Students
Almlie, Peter
Peter Almlie completed his BA in Latin American Studies at San Diego State University, where he focused on housing issues in Mixtec communities in Oaxaca, Mexico. After extensive travels throughout Latin America, he worked for a non-profit agency which focused on providing housing in the peripheral colonias of Tijuana. Seeking a greater understanding of the built environment, Peter entered the dual degree program in Latin American Studies and Community and Regional Planning at UT Austin where he continues to study issues related to housing, transportation and development in Latin America. In May he will begin writing his thesis which will explore issues of land use and value in relation to three new metro stops along the recently completed Metro de Santo Domingo; part of a major "National Master Plan" to improve transportation and expand infrastructure in the Dominican Republic. Upon completing his dual degree Peter would like use his thesis work as a template for other quickly expanding cities which lack sufficient transportation systems.
Bosquez, Monica (Dual Degree Program: MA in LLILAS/MSCRP 2009)
Monica Bosquez, native of Corpus Christi, Texas, earned a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Texas at Austin before working for five years as an analyst and legislative aide at the Texas Legislature, where she focused on natural resource, education and Border policy. She then served in the U.S. Peace Corps in Panama as an Environmental Conservation Volunteer from 2002-2005. She worked as a 2007 Ford Fellow in Guanajuato, Mexico, serves on the Board of Directors of the DiscoverHope Fund, a local non-profit which supports micro-credit programs in Cajamarca, Peru, and is part of an applied G.I.S. project led by the UT community and regional planning program in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Monica is currently employed as a Program Specialist with the Office of Rural Community Affairs, where she manages a self-help water and wastewater fund for low and moderate-income residents across the state.
Bossin, Meredith (LLILAS / CRP)
Meredith, originally from Houston, Texas, received her B.A. in the History of Art and Architecture from Rice University. After a six-month trip to South America, she decided to pursue a degree in Latin American Studies and chose the University of Texas because of the opportunity to pursue Planning as well. The focus of her research is gender in the context of development. She volunteered with ProyectArte, a non-profit art program in Buenos Aires, during the summer of 2006 and completed the Civil Society Institute Program in Mexico in the Summer 2007 semester. Currently, she is participating in a service learning course that involves fieldwork in the Dominican Republic and developing her thesis which will compare female entrepreneurship in Cuba and the Dominican Republic. Upon graduation, she hopes to work in the field of international development.
Carte, Lindsey
Lindsey Carte is a second year M.A. candidate at LLILAS. She holds a B.A. in Latin American and Caribbean Studies from McGill University in Montreal. Her major interests include Latin American regional migration and migration policy, borderlands and transnationalism. The research for her master’s thesis examines the under-studied Central American migrations to Southern Mexico, and in particular to the Mexico-Guatemala border city of Tapachula. This year, Lindsey served as co-coordinator of our 28th Annual ILASSA Student Conference on Latin America. Lindsey oversaw fundraising and the logistical planning for the event, which she greatly enjoyed. She is also happy to be participating in a transnational development grant-writing seminar, where she is gaining experience she hopes to use in her professional life. Though Lindsey ultimately wishes to pursue her doctoral degree, she is seeking employment related to her passion for migration issues, social and economic justice and Latin America.
Correa, Teresa
Teresa Correa is a master’s student of Latin American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Native of Chile, she studied journalism at Universidad Católica de Chile, and spent almost three years as a news reporter for her home country’s daily newspaper, El Mercurio, where she wrote in-depth stories on foreign affairs, politics, economics and social issues. Her current research interests focus on communication, media sociology, gender and poverty in Latin America. She has published articles on the status of women and the media in Chile and the press coverage and public perceptions of the then female presidential candidate, Michelle Bachelet. After her graduation in May 2008, she will start doctoral program in the School of Journalism at UT.
Daley, Erin
Erin Daley is a dual degree master’s student in Latin American Studies and Public Affairs. She graduated from Wake Forest University in 2002 with a BA in Spanish and completed a graduate program in Community Development at the Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro in Mexico in 2004 as a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholar. In Mexico, Erin wrote her thesis on microfinance and savings in rural communities in Querétaro. While at UT she has researched the health care needs of American retirees in Mexico, studied social vulnerability in informal urban settlements, designed transnational development proposals, and worked as a management consultant to a Mexican nonprofit. In addition to Mexico, Erin has studied and conducted research in Spain, the Dominican Republic and Brazil. Prior to coming to UT, Erin managed a family violence prevention initiative for migrant farm workers. Erin’s primary policy and research interests include migration, health and international development.
Episcopo, Brian
Brian Episcopo is from El Paso, Texas and received his Graduate degree in International Studies from Texas State University. For his Master's degree at LLILAS, Brian's primary focus is 20th century economic history. In this field, he is currently working on a thesis examining the cumulative economic and social impact of U.S. American emigration to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. After graduation, Brian plans on traveling abroad to English, and then either returning to the United States to teach at the junior college or university level, or, possibly pursuing a teaching career in international schools within Latin America.
Gale, Michael
Michael Gale, originally from Wichita, KS and coming to Austin via Washington, DC, is finishing up his second and final year in LLILAS. While at UT, Michael has focused his studies on Indigenous language politics and urbanization/modernization in the Andean region. He recently spent four weeks in Lima conducting research for his thesis, "Quechua Language Maintenance Among Migrants to Lima, Peru". Michael also worked for a month last summer in Quito, Ecuador as a consultant to a non-profit theater group through a Ford Foundation Fellowship. After graduation, Michael hopes to find employment in a Latin-American related field in Washington, DC, and would appreciate any suggestions.
Gutierrez Escobar, Laura Maria
My name is Laura Maria Gutierrez Escobar and I am a current Master student at the Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. I am originally from Colombia where I obtained a B.A. with honors in History from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, in Bogota. I am taking the Cultural Politics of Afro-Latin and Indigenous People Concentration and I am interested in activist anthropology. My academic research focuses on issues of Andean indigenous identity and forms of resistance in the context of state-endorsed policies of multiculturalism and neoliberalism. Specifically, for my Master's thesis I am interested in the indigenous movement in Bolivia led by Evo Morales and the MAS.
Jones, Naya
As a LLILAS Master’s student, Naya combines the fields of Anthropology, Geography, and Ethnobotany in her research. Her interests include the African Diaspora in México, critical race theory, racialization, medicinal plant use/knowledge, and the interaction between medical systems. She strives to understand how the processes of the African Diaspora – slavery, marginalization, the construction of race - continue to impact the lives of Afro-descendants. She is particularly interested in health and healing in Black communities. Her thesis examines plant use and its interaction with clinical care among Afro-descendants in México. Her inspiration stems from a passion for racial/social justice, and from her experiences as a Black and Mexican-American. Aside from academics, Naya is active in the Black Graduate Student Association (BGSA). Her extracurricular efforts center on issues affecting students of color on the campus. Outside of school, she enjoys working within the greater community, writing, dancing, and travel.
Juckett, Karen
Karen Juckett is pursuing a dual Master’s degree in Public Policy and Latin American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Karen’s academic interests include domestic and international economic development, poverty reduction, inequality, development assistance, remittances and development, globalization and nonprofit studies. Karen currently works as a Policy Associate for the Texas Association of Community Development Corporations, which supports affordable housing and community development organizations in Texas. During the summer of 2006 Karen interned in the Economic Section at the U.S. Embassy in Managua, Nicaragua. From 2002 to 2005 she worked at the Inter-American Foundation, a federal agency that supports community development in Latin America and the Caribbean. Karen has a B.A. in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia
Kelley, Maritza
Maritza Kelley holds a BA in Latin American Studies from the University of California Santa Cruz and is expected to graduate from UT with a MA from the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies and a MPAff from the LBJ School of Public Affairs in 2008. Her experiences as an AmeriCorps Volunteer in the elementary schools of Salinas, California, a predominantly migrant farmworker community, guided her graduate and professional interests in education policy and school governance in the Americas. In between semesters, Maritza can be found south of the border, working on development projects, meeting new people, or just pursuing the perfect empanada.
Kihm, Hadyn
Hadyn Kihm is pursuing a dual degree Master’s in Latin American Studies and Public Policy. She hails from Alexandria, Virginia and graduated from T.C. Williams, the high school made famous by the movie “Remember the Titans.” She received Graduate degrees in Latin American Studies and International Relations from the College of William and Mary, and during her time in Williamsburg she worked as an advocate for the homeless and food insecure population in the city. She is currently working with Alacridad, Inc., an Austin-based NGO that sponsors volunteers and provides computer equipment to communities in Brazil and Panama. She has lived and traveled in Argentina and Brazil and her focus of study is Southern Cone development, particularly the role of governance in creating urban spatial equality. She is considered by many to be a connoisseur of empanadas and is rarely seen without her yerba mate kit.
Koivumaeki, Riitta-Ilona
Riitta-Ilona Koivumaeki is interested in party politics and conservative parties in Latin America. She did her undergrad in Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Tampere in Finland. Before coming to Austin, she worked as journalist with the Finnish News Agency and with the Russian TV news channel Russia.
LaMotte, Gina
Gina LaMotte is pursuing a Master’s degree in Latin American Studies at the University of Texas in Austin. Originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota, she received her B.A. in Education and Identity Politics from the Friends World Program of Long Island University. As an Graduate, she lived and worked on the Taos Pueblo in New Mexico, followed by studies in India, Nepal, Costa Rica and Brazil. She has since returned to Brazil several times, continuing to study Afro-Brazilian culture and sharing her enthusiasm with the people of Austin through organizing inter-cultural exchange and musical performances. LaMotte’s research is focused on Brazilian studies, nonprofit management and sustainable development.
Martinez, Lorena
My name is Lorena Martinez and I am currently enrolled in the Master's program with LLILAS. My focus is Afro-descendant mobilization in Brazil in regards to higher education. I plan on researching Affirmative Action in Bahia and Minas Gerais. I plan on working with community organizations as a way to explore how people are mobilizing. I plan to receive a doctorate in Anthropology. Some fun plans that I have made for near future are to do the Pacific Crest Trail (from Washington to Mexico) within the next year. I will start training for it when I return from Brazil Fall semester.
Matamoros Mercado, Ruth
Ruth Matamoros Mercado was born in Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua on November 15, 1980. She received a Law degree from the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua in August 2003. Prior to entering graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin she worked in a local NGO in Nicaragua that works to support miskitu people’s land rights struggles in Nicaragua. During the spring semester 2007 she received an Activist research scholarship from the Central America and the Caribbean Research Council and spent three months in Honduras working with miskitu people in a project involving communal mapping to support their territorial claim before the state.She is currently writing her master’s thesis on miskitu’s transnational identity in Nicaragua and Honduras.
Montgomery, Megan
Megan Montgomery is a dual degree student at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and the Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Latin American Studies, Spanish, and Government from the University of Texas at Austin in 2003. In undergrad, Megan studied in Mérida, Venezuela and Monterrey, Mexico. After graduation, she participated in a six-month internship at the Andean Information Network in Cochabamba, Bolivia, researching and evaluating the impact of U.S. anti-drug policy in Bolivia. Current research interests include the impact of U.S. foreign policy in Latin America, with a specific nascent interest in development policy and microfinance. Upon receiving her Master of Public Affairs and Master of Arts in Latin American Studies in 2010, Megan plans to enter the non-profit sector, working to promote social and economic justice in Latin America.
Meyer, Michael
Michael Meyer grew up in Central Texas, not far from Austin. After earning his BA (2001) from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, he taught high school math and physics in Comayagua, Honduras. Later, he directed a 600-student Adult Education program for Spanish-speaking immigrants in Denver, Colorado, while also teaching English, Math, and Spanish Composition. At UT, Michael is a dual-Master’s student with the LBJ School of Public Affairs and has focused his work on development policy and non-profit administration. He has worked for the university as a teaching assistant in economics and quantitative methods—for which he won the Texas Exes Teaching Award two years in a row—and as a researcher/writer. This year, Michael served as one of the coordinators of the annual ILASSA Conference, an experience he says helped him grow as a leader and organizer. Michael aspires to return to the non-profit world in a managerial capacity.
Navarrete-Frias, Carolina
Carolina Navarrete-Frias holds a BA in International Relations from the Universidad del Rosario in Bogotá, Colombia and is currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Latin American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She has researched the impact of international cooperation in the eradication and substitution of illicit crops in Putumayo for her undergraduate thesis. Collaborating with RAND and the Max Planck Institute she worked in a project called Modeling the World Heroin Market that will be published this year by Oxford University Press. She continued at Universidad del Rosario in the Research and Monitoring Center on Drugs and Crime directed by Dr. Francisco Thoumi, studying the impact of drug policies, crime and human rights issues. Working as an intern at the US Congressional Research Service, she co-authored a report on aerial fumigation and alternative development in the Andes. She also worked in a project assessing crop eradication in Afghanistan and the Lessons Learned from Latin America and South East Asia for the Senlis Council. Finally, she co-authored a project for UNESCO on illegal drugs and human rights of peasants and indigenous communities in the Andean region. Most recently she is working on her Master’s thesis on the growing empowerment of Colla women, rural development and social capital in Northwest Argentina.
Nedderman, Leah
Leah Nedderman holds a BA in English and a BA in Sociology from the University of Notre Dame, and is expected to graduate from UT with a MA from the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies and an MPAff from the LBJ School of Public Affairs, in May 2008. As a graduate student, she has concentrated on nonprofit and philanthropic studies and economic development in Latin America, with a focus on microfinance. Her graduate thesis is entitled Funding Microfinance in Latin America:The Role of Donors. Fluent in Spanish, Leah has studied and worked in Spain, Mexico, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic.
Nichols, Denton
Denton Nichols is a native of Seattle, Washington. He graduated in 2006 from Rice University as a Hispanic Studies major where he received the department’s Cervantes Award for Outstanding Seniors. During college, Denton spent his summers in Latin America—Mexico, Brazil, and Venezuela—for educational and work experiences. He entered UT-Austin in 2007 as a dual-degree candidate in Latin American Studies and Law after working for a year in Chicago with Towers Perrin-ISR, a human resources consulting firm. At the law school, Denton is a member of the U.S.-Mexico Bar Association and has been involved this year in reviving a law student exchange between UT-Austin and La Universidad de Guanajuato in Mexico. After graduate school, Denton plans to build a legal practice with a major focus on Latin America. He speaks, in order of proficiency, Spanish, French, and Portuguese. Denton enjoys cooking what he eats and eating what he cooks.
Rodriguez, Claudia
Claudia received her BA in International Relations from the University of Delaware in May of 2007. Her research there included one project investigating the Maquiladora Industry and kidnappings of women in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and another project investigating the human rights violations accountability and the legal cases against former dictators in Argentina and Chile. The later project evolved into an undergraduate senior thesis. Both projects were completed in conjugation with the Ronald E. McNair Post Baccalaureate Achievement Program at Delaware. Currently, she is pursuing a MA at LLILAS, concentrating on various human rights issues in Latin America. Her research interests include human rights and civil society in Cuba, discrimination in Latin America, and accountability for human rights abuses. She plans to graduate in May of 2009, and hopes to work for the government, an NGO, or continue on to another degree. She is currently seeking any interesting internships for the summer.
Ros, Pablo Manuel
Pablo Manuel Ros is a Second-Year LLILAS MA student with a focus on economic development and history. His Master's Thesis is a history of the Cuban military's involvement in Cuba's economy. He will be attending Harvard Law School in the fall.
Samples, Tim R.
Tim Samples graduated from the University of Georgia in 2004. After graduation he worked on the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Industrial Cooperation Program in Chile. He has also worked in Argentina on two occasions, once for a newspaper in Buenos Aires and more recently for a law firm in Córdoba. He is now pursuing joint degrees in law and Latin American studies at the University of Texas at Austin. His research interests revolve around business transactions and sustainable development in the Southern Cone, especially in Argentina and Chile.
Sellers, Sean
Sean Sellers studies neoliberalism, human rights, and Latin American and Caribbean rural social movements. He is also engaged in organizing and research projects with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (www.ciw-online.org). Sean completed a B.S. in Political Communication from UT- Austin in 2004.
Speasmaker, Leya
Leya Speasmaker is a dual-degree graduate student in Latin American Studies and Public Affairs. Her interests focus primarily on immigration and immigrant policy, with a special interest in Latin American immigrants. She interned for the National Conference of State Legislatures’ Immigrant Policy Project in the summer of 2006. In the summer of 2007, she interned for the Migration Policy Institute and then flew to Campinas, Brazil to conduct research on public participation in municipal governments. She has worked for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board as an HB 1 Program Specialist since the fall of 2006. She organized and currently directs a course at the LBJ School of Public Affairs entitled The State of U.S. Immigration Policy. She graduated from the University of Virginia in 2002 with a Master’s in Teaching, and she taught ESL for 2.5 years in Virginia and Ecuador before coming to Texas.
Square, Jonathan M.
Jonathan Square received his bachelor’s degree in history and comparative literature from Cornell University in 2005 and is currently a master’s degree candidate at the University of Texas’ Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies. Jonathan spent a semester at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) an exchange student and has concentrated his studies at UT and at UNICAMP on race and slavery in Brazil. He is currently conducting research for his master’s thesis on Gilberto Freyre and the formation of his idea of racial democracy in relation to the United States.
Stovall, Dana
Dana is pursuing a M.S. in Community and Regional Planning at the School of Architecture and an M.A. in Latin American Studies at LLILAS. She earned her B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Notre Dame with minors in Latin American Studies and International Peace Studies. As an undergraduate, Dana studied in Santiago, Chile, where she founded an art program for abused children. She also interned with an Ecuadorian human rights foundation, documenting local organization against large-scale mining. Upon graduation, Dana moved to the US-Mexico border and volunteered full-time in a domestic violence shelter. Before starting at UT, she worked in Monterrey, Mexico, as an ethnographic consultant on water scarcity. Her background in documenting impoverished conditions has sparked her interest in the built environment and planning. Dana's ever-growing interests include affordable housing initiatives, squatter settlements, downtown historic revitalization, and participatory community processes.
Vavrus, Joseph
Joseph Vavrus is a second year student in the M.A. program at LLILAS. His main research interest is economic and social policy in Brazil, more specifically, the political economy of “development,” the intellectual history of development economics, and the relationship between the production of knowledge and the creation of policy. He is currently writing his Master’s thesis on the way select economic research institutions in Brazil construct policy discourse.
Williams, Robert Lloyd
Robert Lloyd Williams was born in Rosenberg, Texas, on November 12, 1942. After graduation from Lamar Consolidated High School there in 1961. Graduated with a vocational degree from Blinn College, Brennam, Texas, in 1964, in psychiatric nursing. Private study in theology with Henry Daw in Ontario, Canada, from 1969-1971. Monastic profession first with the Old Catholics, then with the independent Autonomous Orthodox Metropolia of Western Europe and the Americas until retirement in 2004. M.A. in anthropology from Texas State University--San Marcos, graduated in May, 2006. Thesis: The History of Lord Eight Wind of Suchixtlan: A Chronological Analysis and Interpretation of Codex Zouche-Nuttall, pages 1-8. Interdisciplinary PhD program LLILAS in August, 2006. Speciality Mixtec Codices, the pictogram manuscripts of the pre-Hispanic Mixtec Indians of Oaxaca. Projected dissertation: The Narrative Structure of Codex Zouche-Nuttall obverse. In press: The History of Lord Eight Wind of Suchixtlan and the Heroes of Ancient Oaxcaca, UT Press, Austin; and, Mixtec Dress, Berg Encyclopedia, London, England (2010). Plans: a comprehensive volume or set of volumes on the historical contents and chronologies of the five major Mixtec manuscripts called THE COMPASS OF THE CODICES. Lives quietly in south Austin where I am owned by my cats and bemused by and blending in with a neighborhood of eccentrics.
Woodruff, Christopher
LLILAS has been a great place for Chris Woodruff to explore his interests in Latin America and human rights because he’s been able to take classes in multiple departments around the university, including the law school. Currently, he is working on human rights research dealing with the newly formed Ecuadorian Truth Commission. He has also enjoyed digging into his other primary interest—Uruguayan politics and history. He is particularly interested in studying the Tupamaros and their historical legacy. Over the past four years Chris has studied in Mexico and Uruguay. In Uruguay he attended the University of Montevideo and he completed an internship at the Latin American Integration Association (ALADI). He will spend the summer of 2008 in Washington D.C. interning with the National Security Archive. There, he plans to continue his work with the Ecuadorian Truth Commission while completing research toward his masters thesis. Chris graduated from Texas A&M University in May 2007 with degrees in International Studies and Spanish.
Wooten, Matthew
Matthew Wooten is a Master’s degree candidate at the Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies. Originally from Northeast Georgia, he received degrees in Economics, Modern History & Politics, and Latin American Studies from the University of Georgia. As an undergraduate, he pursued policies for immigrants’ rights with Georgia’s first Latino senator, studied Black-Latino coalition building in the Southeast, and conducted research on rural poverty and inequality in Peru and Mexico. He also contributed to the establishment of the Universidad Indígena Intercultural Ayuuk in the Mixe District of Oaxaca, Mexico. At the University of Texas, Wooten’s work focuses on human rights issues across the Americas, particularly with respect to how questions of economic development, racial discrimination, and identity impact marginalized groups. He has worked extensively with UT’s Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice, working as an RA for Professor Karen Engle and as a student coordinator for the Center’s 2008 project on Afro-Brazilian Land Rights. He holds a FLAS Fellowship for the study of Portuguese and, in 2008, will be a Fulbright Scholar in Argentina.