Graduate students are listed by department. To update or add your information, or to be added to or removed from the graduate student mailing list, please email lasc@colorado.edu.
- Baillie, Hal
- Department: Anthropology (Archaeology), MA (Alumnus)
- Research Interests: RV09 Pilot project exploring the construction sequence and development of the Rio Viejo Acropolis in conjuncture with the rise and dispersal of the Rio Viejo Polity in the lower Rio Verde Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico
- Region of Interest: Mexico and Belize
- Bender, Richard
- Department: Anthropology (Biological), PhD
- Research Interests: I am primarily interested in nutritional anthropology and human biology.
- Region of Interest: Colombia
- Dixon, Chris
- Department: Anthropology (Archaeology), PhD
- Research Interests: My research is at the Ceren archaeological site in El Salvador studyingClassic Period Maya agricultural practices
- Region of Interest: El Salvador
- Egan, Rachel
- Department: Anthropology, PhD
- Research Interests: My research focuses on the impacts and responses to sudden extreme environmental hazards and disasters. In particular, I study the impact of the mid-6th century eruption of the Ilopango Caldera, El Salvador on local populations.
- Region of Interest: Mesoamerica
- Fischer, Kate
- Department: Anthropology (Cultural), PhD (Alumna)
- Research Interests: Coffee, CAFTA, and the Welfare State: Challenges to Costa RicanExceptionalism
- Region of Interest: Costa Rica
- Forde, Jamie
- Department: Anthropology (Archaeology), PhD
- Research Interests: Daily Life and Ideology at Colonial Achiutla, Oaxaca, Mexico
- Region of Interest: Mexico
- Hedgepeth, Jessica
- Department: Anthropology (Archaeology), PhD
- Research Interests: Land Use Patterns in the Lower Rio Verde Valley, Oaxaca: Formative to Postclassic Shifts
- Region of Interest: Mexico
- Hepp, Guy
- Department: Anthropology (Archaeology), PhD (Alumnus)
- Research Interests: The objective of this archaeological research project at the site of La Consentida is to investigate the sociocultural conditioning factors of an Early Formative period community in an area not previously known for Early Formative deposits.
- Region of Interest: Mexico
- Jennings, Sarah
- Department: Anthropology (Archaeology), MA
- Research Interests: Mold-made Figurines of the Lower Río Verde Valley, Oaxaca, Mexico: Insights Into Domestic Ritual and Ideology in the Classic and Early Postclassic
- Region of Interest: Mexico
- Lattin, Malinda
- Department: Anthropology (Cultural), MA (Alumna)
- Research Interests: Human/women’s rights
- Region of Interest: Guatemala
- Martinez Cervantes, Ruth
- Department: Anthropology (Archaeology), PhD
- Research Interests: Different uses of manioc at the site Joya de Ceren.
- Region of Interest: El Salvador
- Mena, Meryleen
- Department: Anthropology (Cultural), PhD
- Research Interests: Meryleen’s research is in cultural anthropology, with a focus on ethnic Latin American identities, collective memory, political economy, and gender
- Region of Interest: Venezuela, Brazil
- Merriman, Dani
- Department: Anthropology (Cultural), PhD
- Research Interests: History and memory, visual anthropology, political art and the politics of aesthetics, structural and political violence, transitional justice, truth and reconciliation commissions, post-war reparations, Latin America (Colombia)
- Region of Interest: Colombia
- Rieger, Ivy
- Department: Anthropology (Cultural), PhD (Alumna)
- Research Interests: I conducted dissertation research on the ways in which members of the indigenous Mixtec community of San Juan Mixtepec, Oaxaca conceptualize belonging through the lens of their fiesta cycle. I am currently completing the writing phase of my dissertation and plan to graduate in 2015.
- Region of Interest: Oaxaca, Mexico
- Scott, Jason
- Department: Anthropology (Cultural), PhD
- Research Interests:
- Region of Interest: Brazil
- Wigington, Emily
- Department: Anthropology (Archaeology), MA (Alumna)
- Research Interests: Archaeology of colonial Mexico
- Region of Interest: Mexico
- Williams, David
- Department: Anthropology (Archaeology), MA (Alumnus)
- Research Interests: Chipped Stone Analysis from the Lower Río Verde Valley, Oaxaca, Mexico
- Region of Interest: Mexico
- Butts, Morgan
- Department: Art History, MA
- Research Interests: Primarily interested in issues of representation of Pre-Columbian arts from the Andean region and cross-cultural exchange of iconography prior to colonization.
- Region of Interest: Andes
- Kristina Ruiz-Mesa
- Department: Communication, PhD program
- Research Interests: Access and success in Higher Education, DREAM Act, Rhetoric of immigration, social justice and communication
- Regions of interest: US, Mexico, Cuba
- Dill, Dustin
- Department: Comparative Literature
- Research Interests: Mexico, U.S., Literature, Theory
- Region of Interest: Mexico
- Judy, Lauren
- Department: Comparative Literature, MA
- Research Interests: National Identity in Latin American/Andean Literature
- Region of Interest: Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile
- Jadin, Robert
- Department: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Ph.D.
- Research Interests: My research is on snake systematics and morphological evolution in the New World tropics.
- Region of Interest: Bolivia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama, Peru
- Orlofske, Sarah
- Department: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Ph.D.
- Research Interests: Tropical Amphibian Conservation and Ecotourism; Systematics and Phylogenetics
- Region of Interest: Peru and Panama
- Bucciferro, Justin
- Department: Economics, PhD
- Research Interests: Economic History of Latin America
- Region of Interest: Brazil
- Castro, Luis
- Department: Economics, PhD
- Research Interests: The effect of IPR on FDI in Chile. Basically trying to see the effect of stronger intellectual Property Rights on Foreign Direct Investment in Chile.
- Region of Interest: Chile
- Vavrus, Joseph
- Department: Economics, PhD
- Research Interests: Development policy, international trade, cash transfer programs, banking
- Region of Interest: Brazil
- Werfel, Eric
- Department: Economics, PhD
- Research Interests: Land ownership, economic development, environment and water
- Region of Interest: Argentina, Colombia, Bolivia, and Mexico
- DiGiacomo, Daniela
- Department: Education, PhD
- Research Interests: Mexican and Central American immigration and education
- Region of Interest: Mexico and Central America
- Hamm-Rodríguez, Molly
- Department: Education, Educational Equity & Cultural Diversity, PhD
- Research Interests: Language, im/migration, social identity and schooling; raciolinguistics; transnationalism, diaspora, and citizenship; relational racialization in historical context; Afro-Latinidad; digital humanities
- Region of Interest: Dominican Republic, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Caribbean
- Ruiz-Martínez, María
- Department: Education, Educational Equity & Cultural Diversity
- Research Interests: Examining how race and the intersecting categories of gender, class, sexuality, indigeneity, and ethnicity impact the lives of Mexican transnational students
- Region of Interest: Mexico
- Belmont, Suzanne
- Department: Civil Engineering
- Research Interests: Engineering in developing communities, civil systems, education access for those living in poverty
- Region of Interest: Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Columbia, Brazil, Chile, Bolivia
- Chatterley, Christie
- Department: Civil Engineering, Ph.D.
- Research Interests: Monitoring and evaluation, water and sanitation, handwashing
- Region of Interest: Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador
- Mahoney, Ryan
- Department: Civil Engineering, M.S.
- Research Interests: Sustainable technologies in sanitation and water
- Region of Interest: Peru
- Walters, Jeff
- Department: Civil Engineering, Ph.D.
- Research Interests: Systems thinking approaches for sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene programs
- Region of Interest: Peru, Bolivia, Nicaragua
- Chan, Joanna
- Department: Environmental Studies, Ph.D.
- Research Interests: Four factors driving local ownership of community-based sustainable development projects
- Region of Interest: Nicaragua
- Lokey, Elizabeth
- Department: Environmental Studies, Ph.D.
- Research Interests: I qualify projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions to various voluntary standards and is managing a project on carbon capture and sequestration funded by the UK’s Strategic Programme Fund and am working on an inventory of abandoned coal mines in Chin
- Region of Interest: Latin America
- Ravikumar, Ashwin
- Department: Environmental Studies, Ph.D.
- Research Interests: Distribution of renewable energy products in the developing world, including Latin America
- Region of Interest: Latin America
- Simmonds, Ricardo
- Department: Environmental Studies, MA
- Research Interests: Environmental philosophy and development at a theoretical level, with climate change mitigation in Peru as an application.
- Region of Interest: Peru; native of Brazil
- Malaver, Laura
- Department: Ethnic Studies
- Research Interests: US/Latinx cultural studies, Queer theory/queer of color critique, Performance, Film, relationality, decoloniality, transnationalism, and gender studies.
- Region of Interest: Colombia, transnational diaspora
- Correia, Joel
- Department: Geography, PhD
- Research Interests: My research currently investigates three Inter-American Court on Human Rights cases in favor of indigenous territorial claims in the Paraguayan Chaco. I am interested in indigenous rights, cultural politics, political ecology, development studies, and the law.
- Region of Interest: Southern Cone
- Counter, Max
- Department: Geography, MA
- Research Interests: My research examines the intersection of physical disability and internal displacement as experienced by land mine victims in northeastern Colombia.
- Region of Interest: Colombia
- Gifford, Lauren
- Department: Geography, PhD
- Research Interests: International climate change policy, international development, carbon markets, carbon offsets, carbon accounting, forest carbon and REDD+ (Reduced Emissions from Degradation and Deforestation), cap and trade, social costs of climate change, environmental justice, and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
- Region of Interest: Peru
- Green, Sue
- Department: Geography
- Research Interests: Migration, population dynamics, and health
- Region of Interest: Mexico
- Maclaurin, Galen
- Department: Geography, MA
- Research Interests: Perceptions of safety and danger in Medellin, Colombia: alternative representations of crime patterns
- Region of Interest: Colombia
- Malone, Aaron
- Department: Geography, PhD
- Research Interests: Migration, development, Mexico, economic geography
- Region of Interest: Mexico
- Miller Villegas, Leigh
- Department: Geography, Ph.D.
- Research Interests: Land-use and livelihood issues involved in the creation of a new national parks system and sustainable tourism initiative in Uruguay
- Region of Interest: Uruguay
- Norlund, Petra
- Department: Geography, Ph.D.
- Department: Geography, Ph.D.
- Sheehan, Connor
- Department: Geography, MA
- Research Interests: I study the effects of remittances on business creation.
- Region of Interest: Mexico
- Subia Smith, Gabriella
- Department: Geography, PhD
- Research Interests: Critical cartography, development, political ecology
- Region of Interest: Colombia
- Cullison, Jennifer
- Department: History, PhD
- Research Interests:Working title for dissertation: “Resisting Criminalization, Commodification, and Privatization: Undocumented Migrant Responses to Expanding U.S. I.N.S. Border Patrol and Detention, 1952-1996.” With this immigration policy history that privileges Mexican and Central American migrant perspectives, I am exploring multinational questions of power and space in the history of U.S. I.N.S. policies including those of Border Patrol and detention centers. I am working most extensively with diplomatic archives and oral histories in Washington, D.C., Mexico City, and the borderlands between Texas and Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas. My wider interests in Latin America extend also to Brazil where I lived for some time before starting my PhD program.
- Region of Interest: Mexico and Central America
- Foss, Chris
- Department: History, Ph.D.
- Research Interests: I’m broadly working on U.S. political and cultural relations vis a vis Latin America during the Cold War, but my specific area of interest is U.S. relations with Chile and Argentina.
- Region of Interest: Chile and Argentina
- Libero, Elizabeth
- Department: History, Ph.D.
- Research Interests: Atlantic world in the “long” eighteenth century, Imperialism, Maritime culture. Currently researching the British Royal Navy expedition to Rio de la Plata
- Region of Interest: Argentina and Caribbean
- Riordan, Bill
- Department: History, Ph.D.
- Research Interests: 19th century Mexican liberalism and nationalism. My work focuses on the national histories (Invention of Tradition) written by Mexican liberal intellectuals in the late 19th century (1867-1902).
- Region of Interest: Mexico
- McWilliams Mierzejewski, Heather
- Department: Journalism and Mass Communication, MA
- Research Interests: Interested in stories from Latin America with a CU connection
- Region of Interest: All
- Red, Magdelana
- Department: Journalism and Mass Communication, Ph.D.
- Research Interests: “Re-Interpreting Mexican Rock Music: The ‘Local’ form of a Global Movement” — a theoretical reappraisal of the role of Mexico’s rock music, its relationship with youth, the state, and political expression.
- Region of Interest: Mexico
- Sandoval, Richard
- Department: Linguistics, Ph.D.
- Research Interests: I am researching issues at the intersection of language, globalization, and identity in the northern New Mexico/southern Colorado Hispano enclave of the US.
- Region of Interest: US/Mexico Border
- Pratarelli, Nick
- Department: Mathematics, MA
- Research Interests:
- Region of Interest: Argentina
- Cupery, David
- Department: Political Science, PhD
- Research Interests: I am generally interested in development, political economy and regional integration with Latin American. Currently I am working on a paper on anti-Americanism in Latin America
- Region of Interest: Andean South America
- Foxworth, Raymond
- Department: Political Science, PhD
- Research Interests: Most of my current projects have focused on the resurgence of indigenous identities and how this affects political outcomes (protest, social movements, policy, views of government responsiveness, etc).
- Region of Interest: Bolivia and Peru
- Huebert, Erin Terese
- Department: Political Science, PhD
- Research Interests: Democracy, Development, Rule of Law, and Indigenous/Gender Rights
- Region of Interest: Mexico and Central America
- Mullenax, Shawnna
- Department: Political Science, Ph.D.
- Research Interests: Women’s rights, social movements, and development
- Region of Interest: Bolivia, Southern Cone
- Nelson-Nunez, Jami
- Department: Political Science, PhD
- Research Interests: Public goods, development, water and sanitation, political participation and civil society
- Region of Interest: Peru, Dominican Republic
- Richardson, Lindsey
- Department: Political Science, PhD
- Research Interests: Gender, development, and political participation
- Region of Interest: Guatemala
- Torpey-Saboe, Nichole
- Department: Political Science, PhD
- Research Interests: Poverty and development, natural resource governance, food security, politics of ethnicity, social exclusion
- Region of Interest: Andean countries, Brazil
- Wojcik, Stefan
- Department: Political Science, PhD
- Research Interests: Political parties and political networks
- Region of Interest: Brazil
- Zarychta, Alan
- Department: Political Science, PhD
- Research Interests: Polycentric governance and the politics of public services in developing countries, focusing on health systems and environmental policy; government effectiveness at the local level; governance reforms and international development; Latin America
- Region of Interest: Central America
- Cronin, Kathryn
- Department: Sociology, Ph.D.
- Research Interests: Women and development
- Region of Interest: Latin America
- Nawrotzki, Raphael
- Department: Sociology and Institute of Behavioral Science, Ph.D.
- Department: Sociology and Institute of Behavioral Science, Ph.D.
- LePree, Josh
- Department: Sociology, Ph.D.
- Research Interests: Mexican migration to the U.S., masculinity, racialization, immigration policy, qualitative methods
- Region of Interest: Mexico and Central America
- Peterson, Rachel
- Department: Sociology, Ph.D.
- Research Interests: Population health, Latina populations in Arizona and in the Dominican Republic
- Region of Interest: Dominican Republic and Latin America generally
- Iwasaki, María Fernanda
- Department: Spanish and Portuguese, PhD
- Research Interests: Dramatic literature, performance, poetry, contemporary Latin American narrative, literature and the arts.
- Region of Interest: Perú, Argentina, Chile
- Keogh, Ximena
- Department: Spanish and Portuguese, PhD
- Research Interests: My research focuses on liminal subjecthoods and queer identities in Latin American and U.S American literary and filmic productions. My areas of interest include border studies, queer theory and gender studies.
- Region of Interest: Dominican Republic and Argentina
- Muñoz, Javier
- Department: Spanish and Portuguese, PhD
- Research Interests: Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Spanish American Literature, Narrative fiction, Avant-garde, Indigenismo
- Region of Interest: Perú, Argentina, Chile, México, Colombia