DRCLAS awards certificates, names thesis prize winners

The David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (DRCLAS) has awarded a total of 33 Certificates in Latin American Studies this year. Thirty undergraduates from 12 academic departments and two doctoral students from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences received the certificate. To be eligible for the certificate, students must complete an approved course of study as a part of their work toward the A.B. degree or Ph.D. degree. Students must also write a senior thesis or dissertation on a Latin American topic.

DRCLAS has also awarded three thesis prizes to graduating seniors. The James B. and Isabel D. Hammond Thesis Prize is awarded to the best thesis related to Spanish-speaking Latin America; the Joan Morthland Hutchins Thesis Prize in Latino Studies is awarded to the best thesis on a subject concerning Latinos (either recent immigrants or established communities of Latin American descent in the United States); and the Kenneth Maxwell Thesis Prize in Brazilian Studies is awarded to the best thesis on a subject related to Brazil.

The 2007 DRCLAS certificate winners, including their field of study and thesis/dissertation title, are as follows:

Candice Balmori, government, “Cuban Exile Activism: Multiple Avenues for Affecting Change”

Jessica Bloom, Near Eastern languages and civilizations,

“Through the Lens of the Yiddish Press: The Journalism of Shmuel Rollansky and Tsalel Blitz”

Gregor Brodsky, history and literature, “Recovering Lost Culture: The Argentine Junta’s Appropriation of the 1978 World Cup during El Proceso de Reorganización Nacional.”

Rebecca Chase, history and literature, “Briceida Cuevas Cob: Continuity and Regeneration in Contemporary Mayan Poetry”

Frankie Chen, psychology, “A Study of Language and Thought: Object-Substance Interpretation among the Tsotsil Mayan”

Devery Doran, Romance languages and literatures, “Behind the Bikinis: The Influence of the Elite on Beach-Going Culture in Rio de Janeiro”

Joseph Florez, history “¿MORMONES? ¡NONES! — Religious Change, Mormon Growth, and the Economic Development of Chile, 1973-1989”

Lauren Foote, Romance languages and literatures, “No Forest through the Trees: Legality and Justice in Chile’s Human Rights Trials”

Kathryn Funderbunk, anthropology, “A Study of Pre-Columbian, Central American Wind Instruments from the Harvard University Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology”

Olivia Hudson Gage, special concentration, “Motherland:

Global and Social Contexts of Maternity in Mayan Immigrants to Western North Carolina” (Joan Morthland Hutchins Thesis Prize in Latino Studies)

Nathalie Galindo, social studies, “‘El Que Se Quedó, Se Quedó’: A Case Study of Citizenship and Cultura Ciudadana in Bogotá, Colombia

Charles Hamilton, government, “Middle Class and Mineiro: Exploring the Causes of the Brazilian Migration Phenomenon”

Jisoo Kim, history and literature, “‘Muchos Marcos’: Subcomandante Marcos and the Making of an Icon”

Natalie Kirschstein, Ph.D., music, “Reclaiming the Future: Communal Space, Collective Memory, and Political Narrative on the Murga Stage”

Rose Leonard, government, “The Problem of Decentralization in the Peruvian Public Health Sector:

Persistent Deficiencies in Quality Services for Rural Andean Communities”

Elizabeth Linos, government and economics, “Do Randomized Social Programs Shift Votes? A Case Study of the Honduran PRAF Program”

Casey Lurtz, history and literature, “Narrating History: Examining the Archive of Cuscat’s War (1869 to the Present)”

Reed Ahti Malin, history and literature, “Weapons of Mass Destruction in Cold War Science Fiction Writing: From Dresden to Macondo”

David Schneider Marshall, history, “Perils of Modernization: ‘Revolt of the Lash’ in the Brazilian Navy, 1910”

David Martin, history of science, “The Political, Social, and Economic Dimensions of the Brazilian Response to AIDS”

Betsy Wells McCormick, social studies, “Building Resiliencia in La Boca: Toward a New Vision of Development”

Amalia della Paolera, Romance languages and literatures, “Marketing a Nation: Mexico’s Strategy During the World Cup of 1986”

Sarah Dawn Rea, anthropology, “Born and Bred in Huasco Valley: Politics and Purpose for a New Diaguita Ethnicity in the 21st Century”

Mónica Ricketts, Ph.D., history, “Pens, Politics, and Swords. The Struggle for Power During the Breakdown of the Spanish Empire: Peru and Spain, 1760-1830”

Kavita Shah, Romance languages and literatures, “Experiments with Transnationalism: Constructing Diaspora in the Bloco-Afro Malê Debalê (Kenneth Maxwell Thesis Prize in Brazilian Studies)

Andrea Spillman, history of science, “Pills, Prayers, and Pin-pricks: Mainstream Biomedicine, Indigenous Healing, and Alternative Therapies in Chile”

Pablo Tsutsumi, economics, “Domestic Intentions, International Repercussions: An Empirical Study on the Impact of Sarbanes-Oxley on Latin American ADRs”

Nicole Barrie Urken, social studies, “The Triumph of Order: Visions of the Modern Self in Chile”

Gabriel Velez, history and literature, “‘Mister Coffee’: The Life, Myth, and Legacy of Manuel Mejía”

David Williams, social studies, “From Brazilian to Black: Ilê Ayê and the Reafricanization of Salvador da Bahia, Brazil”

Kaya Williams, anthropology, “Painted Black: Female Militants in Peru’s Shining Path” (James R. and Isabel D. Hammond Thesis Prize)

Paolo Yap, history of art and architecture, “A Tripartite Visual Archive: Marc Ferrez’s Street Vendors of Rio de Janeiro”

Fang Yuan, social studies, “Interethnic Relations in the Buenos Aires Chinese Supermarket”