Graduate Students

2018-19

Oxana Sidorova is a first year graduate student pursuing a Master of Arts in Latino and Latin American Studies. She received her B.A. in Marketing Management from the Don State Technical University, Russia.Her research interests are first and second language acquisition, translanguaging, language teaching and learning, world language education. She is particularly interested in bilingual and multilingual education,intercultural communication, intercultural competence, CLIL, project-based learning, designed-based learning, interdisciplinary in language teaching and learning. 

Victoria Almodovar is a first year graduate student pursuing a Master of Arts in Latino and Latin American Studies. She received her B.A. in Psychology from the University of Connecticut. Her long term goal is to help increase the number of opportunities given to Latinos in the United States through education, advocacy, and policy. Specifically, she plans to explore the issues and intersection of identity and education among Latinos in the United States.

Julia Marchese is a second-year graduate student pursuing a Master of Arts in Latina/o and Latin American Studies. She received her B.A. in Spanish Literature and Translation with a minor in Philosophy from Kent State University in Ohio. She is interested in how race and language intersect in multilingual school settings. Her thesis research uses a theoretical framework of raciolinguistics to investigate the schooling experiences of linguistically diverse students at a predominantly Latino/a/x high school.

Megan Fountain is a second-year graduate student pursuing a Master of Arts in Latino and Latin American Studies. She received her B.A. in Literature from Yale University and has worked extensively with Guatemalan and Mexican migrants in Connecticut. She is particularly interested in investigating how oppressed communities engage with processes of transitional justice, memory, and reparations in Central and North America.

Rocio Orozco is a first-year MA student who received her bachelor's degree Anthropology from California State University-Sacramento. Her research interests are the concept of "race" and how it intersects with politics and economics; human rights; Mexican immigration; and the lives of Mexican immigrants. Her primary focus is on understanding the lives and experiences of women migrants and minority rights.

Felix Padilla-Carbonell is a second-year graduate student pursuing a Master of Arts in Latino and Latin American Studies. He received a B.A. in Political Science and a Juris Doctor in Law from UPR-Rio Piedras. His long-term goal is to enter the national conversation on the welfare of Latina/os, in an advisory role.

Matheus Souza is a first-year graduate student who received his B.A. at the University of Connecticut. His research interests are the processes of creating, implementing and analyzing policies and government actions that meet the needs of society as a whole while strengthening the positive impact of governments, non-govermental organizations, and other civil society actors. Eventually he would like to work with international development agencies.

2017-18

2017-18

Megan Fountain is a first year graduate student pursuing a Master of Arts in Latino and Latin American Studies. She received her B.A. in Literature from Yale University and has worked extensively with Guatemalan and Mexican migrants in Connecticut. She is particularly interested in investigating how oppressed communities engage with processes of transitional justice, memory, and reparations in Central and North America.

Stephanie Mercado-Irizarry is a second year graduate student pursuing a Master of Arts in Latino and Latin American Studies. She received her B.A. in Political Science from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras in 2014. Her current research includes the study of precarious work and the displacement of communities through neoliberal policies, how it leads to the expulsion of the population, and new forms of colonialism in Puerto Rico. Stephanie analyzes the crisis of the last decade through an interdisciplinary lens, analyzing how this social and political crisis is narrated and discussed through literature.

Andrea Miranda is a second-year MA student who received her bachelor's degree in History from the Universidad de Cartagena, Colombia. In 2012 and 2013 she won The Young Research Scholarship granted by the Colombian National Science System (COLCIENCIAS). In 2015 she received her postgraduate studies in Higher Education and in 2016 she received her Masters degree in Cultural Heritage at the Universidad de Panamá. Her research interests include race, politics, Caribbean studies and the history of education.

Shanelle Morris is a second-year graduate student pursuing a Master of Arts in Latino and Latin American Studies. She is also pursuing the Human Rights and Nonprofit Management graduate certificate. She received her B.A. in International Studies from Trinity College in 2016. Her research interests include colonialism, imperialism, race, culture and the African Diaspora in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Ashley Ortiz-Chico is a second-year graduate student who received her bachelor’s in Political Science with a specialty in International Relations and Political Theory and a minor in Latin American and Puerto Rican Literature from la Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Río Piedras. Research interests include Latin American and Caribbean Politics and economic development. Currently she is studying the relationship between Puerto Rico and the US and the PROMESA bill.

Felix Padilla-Carbonell is a first year graduate student pursuing a Master of Arts in Latino and Latin American Studies. He received a B.A. in Political Science and a Juris Doctor in Law from UPR-Rio Piedras. His long-term goal is to enter the national conversation on the welfare of Latina/os, in an advisory role.

Lauren Perez-Bonilla is a second-year graduate student who obtained her bachelor’s degree at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras in Interdisciplinary Social Sciences with a minor in International Relations. Her area of study includes both quantitative and qualitative research methods and techniques, which comes with a fair handling of computer programs such as SPSS and GIS (including Model Builder). Currently, she is interested in the sex work industry in the Dominican Republic, body politics, masculinities in the Caribbean and its correlation with mental health issues.

Katherine Pérez Quiñones is a second-year graduate student who received her B.A. at the University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras. While majoring in Political Science, she also received a certificate in Women and Gender Studies. Her research considers higher education, inequalities and dissent from the frameworks and theories of democracy. Her other interests such as memory studies and the uses and abuses of history, always manage to infiltrate her scholarly activity.

Cindy Portillo is a second-year graduate student who received her B.A. at the University of Richmond. Cindy’s research interests include unaccompanied child migration from Central America to the United States and violence and poverty in the Northern Triangle region. Currently, she is focused on the effect of educational policies and school environment on Latino English language learners.

Ilan Unger is a second-year graduate student pursuing a Master of Arts in Latino and Latin American Studies. He received his B.S. in Business Management and B.A. in Spanish/Portuguese from UNC-Asheville. His research interest is on the 2001 economic crises of Argentina and its effects on trade (imports and exports). It focuses on the agribusiness sector before and after the devaluation and hyperinflation of the Argentine national currency(ARS).  He is currently working with Dr. Fiona Vernal on the history of Jamaican Immigration to the Hartford area.