Graduate Students Andre Nascimento and Mariana Sierra Aponte Receive the Summer 2018 LAII Field Research Grant
May 11, 2018
Dual MA Spanish and Portuguese candidate, Andre Nascimento and PhD candidate in Hispanic Literature Mariana Sierra Aponte have each been awarded a LAII Field Research Grant. The grant gives graduate students the opportunity to conduct field research in Latin America. Mariana’s research project examines how democracy is being studied and discussed in the Study Group of Contemporary Brazilian Literature at the University of Brasília. It exmines how cultural spaces establish a locus of contestation through the observation of saraus in Brasília and São Paulo, and how cultural works that represent such spaces of contestation (the anthologies Vinagre and Golpe) became an answer and an interruption or resistance to political practices. Andre’s project will focus on the memory sites Memoria Abierta in Buenos Aires and Museo de la Memoria in Montevideo that contest official history that silences the oppression faced by sexual minorities. By documenting their persecution, these sites denounce the state’s homophobia and the ongoing civil marginalization of the LGBTTIQ community and assist activist groups in their demand for social justice and equal rights in Argentina and Uruguay.
Congratulations to the awardees!
