Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Gorka Villar Vásquez
LACS Graduate Fellow '25-'26
Gorka Villar Vásquez (Puerto Varas, Chile) is a PhD student in History. Fulbright- ANID Chile Scholarship. Author of the books Compromiso militante y producción historiográfica. Hernán Ramírez Necochea y Julio César Jobet (1930-1973). Santiago.
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Daniella Prieto
LACS Graduate Fellow '25-'26
Daniella Prieto is a PhD student of Spanish in the department of Romance Studies with a graduate minor in Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Her research focuses on representations of violence against women in contexts of state violence in modern and contemporary Latin American literature. She is also interested in Gothic, Horror and Weird fiction.
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Javier Sánchez Mora
LACS Graduate Fellow '25-'26
Javier Sánchez Mora. PhD student, Cornell University. His research has focused on the history of autonomous indigenous populations in southern Central America. He has published academic research on the history of the indigenous population of Talamanca, located on what is today the border between Costa Rica and Panama. He has been an editorial assistant for the journals Cuadernos Inter.c.a.mbio sobre Central America y el Caribbean (UCR) and the Anuario de Estudios Centroamericanos (UCR).
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Emma MacCallum
LACS Graduate Fellow '25-'26
Emma MacCallum is a PhD student in Comparative Politics in the Department of Government. Her research interests include civil society organizations, political violence, and weak states. She is especially interested in studying the behavior and composition of civil society organizations amidst violence and state weakness in Central America. More broadly, she interrogates how service and goods provision by civil society organizations originates and impacts political identities.
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Sofia Meados-Muriel
LACS Graduate Fellow '25-'26
Sofía (they/she) is a PhD student in Africana Studies. Their research looks at the political discourses and practices of black Puerto Ricans as they participated in anti-colonial movements and struggles for Pan-Africanism during the 20th century. By focusing on the political activities of black people in the Spanish Caribbean, she utilizes literary and archival sources to frame how Puerto Rican thinkers conceptualize a black transnational future that is inspired by the legacies of 19th century revolutions.
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Dayra Lascano
LACS Graduate Fellow '25-'26
Dayra Lascano is a PhD student in the Department of Government at Cornell University, specializing in International Relations with a minor focus on Comparative Politics. Her research focuses on understanding the conditions that promote successful cooperation among political leaders within Regional International Organizations (RIOs).
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Natalia Correa Sánchez
LACS Graduate Fellow '25-'26
Natalia Correa Sánchez is a PhD student in Development Studies at Cornell University. Originally from Bogotá, Colombia, she holds a law degree and master’s degrees in Public Policy and Sociology from Universidad de Los Andes. Her research examines the spatial and temporal dimensions of shifting access to forest land and natural resources in Colombia, with a focus on the interactions between legal frameworks, conservation initiatives, and rural livelihoods.
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Aisha Fuenzalida Butt
LACS Graduate Fellow '25-'26
Aisha Fuenzalida Butt is a PhD student in the Department of Anthropology and a CIAMS affiliate. Her research examines marine waste and plastic, conservation, tourism and heritage in the Canary Islands.
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How Falsehoods Drove Trump’s Immigration Crackdown in his First 100 Days
María Cristina García, Migrations/LACS
“I don’t think we have a full understanding yet of the many ways the Trump administration is changing our immigration system,” says María Cristina García, professor of history.
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Caribbean Graduate Research Grants
Details
A rare opportunity has emerged for graduate students conducting research on Caribbean topics. As part of ongoing efforts to promote Caribbean Studies at Cornell, the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program is offering funding to conduct research that requires students to travel to the Caribbean or to libraries, archives, or other sites outside the Caribbean that hold collections or resources for the study of the Caribbean and its diasporas. Cornell graduate students in all disciplines are eligible to apply. The research should be conducted during Summer 2025 or Academic Year 2025-2026 and grantees are expected to submit a brief report (500 words) of what they accomplished with the funding.
Applications must include a brief description of the research topic, including information about the proposed research sites, a budget, and a research schedule. This description should not exceed 500 words. Requested funds should not exceed $2,000.
Please submit applications as a Word or PDF file to Ernesto Bassi (eb577@cornell.edu) and Judith Byfield (jab632@cornell.edu). If you have any questions, please email professors Bassi and Byfield.
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Funding Type
- Travel Grant
Role
- Student