Rockefeller Center names grant winners

The David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies has awarded 23 grants to Harvard students with research projects in Latin America. These travel grants support academic research to be conducted as part of a regular Harvard thesis degree program, such as a senior honors thesis, dissertation, or a professional school thesis-equivalent.

This year’s undergraduate recipients, along with their field of study, travel destination, and research topic, are as follows:

Magda Guillen ’02, Mexico: Guillen will conduct follow-up interviews with Solidarity and Salinas Administration members, and will tour the National Solidarity Program (PRONASOL).

Ama Karikari ’02, Dominican Republic: Karikari will conduct interviews with members of Movimiento de Mujeres Unidas (MODEMU) – a union of Dominican sex workers.

James Meeks ’02, Chile: Meeks will interview leaders of the Allende Regime, including economists and labor leaders.

Emilio Travieso ’02, United States: Travieso will conduct in-depth interviews with 30 children of Haitian immigrants in Miami.

This year’s graduate recipients, along with their field of study, travel destination, and research topic, are as follows:

Pablo Allard, Harvard Design School ’02, Chile: Allard is working on a case study of social, economic, and urban impacts of privitized urban highways in Santiago.

Melanie Anderton, Kennedy School of Government (KSG) ’02, Bolivia: Anderton will conduct field research in conjunction with a collaborative effort by six reproductive health organizations.

Stephanie Brancaforte, KSG ’02, Haiti: Brancaforte will investigate the feasibility of the incorporation of conflict mediation models into formal Haitian justice mechanisms, particularly in rural communities.

Brantley Browning, KSG, ’02, Guatemala: Browning will establish policy recommendations that answer Oxfam America’s desire to increase the presence of fair-trade coffee in the American market.

Andre Byers, KSG ’02, Mexico: Byers will establish policy recommendations that answer Oxfam America’s desire to increase the presence of fair-trade coffee in the American market.

Taryn Carter, KSG ’02, Mexico: Carter will develop a comprehensive economic plan for the Santa Rosa community and define the role that the Centro Integral Comunitario should be playing in this process, given its political, economic, and capacity constraints.

Amilcar Challu, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS), Mexico: Challu will study the political economy of biological well-being in Mexico from the 1780s to the 1870s.

Sandra Fried, KSG ’02, Guatemala: Fried will develop a comprehensive economic plan for the Santa Rosa community and define the role that the Centro Integral Comunitario should be playing in this process, given its political, economic, and capacity constraints.

Rodrigo Gallegos, KSG ’02, Bolivia: Gallegos will conduct a survey and interview to address the concerns and needs of the local population when creating a resource strategy.

Magda Hinojosa, (GSAS), Mexico: Hinojosa will analyze the effects that the party candidate selection process has on women’s political representation.

Ann Marie Jackson, KSG ’02, Bolivia: Jackson will conduct field research in conjunction with a collaborative effort by six reproductive health organizations.

Robert Lesser, KSG ’02, Guatemala: Lesser will assess the training design of the scenario planning methodology utilized in the Guatemalan peace process.

Shawn Malone, KSG ’02, Brazil: Malone will conduct research to develop a fundraising and donor relations strategy for the Institute Rio in Brazil.

Rodrick Miller, KSG ’02, Mexico: Miller will work on developing a comprehensive economic plan for the Santa Rosa community and define the role that the Centro Integral Comunitario should be playing in this process, given their political, economic, and capacity constraints.

Maurice Roers, KSG ’02, Guatemala: Roers will work on plan and investment guidelines for an environmental management system.

Sapna Sadarangani, Harvard Law School (HLS), Chile: Sadarangani will conduct a multidisciplinary study on the debate concerning the legalization of divorce in Chile.

William Suarez-Potts, GSAS, Mexico: Suarez-Potts will do follow-up archival research relating to his dissertation, “The Development of Labor Law and Industrial Revolution in Mexico, 1870-1934.”

Matthew Thompson, GSAS, Chile: Thompson will conduct follow-up data collection for thesis work on Chile’s Atacama Desert.

Alexandra Vega-Merino, GSAS, Mexico: Vega-Merino will study how contemporary Mexican metacinema delineates competing views of the relationship of film and state.