Graduate Affiliates

The Affiliated Graduate Student Program supports the research of advanced graduate students at UC Berkeley.

We hope that through an affiliation with CLACS, graduate students can further their research and develop relationships with colleagues across departments and disciplines.

Overview:

Graduate Affiliates have access to the following:

24/7 access to our space just south of campus: a lounge/study space with free coffee/tea and printing (for research purposes), as well as our conference room that can be reserved for research-related meetings
Participation in a supportive interdisciplinary community of Latinamericanists and Caribbeanists. Periodic meetings to discuss research.
If needed, use of a private or semi-private office space at CLACS (as space allows)
Your name listed on our website as an affiliate, and you can list the affiliation on your CV
A small stipend for research expenses

Application Process:

To apply to be a CLACS Graduate Affiliate, complete this application form.

Any questions can be directed to juliabyrd@berkeley.edu.

Franchesca Araújo

Ph.D. Student

Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies

Franchesca Araújo is a Ph.D. student in African American & African Diaspora Studies. Rooted in Caribbean studies, she writes within political theory, disability studies, performance studies, aesthetics and anti colonial poetics and theory.

Kate A. Cullen

Ph.D. Student

Energy and Resources Group

Kate Altemus Cullen is a Ph.D. student in water governance and climate change adaptation in the Energy & Resources Group. Her dissertation looks at the relationship between drinking water access, political economy, and extreme drought in a changing climate through participatory and...Read more about Kate A. Cullen

Justin Greene

Ph.D. Student

Department of Anthropology

Justin Greene is a Ph.D. student in sociocultural anthropology pursuing a Designated Emphasis in Global Metropolitan Studies. His dissertation, titled "The Intervention Organ: An Ethnography of Leftist Publication in São Paulo," largely focuses on Revista Rosa...Read more about Justin Greene

Flávia Leite

Ph.D. Student

Department of City and Regional Planning

Flávia Leite is a housing and land policy researcher. She is currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley and a fellow at the Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA) in Brazil. Her Ph.D. research examines the roles of state and...Read more about Flávia Leite

Bri Matusovsky

Ph.D. Student

Department of Anthropology

Bri Matusovsky is a Ph.D. student at the UCSF-UC Berkeley joint program in medical anthropology. Their dissertation considers what is known as "the monkey problem" of St. Kitts: the presence of invasive monkeys who make sustainable agriculture on St. Kitts near-impossible. St....Read more about Bri Matusovsky

Juana G. Montoya Murillo

Ph.D. Student

Department of Demography

Juana G. Montoya Murillo is a Ph.D. student in Demography at UC Berkeley, where she also earned her Master’s degree in Demography. Her research focuses on reproductive health, migration, and social inequality in Latin America. Juana's interest in demographic research began with...Read more about Juana G. Montoya Murillo

Anna Feign

Ph.D. Student

Department of Sociology

Anna Feign is a Ph.D. student in Sociology at UC Berkeley. Her research examines the convergence of extractivism, temporality, (post)colonial development, and the climate crisis through a qualitative and spatial lens. She is a 2025-2026 Mentored Research Award Fellow and a...Read more about Anna Feign

Pablo Paredes

Ph.D. Student

Department of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies

Pablo Paredes is a Ph.D. student in Theater Dance and Performance Studies at UC Berkeley. Born in the Bronx and raised between Puerto Rico, Ecuador, and New York, he is a Bomba practitioner, poet, and cultural worker grounded in Caribbean roots traditions. Following...Read more about Pablo Paredes

Gisselle Perez-Leon

Ph.D. Student

Department of History

Gisselle Perez-Leon is a Ph.D. student in History. She studies urbanization in twentieth-century Mexico. Her dissertation, "Border Civics: Urban Planning and Municipal Politics in Twentieth Century Ambos Nogales," is a historical case study of urban development in...Read more about Gisselle Perez-Leon

Johanna Reyes Ortega

Ph.D. Student

The Charles and Louise Travers Department of Political Science

Johanna Reyes Ortega is a Ph.D. student in Political Science at UC Berkeley, with a focus on comparative politics, gender, and the political economy of development. She is also a Resident Research Associate at the Berkeley Center on the Politics of Development and a Graduate Affiliate at the...Read more about Johanna Reyes Ortega

Ramón de Santiago

Ph.D. Student

Department of the History of Art

Ramón de Santiago researches the trans-Pacific transfer of visual and material culture between South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Latin America in the Early Modern period, with a particular interest in pre-colonial systems of inscription in the Atlantic, Indian Ocean, and Southeast China Sea...Read more about Ramón de Santiago

Ailén Vega

Ph.D. Student

Department of Geography

My work looks at an emerging movement against mercury exposure from illegal gold mining within Munduruku territory, situated within Tapajós River Basin of the Central Brazilian Amazon. I am particularly interested in the relationship between indigenous and western...Read more about Ailén Vega

Tessa Wood

Ph.D. Student

Department of Comparative Literature

Tessa Wood is a Ph.D. student in Comparative Literature and the Designated Emphasis in Women, Gender, and Sexuality. Her dissertation focuses on the relationship between literature and discourses surrounding public and popular education in Brazil and Spanish America. In particular,...Read more about Tessa Wood

Carlotta Wright de la Cal

Ph.D. Student

Department of History

Carlotta Wright de la Cal is a Ph.D. student in History. Her research lies at the intersection of Indigenous history, labor, and migration policy. Carlotta's dissertation examines how railroad corporations in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands reshaped mobility, labor patterns, and...Read more about Carlotta Wright de la Cal