Public Humanities Fellows (2024)

We are thrilled to announce the The Latinx Project’s Public Humanities Fellows joining us this summer. The 10 graduate students from NYU & the Inter-University Doctoral Consortium will be collaborating respectively with Alianza Cultural Dominicana Center, Anthology Film Archive, CUNY Mexican Studies Institute, Franklin Furnace Archive, Kilomba Collective, La Sala de Pepe, New York Theatre Ballet.

 
 

Paula Melissa Alves (Mel Adún)

Mel Adún is a Brazilian writer, editor, and researcher. Raised in Salvador, she holds a Master’s Degree in Literature and Culture from the Federal University of Bahia. Her thesis explored the concept of Black Literature in Brazil.  She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism from UniJorge University where she produced and directed the documentary Zamani - Mulheres que transformam/Zamani-Women Who Transform. Mel calls herself an Amefricana, thanks to the Brazilian scholar Lélia Gonzalez who forged the term; her research interests include the African Diaspora, gender, Latin America, and Black feminism in contemporary diasporic Black Literature.

Teresa de J. Martinez Chavez

Teresa Martinez Chavez is a Zapotec doctoral candidate in the Department of Anthropology at New York University. Her research interests include Indigenous women’s social movements in Latin America, Indigeneity, elderly care, colonialism, and the State. She is currently working on her thesis, an ethnographic study that explores the activism of Zapotec women in elderly care. Her research aims to bring more exposure to the nuances of Indigenous women’s resistance tactics, political ideologies, and the transformative effects these had on their communities. Her dissertation is supported by The National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and the Social Science Research Council- International Dissertation Fellowship.

Rachel Duff

Rachel Duff (she/her/ella) is an educator, organizer, and learner. She is from the Deep South and Puerto Rico, two integral parts of her positionality. She is a former teacher union member activist, educator of English for emergent multilingual students, and has worked in education policy research in both Washington, DC and Jacksonville, FL. She is a current PhD student in Urban Education at the Graduate Center, CUNY. Her research interests include understanding how early career educators develop critical consciousness and subsequently how critically conscious teachers impact student belonging and family engagement for newcomer and/or undocumented youth. She seeks to engage in research that is participatory, reflexive, and humanizing. Rachel is guided in this work by her deep, unwavering belief in beloved community and that transformational liberation is possible within our lifetime. She obtained her bachelor’s in English Education at the University of North Florida and master’s in Educational Transformation at Georgetown University. She has organized in Northeast Florida with a Black led grassroots organization fighting for self-determination and freedom.

Ana-Hilda Figueroa de Jesus

Raised in San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico, and based in NYC, Ana Hilda Figueroa de Jesus is an emergent curator and art critic. She is pursuing an MA in Latin American and Caribbean Studies and an Advanced Certificate in Museum Studies at New York University on a MacCracken Fellowship. Her research focuses on contemporary art, memory, affect, decolonization, subjectivities, and transnationalism emphasizing in the Caribbean, Latinx and Latin American experiences. A first-generation college student, she holds a BA in Art History from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras campus. Her most recent work includes “Remembering the Island of Enchantment” on (de)constructing representations of Puerto Rico as a paradise in art exhibitions after Hurricane María.

Irma Gallo

Irma Gallo was born in Mexico City. She is the author of four non-fiction and fiction books, most recently the novel El susurro de las estrellas, published by Paraíso Perdido in 2023, as well as three textbooks co-authored with Miguel Ángel Gallo. Her texts are included also in two anthologies, ¿Por qué escribo? (Hay Festival-Gris Tormenta, 2018) and Materna, published by Editorial Fondo Blanco in 2022. She was a reporter and tv host on Canal 22 México and has collaborated in other national media such as Gatopardo, El Universal, Letras Libres and Revista de la Universidad de México. She studies the MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish at NYU. Instagram: @irmaevangelinagallo

 
 

Victoria Genao

Victoria Genao is a Mexican-Dominican graduate student at NYU from Los Angeles pursuing an M.A. in Museum Studies. Having studied art history and interdisciplinary humanities at Scripps College, she’s interested in working with time-based media art collections, with a particular focus on performance and film work. In the past, she worked as an assistant to contemporary artists, and at art spaces including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, and Museum of Modern Art. Through her Public Humanities Fellowship, she will be interning with the Franklin Furnace Archive, establishing a Latine network of performance artists, conducting archival research concerning past exhibitions on avant-garde performance art from Latine artists, and imagining a future show of such artwork.

Jordan Lopez

Jordan Lopez is a graduate student in the NYU Steinhardt Performing Arts Administration Program.Originally from South Florida, she has been in New York for the past six years. She hopes to stay in the city to work in the vibrant arts scene. Majoring in psychology in undergrad and focusing on music therapy, she is interested in the importance of arts on human development and connection. Jordan is looking forward to working with New York Theatre Ballet to expand its arts outreach programs and bring dance into more individuals' lives.

Angelique Molina

Angelique Molina is a graduate student at NYU’s GSAS Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and full-time Reporter at New York Nonprofit Media. She received her MPA at NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and BA at Hunter College. Prior to her journalism career, Angelique spent eight years in the public service sector advocating for reproductive justice and teaching sex education in juvenile detention facilities. Realizing the need to uplift marginalized communities through storytelling, Angelique moved to NYN media, reporting on all aspects of the nonprofit sector and giving a voice to activists and public servants. When she is not working, she is writing her fiction novel or taking care of her 2-year-old son and 6-month-old daughter with her husband in their apartment in Queens.

 
 
 

Maralyn Quinones-Stead

Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Maralyn Quiñones-Stead received her B.A. in Theatre from Georgia College and State University in 2018. Following graduation, she found her home as a Stage Management Apprentice at Aurora Theatre working on all MainStage productions and leading the apprentice company in traveling TYA productions for the surrounding community. Her love for supporting and championing artists has brought her to New York University, where she is currently pursuing her Masters degree in Performing Arts Administration and continues to champion underrepresented voices in the theater industry.

Juan Camilo Velasquez

Juan Camilo Velásquez is a Ph.D. Candidate in Cinema Studies at New York University. His dissertation project focuses on theories and techniques of simultaneity in cinema and visual culture. His other research interests include Latinx and Latin American cinemas, queer cinema, and digital media. His academic work has appeared in Film-Philosophy and Cultural Politics, and his public essays have been published in Mubi, Screen Slate, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and others.