgan Mitchell, History
Cuba Aqui and Allá: Between the Boom and Revolution 1959-1971

Arianna Munguia, Politics
More than Just Money: A Case Study on the Effects of Remittances and Immigration in the Salvadoran Towns of Chirilagua, Intipucá and El Cuco

Rebecca Newmark, Anthropology
The Fruit of their Labor: Placentophagia and Embodied Meaning-Making Among American Women

Neelay Patil, Woodrow Wilson School
Neglecting "A New Beginning": Stagnant U.S. - Cuba Relations Under Barack Obama

Minerva H. Pedroza, Anthropology
Lives in Transition: Navigating Public Trans Healthcare in São Paulo, Brazil

Clayton Taylor Platt, Woodrow Wilson School
Misguided Goals on the International Stage: An Analysis of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, and the Economic and Social Implications of Developing Nations Hosting Mega-Events

Brian Reilly, Woodrow Wilson School
Civilians in the Killing Business? A Case Study of Post-9/11 Paramilitary Action by the Central Intelligence Agency in Pakistan

Erika Rios, History
Chile's Divided Path to Revolution: An Analysis of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (Mir), 1964-1973

Christian J. Rivera, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Facing the 2013 Gold Rush: A Population Viability Analysis for the Endangered White-Lipped Peccary (Tayassu pecari) in Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica

Sloan Rudberg, Woodrow Wilson School
Mind the Gap in São Paulo: An Analysis of Airport Access and Integrated Transportation in Brazil's Federal Infrastructure Policies

Daniel Santillan, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Stability Augmentation of an Oblique Wing RC Aircraft

Brittany Serafino, Woodrow Wilson School
Storming the Gates: How Gated Communities and the "Mexodus" Have Contributed to Residential Segregation since the Turn of the Century

Steven Server, History
Dos Arbolitos: Cultivating the US-Mexican Border

Peter Smith, Sociology
Where's the Beef? Cultural and Socioeconomic Determinants of Meat Consumption in Brazil

Carrico Ana Torres, Politics
The Emergence of Global Slums: Colonialism and State Policy in Brazil and South Africa

Alejandro Van Zandt-Escobar, Computer Science
Gesture Variation Estimation for Whole-Body Movement Interactions

Lauren Wyman, Economics
Analyzing the Impact of a Dual Lizard Introduction on Orb-weaving Spider Communities in the Bahamas: An Experimental Approach

Gibran Osvaldo Zavalza, Politics
Understanding the Mexican Voter: Major Factors Influencing Voter Choice in the Context of the 2012 Presidential Election

Naomi Zucker, Anthropology
Visions of Health and Care in São Paulo, Brazil

Class of 2013

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

Alexander Aguayo, Comparative Literature
Coming Apart at the Seams: Unstable Identities in Manuel Puig’s Kiss of the Spider Woman

Monica Ines Beltran, Woodrow Wilson School
Educational Promises and State Failures: A Comparative Study of General Education and Intercultural Bilingual Education Policy in Peru

Osasumwen Edamwen Benjamin, Comparative Literature
Transnational Angst: Black Existentialism in Contemporary Afro-Brazilian Narratives

Lauren Ann Castro, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Flight Performance of Trypanosome-Infected Rhodnius Pallescens: Implications for the Spatio-Temporal Spread of Chagas Disease in Rural Landscapes

Courtney Allen Crumpler, Anthropology
Cultivating Health in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Brandon Scott Davis, Anthropology
Desiring Israel: Gays, Jews, and Homonationalism*

Briyana Clarel Davis, Sociology
(Re)defining The Activist Occupation: Identity, Intersectionality, and LGBT Activism in Salvador da Bahia

Carly Therese De La Hoz, Architecture
The Favela Typology: Architecture in the Self-Built City
Certificate in Latin American Studies, Brazilian Track

Andrea de Sá, Woodrow Wilson School
Brazil’s Nuclear Submarine Program: Navigating the Uncharted Waters of the Non-Proliferation Treaty

Carrie Allison Diamond, Spanish and Portuguese
Dentro do Campo the Metaphor of Brazilian Soccer: Race, Space and Language

Ubaldo Escalante, Architecture
Contemporary Latin American Modernism

Ashley Elizabeth Evelyn, Spanish and Portuguese
The Formation of Transnational Black Identity among African-Descendants in Early Twentieth Century Cuba

Angelica Marie Ferrandino, Spanish and Portuguese
Grains of Race in Cartagena de Indias: A Study of Cuisine and Power in Cartagena, Colombia

Aseneth Garza, Anthropology
Politics of Memory in Post-War Guatemala: Church and State Accounts of Civil War

Thomas Peixoto Irby, History
Military Rule in Brazil: Narratives Concerning Human Rights and Development (1961-1978)

Amy Marie Olivero, Woodrow Wilson School
Targeting the Supply, Not the Demand: Inconsistencies in U.S. Immigration Enforcement

Dimitris Papaconstantinou, Philosophy
Facts and Fallibility: Establishing a Fallibilist Public Sphere

Daniela del Rocio Perea, Politics
Politics of Giving: Explaining Divergent Tax Policies in Mexico and the United States

Sofia Agustina Quinodoz, Molecular Biology
Photography & Memory: How Argentina Remembers the Dirty War*

Luis Alejandro Ramos, Politics
Educating Chile: A Forensic Investigation of the Ongoing Chilean Student Movement

Grecia Abigail Rivas, Comparative Literature
From the Page to the Screen: An In-Depth Analysis of Representations of Race in Fernando Meirelles’ “City Of God”

Erika Loren Smith, Chemistry
Unveiling the Mysteries of Maya Color: Characterization of Late Classic Maya Ceramic Vessel Pigments

Kaya Leigh Ten-Pow, Woodrow Wilson School
Are We Fighting the Wrong War? Cocaine Consumption in Latin America and the Global Drug Policy Paradigm

Flora Carpenter Thomson-DeVeaux, Spanish and Portuguese
Sex, Death, and the Aristocracy: The Universal History of Santiago Badariotti Merlo (*Although Not Necessarily in That Order)*
Certificate in Latin American Studies, Brazilian Track

Emily Ann VanderLinden, Politics
The Politics of Education: Comparing Centralization in Chile and Cuba

Erick Walsh, Economics
Financial Dollarization and Financial (In)Stability: Evidence from Latin America

James Bailey Williams, Politics
Security Cooperation in the Americas: Explaining the Institutionalization of the Inter-American Security Regime

Class of 2012

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

Katherine Alvarez, Sociology
Constructing Social Change: A Study of Medellín’s Social Urbanism

Stephanie Marie Alvarez, Politics
Innovation and Success: Medellín System for the Provision of Services to the Displaced Population

Luciana Fernanda Chamorro Elizondo, Anthropology
Narrating the Nicaraguan Civil War: An Ethnographic Account of Re-membering in San Juan del Norte

Mayenne Gael Chess, English
Like So Many Views Seen Through Bright Glass: The Train as a Modernist Symbol in Texts by Ford, Lawrence and Cortázar

Sophia Marie D’Angelo, Spanish and Portuguese
Inter-Caribbean Relations and the Afro-Caribbean Diaspora: Race and Nationalism in Haitian, Dominican and Puerto Rican Popular Culture

Addie Marie Darling, Comparative Literature
Veritas in Nihilum: An Investigation of the Poetry of Roy Campbell, Octavio Paz & Juan de la Cruz

Aparajita Das, Economics
Tudo Monitorado: The Impacts of Military Pacification on Crime Rates in Rio de Janeiro

María José Dobles Madrigal, Woodrow Wilson School
Violence and Drug Trafficking in Central America: "The Ghosts of Institutions Past, Present and Future"

Brianna Nicole Eastridge, Anthropology
Dime con Quién Andas y te Diré Quién Eres: The Development of Mexican-Americans as a New Social Class in the United States

Adriana Maria Estor, Politics
The Question of Project Lending: A Comparative Analysis of the Effectiveness of the World Bank in Latin America

María Julia Gutiérrez, Woodrow Wilson School
Devising Regional Solutions: An Analysis of Violence Trends in Northern Mexico, 1997-2010

Laura Elizabeth Hamm, Anthropology
Mapuche Resurging: the Reappropriation of Indigenous Struggle in the Chilean Nation

Ricardo López, Spanish and Portuguese
Narcotraduccíon: Reacciones y Lecciones del Lenguaje ante la “Mexican Drug War”

Leo Daniel Mena, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Creating Connection: Live Fence Structure and its Role in Sustaining Avifauna Diversity in Panama

Martha Melissa Montoya, Sociology
Escondido Transformed: How the Highly Visible Latino Population Becomes Invisible

Stephanie Morales, Spanish and Portuguese
Projeto Orla 2005: The Barraqueiros’ Lack of an Agenda and the Imbalance of Power Which Led to The Demolishment of the Barracas

J. David Peña, Politics
Racist Violence and Immigration in Spain: impact on the Latin American, North African and Eastern European Immigrant Groups

Niurka Grissel Peralta Malena, Sociology
The Color of Money: Trade, Gender and Nationality in a Dominican Market

Hannah Rose Sanzetenea, Spanish and Portuguese
‘El Tiempo Vuela’: La Vida, la Muerte, y el Tiempo en un Libro Infantil Ilustrado Original

Andréa Gabriella Schiller, Politics
Somebody Save Us: The Role of the Federal Government in Bailouts

Natalie Helen Shoup, Operations Research and Financial Engineering
Sustainable Energy Economics: Optimizing the Integration of Renewables in Guatemala

Lindsay Marie von Clemm, Economics
A Macro Stress Testing Framework of Liquidity Risk in the Latin American Banking Sector

Tiffania Lissette Willetts, Economics
The True Cost of an Education: Income's Effect on Educational Attainment in Buenos Aires, 1980-2006

Sojung Yi, Anthropology
Uncharted: Territorialization of Health Care and the Travails of the Urban Poor in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Erica Meyer Zendell, Comparative Literature
Bread, Circuses, and Steel: Mega-Sporting Events, National Image, and Modernization in China and Brazil (Beijing 2008, Brazil 2014, and Rio 2016)

Class of 2011

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

Chinekwu O. Anunwa, Woodrow Wilson School
Defending La Hoja Sagrada: Cocalero Movements and Political Change in Bolivia and Peru

Christopher Peter Bellaire, Woodrow Wilson School
Civil-Military Relations in Counterinsurgency Campaigns: An Analysis of the Peace Process in Colombia and Afghanistan

Cantey Sutton Brown, Politics
Colossus of the North: Understanding Sources of Anti- and Pro-American Sentiment in Latin America

Marieugenia Cardenas, Spanish and Portuguese
Image Through Film, Testimony and Verse: Representations of the 1968 Tlatelolco Student Massacre

Alexander Michael Cordones Cook, Comparative Literature
Single-Sex Theory in Postmodern Latin American Narrative: The Metaphorics of Gender Transgression in René Marqués and César Aira

Lauren Katherine Cubellis, Anthropology
Walking an Authentic Path: The Curandera and Alternative Medicine in the Southwest United States

Alissa Maria Escarce, History
Radical Roads and Tamed Revolutions: Mexico’s National Indigenist Institute in Highland Chiapas, 1951–1953

Joshua Benjamin Franklin, Anthropology
Claiming the Right to Transgender Health in Brazil

Adrian Gallegos Gallegos, Spanish and Portuguese
Pedro Páramo Excerpt Translated

Sierra Rose Gronewold, Anthropology
A Defense of Culture: The Experience of Latin American Immigrants in the Bronx Family Court

Rocío Gutiérrez, Comparative Literature
Los Hombros Encogidos: Truth and Myth in Roberto Bolaño’s Amuleto, Los Detectives Salvajes, and 2666

Phyllis Lucille Heitjan, Spanish and Portuguese
Living Ghosts and Time Warps: Art Remembering Argentina’s Last Dictatorship

Julia Mae Kaplan, Woodrow Wilson School
Institutionalizing South America: The Union of South American Nations

Julia Collins Kearny, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Chagas Disease in Tarija, Bolivia: A Population Dynamics Model for Predicting Prevalence in Host and Vector Populations

Natalie Julia Kitroeff, Woodrow Wilson School
Touching the ‘Untouchables’: An Evaluation of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala

Cynthia Laura Kroll, Spanish and Portuguese
El Acceso al Agua en las Colonias de Laredo, Texas: Salud, Representación, e Incertidumbre

Kevin Edward McGinnis, Woodrow Wilson School
Household Water for All in Lima, Peru: State or Private Sector Solutions?

Megan Elizabeth McPhee, Woodrow Wilson School
Walking the Last Three Feet Without Boots on the Ground: Public Diplomacy and Stabilization in Fragile States

Pauline Karen Nalikka, Spanish and Portuguese
O Baile Todo: Representations of Women in Funk Carioca

Emily Constance Nguyen, Politics
Mandatory Voting Policy in Latin America: A Comparative Study of Democratic Representation

Manuel Pérez, History
Organizing for Power: Indigenous Responses to Oil Drilling in Ecuador

Alyssa Christine Pont, Politics
Social Movements, Indians, and the Internet: How Internet-Based Communication Technology Affected Indigenous Movements in Mexico

Isabel Christine Ramírez, Spanish and Portuguese
Music, Miscegenation and the Mulata in the Tropics: Analogous Expressions of Fascination in the Poemas Negros of Jorge de Lima and Luis Palés Matos

Philip M. Rothaus, Spanish and Portuguese
Madness in Translation: Language, Laughter and Loucura in "O Alienista"

Elías Ramón Sánchez-Eppler, Woodrow Wilson School
New Patterns, New Places, New Perspectives; What Post-Transitional Fertility Patterns Tell Us about Argentine Fertility and What Argentina Tells Us about Them

Patricia Maria Sever, Spanish and Portuguese
La Vaga Coherencia del Mundo: Perception and Creation in Adolfo Bioy Casares’ La invención de Morel and Plan de Evasión

Claudia Alejandra Solís-Roman, Woodrow Wilson School
Challenges of Universal Access to AIDS Treatment in Brazil

Isaiah Mark Usher, Woodrow Wilson School
Accountability in Action: Empowerment and the Quality of Care in Rural Mexico

Class of 2010

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

Carolina Isabel Ardila-Zurek, Politics
The Rise and Fall of the Medellín and Cali Cocaine Organizations

Felipe Gutiérrez Cabrera, Comparative Literature
Responses to Latin American State Terrorism in Literature and the Visual Arts

Denzel R.B. Cadet, Comparative Literature
The Indelible Stain of Blackness: Expressions of Nationalism in Dominican and Haitian Poetry

Alex Kerbel Gertner, Anthropology
Pharmaceutical Care, Public Experiments, and Patient Knowledge in the Brazilian Public Healthcare System

Andrés Rodrigo Guerra, Anthropology
Pride, Polvo, and Pharmaceuticals: A Case Study on the Asthmatic Anomaly in Puerto Rico

Carlos Santiago Imberton, Politics
Understanding Patterns of Violence in El Salvador: Gangs, Governmental Policy and Civilian Response

Maria J. Lacayo, History
A Fervent, Frail Hope: Fragile Democracies and the Human Rights Conventions in Europe and Latin America

Thomas Vincent López, Woodrow Wilson School
Combating Coca: From the District of Columbia to el Distrito Capital

Eric Javier Macías, Woodrow Wilson School
Assessing the Cycle of Poverty in the Evaluation of Oportunidades and Bolsa Família: A Cross-National Study of Conditional Cash Transfer Programs

Ruth Ngolela Byrnes Metzel, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
From “Finca” to Forest: Forest Cover Change and Land Management in Los Santos, Panama

Anna Trumbull Moccia-Field, Woodrow Wilson School
Worker Participation in Latin American Pension Systems: Lessons from the Reforms in Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay

Rafael G. Palomino Badilla, Sociology
Take It or Leave It: Perceptions Towards a Victim Compensation Fund in Northern Mexico

Kalyani Parthasarathy, Economics
Capacity Utilization and Economic Policy - Argentina and Brazil: 1970–2004

Alejandro Perez, Spanish and Portuguese
A Devious Odyssey: Roberto Bolaño’s Anti-epic

Mónica Teresa Ramírez de Arellano, Woodrow Wilson School
Drilling through the Layers of Uncertainty: Brazil’s Social Gain or Resource Curse?

Fernando Salvador Sánchez, Sociology
Keeping the Planner’s Promise: The Impact of Building for Olympic Events on the Social and Economic Demography of the City

Andrew Michael Segal, Spanish and Portuguese
Imaginação Geográfica: An Examination of the Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro’s 19th Century Efforts to Territorialize Brazil

Gustavo Andrés Silva Cano, Woodrow Wilson School
The Worst Solution Except for All the Others: A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Drug Prohibition and Legalization in Colombia

Catalina Valencia, Politics
Colombia: Bending the Rules to Reparative Justice

Christine Elizabeth Vidmar, Sociology
Ironbound: An Ethnographic Study of Brazilian Immigrants in Newark, New Jersey

Class of 2009

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

Dylan Rich Alban, Spanish and Portuguese
The Wandering Musicians: A Translation, History, and Commentary

Kristen Nicole Badal, Politics
Women in Latin American Politics: A Family Affair

Molly Elizabeth Borowitz, Comparative Literature
Between the Lines: Grotesque Allegory and Sociopolitical Commentary in Baudelaire, Orozco, Kafka, and Casey

Shannon Marie Brink, Woodrow Wilson School
Staying Ahead Collectively?: Evaluating the Inter-American Foundation in the Footsteps of A.O. Hirschman

Jacob Rodney Candelaria, Woodrow Wilson School
Contemporary Venezuelan Oil Policy: An Institutional Analysis

Madeline Elise Carroll, Art and Archaeology
Mythic Moments: A Comparative Contextualization of Classic Period Maya Vases and the “Popol Vuh"

Yvonne Marie Chasser, Spanish and Portuguese
La Salud Reproductiva de las Comunidades Indígenas y Marginadas en Latinoamérica: Un Argumento para la Re-incorporación de la Partería Tradicional

Luke Marshall Goodwin, History
Selling Sickness: The Argentine Press and the 1976 Coup d’État

Tolu Kafilat Lanrewaju, Anthropology
The Invisible Population: HIV/AIDS along the U.S.-Mexico Border

Douglas Clark Lennox II, Anthropology
Swimming Up This Mean Stream: An Anthropological Attempt at Solving the “Puerto Rican Problem” through an Olympic Lens

Daniel Simon Levien, Woodrow Wilson School
A Transformative Venture? Considering Cultural Tourism and Economic Empowerment in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Johanna Desiree López, Sociology
Negotiating Motherhood: The Implications of Gender in the Migrant Experiences of Salvadoran Transnational Mothers

Thomas William Methvin, Sociology
The New Mexican-Americans: International Retirement Migration and Development in an Expatriate Community in Mexico

Diana Ruth Norton, Spanish and Portuguese
Jorge Negrete in Spain: The First Certamen Cinematográfico Hispanoamericano, Jalisco canta en Sevilla and the Discourse on Hispanidad

Monique Lorraine Roberts, Politics
International Regime Complexity: A Case Study of Cooperation between the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization

Vanessa Rodríguez, History
Henequen in Modern Yucatan, 1750–1910: Labor Arrangements and the Transition from Subsistence to Capitalism

Mauricio Sánchez de la Paz, Economics
An Empirical Study of the Effect of Immigration on Wages: New Evidence from the Immigrant Population

Hugo Arellano Santoyo, Physics
Religión en la Sierra: The Making of a National Sanctuary: Santa Catarina Juquila, Mexico*

Elizabeth Bowlsby Schwall, History
Dance Dance Revolution: Concert Dance, Cubanidad, and the Cuban Revolution

Kristen Marjorie Scott, Politics
Retributive Justice and Trials in the Southern Cone

Alexandra Leigh Smith, Spanish and Portuguese
Surreal Salvador Dali: The Paranoiac Critical Challenge

Jay David Thornton, History
Making Something of a Revolution: Antonio Maceo’s Attempt to Institutionalize Cuba’s 1898 War for Independence

Laura Pier Valle, Sociology
In Pursuit of Success: Ethnicity and Social Capital in the Professional Workplace

Lauren Ashley Whitehead, Spanish and Portuguese
La Herencia Agridulce: “Bittersweet Inheritance” Race and Ethnicity from Early Iberia to Modern Latin America

Whitney Erica Williams, Woodrow Wilson School
Brasil AfroAtitude (Quinto Ano do Programa): A Roadmap for the Evaluation and Sustainability of Brazil’s First Scholarship Program for Quota Students

Milana Zaurova, Woodrow Wilson School
Fastfoodería vs. Fritura: A Qualitative Analysis of Nutrition-Related Health Behavior of Mainland and Island Puerto Ricans

Class of 2008

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

Carlos Eduardo Arreche Aguayo, Mathematics
Las Letras Antes de las Armas: Las Alianzas en la Poética Bélica de José Martí*

David Brett Baker, IV, Spanish and Portuguese
Luis Sepúlveda: ¿Una Voz Literaria Representativa del Medio Ambiente en Chile? 

Nana-Ama N. Boayke, History
¿Todo Hombre Tiene el Derecho? A Look into the Chilean Rights Discourse, 1973-1978

Christopher Thomas Breen, Politics
Confronting Challenges to U.S. Hemispheric Leadership: A Comparative Study of Policy Responses to the Governments of Hugo Chávez and Evo Morales

Monica Nicole Cepak, Politics
Going Global: The Struggle for International Unionism in Latin America

Timothy Paul Cheston, Woodrow Wilson School
The Politics of South-South Trade Policy: The Causes and Consequences of the Silent Revolution in Trade

Luke Jonathan Cohler, Woodrow Wilson School
Para Inglês Ver? An Evaluation of Urban Planning Policies in Curitiba, Brazil

Julia Lea Frydman, Spanish and Portuguese
Authoring Memory, Elena Poniatowska’s La noche de Tlatelolco and Carlos Monsiváis’ Días de Guardar: Accounts of the 1968 Mexican Student Movement

Nathan M. Geller, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Characterizing the Effect of Land-Use on the Nitrogen Cycle in Northwestern Costa Rica: A Novel Evaluation of Human Disturbance in the Tropics

Michael D. Hidalgo, Spanish and Portuguese
Rebellious Rhetoric: Intellectuals and Guerrillas in México and Colombia

Kurt William Kuehne, Politics
Making a Killing: The Rise of Colombia’s Paramilitary Proto-State

Kathryn Ashley Lankester, Woodrow Wilson School
¿Progreso y Prosperidad? The Effects of Mexico’s Neoliberal Economic Reforms on Remittance Flows from the United States to Mexico: 1965-2007

Regina Blair Lee, Politics
A Two-Way Street to Development: Migration and Remittances in South America

Joshua Andrew Loehrer, Woodrow Wilson School
An Uncertain Future: Bolivia’s Microfinance Industry under Evo Morales

Alma Esperanza Moedano, Woodrow Wilson School
Educating Brazil’s Urban Poor: Potential of Tailored Early Childhood Development Programs

Sian Miranda Singh Ófaoláin, Woodrow Wilson School
Transnational Migration and International Child Support Policy between the United States and Mexico

Margaret Lindsey Orr, Economics
A Study of Foreign Direct Investment into Latin America in Two Parts: Political Determinants and Sensitivity Analysis

Alexandra Ripp, Spanish and Portuguese
The Politics of the Avant-Garde: Daniel Veronese and the Teatro Joven

Jorge Santana, Economics
Transitioning Toward Development: An Econometric Analysis of Electoral Reforms in Mexico