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.

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. 

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).

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. 

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.  

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). 

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.

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.

Degree Pursued: MA

Anticipated Degree Year: 2026

Committee Chair/Advisor: Shaoling Ma

Discipline: Asian Studies

Primary Language(s): Malaysian

Research Countries: Singapore

Research Interests: Sinophone Popular Music, Gender, Diaspora