Michael Bakal is a post-doctoral researcher at UC Santa Cruz and the co-founder of Voces y Manos por el Buen Vivir, a youth empowerment and environmental justice NGO based in the Maya-Achí region of Guatemala. With colleagues in Voces y Manos, Michael is working on several participatory research projects at the intersection of climate change resilience and cultural revitalization. At the center of this work is agroecology: the science, practice, and popular movement concerned with regenerating sustainable, healthy, culturally appropriate food systems. As a learning scientist, Michael...
Dennis joined the Center for Latin American Studies as a Graduate Affiliate in 2022 as he advances his interdisciplinary work and graduate research from the perspective of an economic geographer working at the intersection of fire ecology and decision. His most recent work is framed by considering historic immigration policies, operational decisions, labor and resource management in landscapes across fire ecologies of North America. Previously Dennis has worked as a policy analyst at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development at the International Energy Agency, engaged in...
Ángela received her B.A. in Anthropology from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Bogotá) and an M.Sc. in Geography from the Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá). In 2015, she received a Fulbright Scholarship to pursue her doctoral studies in the Anthropology Department at the University of California, Berkeley. Before coming to Cal, she was a social researcher at Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Universidad de los Andes, and the Instituto Colombiano de Antropología e Historia (Icanh).
Christine Delia is a PhD student in the History of Art Department at the University of California, Berkeley. She researches global modern art with an emphasis on artists working in Mexico, Morocco, and the United States. Her dissertation, tentatively titled: “Mirror Effects: Fragmentation, Figuration, and Globality in Mexican, Moroccan, and US modern art, 1929-1949” examines three murals by Spanish artists dispersed around the world in the years surrounding the Spanish Civil War. The project explores questions related to exile/displacement/migration, including the economic impact of these...
Leo Dunsker is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of English and the Program for Critical Theory. His dissertation project is about the reinvention of the epic poem by modern Anglophone Caribbean writers as a vehicle for narrating supposedly unnarratable histories. He co-organizes the Contemporary Poetry and Poetics Working Group at the Townsend Center for the Humanities, as well as the Poetry Colloquium and Postcolonial/Global Anglophone Colloquium in the Department of English.
Department of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies
Patricia de Nóbrega Gomes is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Performance Studies at UC Berkeley, with a Designated Emphasis in Women and Gender Studies. Her research is on contemporary Black and Indigenous artists in Brazil working in performance, mixed-media, sculpture, and photography. Her research interests also include Black Studies, Performance Theory, Feminist Theory, and Critical Indigenous Studies. Her dissertation, "Geo-corporeal Politics of Performance and Feminist Strategies in Brazil," focuses on the contemporary...
Adriana Gonzales is a 2nd year Master’s/Ph.D. student in the Energy and Resources Group department. She is interested in investigating energy, disaster, and climate change adaptation in the Caribbean from an ecological and humanistic lens. She is particularly interested in understanding sociopolitical histories of empire, labor, and environment to better understand the present vulnerabilities of Caribbean ecologies and energy systems in Dominica and Puerto Rico under conditions of climate change and related catastrophes. Adriana is also the co-founder of the Caribbean Coalition at Berkeley...
C. Darius Gordon (they/them) is a PhD candidate in the Graduate School of Education’s Critical Studies of Race, Class, & Gender program. Broadly, they study the 20th century intellectual histories of Black liberation movements throughout the Atlantic world. Drawing on Black feminisms and Black Geographic thought, Darius’s current work focuses on the social, material, and symbolic relations forged between Brazilian Black movements and the anti-colonial revolutions of Lusophone Africa from the 1960s-80s.
Gabriel Lesser is a Ph.D. candidate in Hispanic Languages and Literatures. He studies humor in Latin American literary and visual culture. His dissertation is about racial satire, caricatures, and nation-building in nineteenth-century Mexico and Brazil. He received a Fulbright-Hays Dissertation grant to conduct archival research in 2023. Prior to starting his doctorate, Gabriel earned his B.A. in Hispanic Studies from Brown University and worked at the Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress. At UCB, he has taught classes in both Spanish and Portuguese.
Cristina S. Méndez (she/ella) is a Chicana educator, scholar, and poet. She is currently a doctoral candidate in the School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley and is also a member of the designated emphasis in Indigenous Language Revitalization. Her research focuses on the lived experiences and sense-making of Maya Mam women lideresas who organize for the vitality of their language and culture, as well as for the wellbeing of their communities across Guatemala, México, and the United States. Cristina engages in collaborative research with Mam community members on...
