Supporting research through field grants
"Calle Habanera": Where El Vedado meets Central Havana near the University's main campus.
Given the very sizeable body of graduate students specializing in Latin America or Iberia at the University of Chicago, the demand for pre-dissertation research grants is enormous and difficult to satisfy. In 2008, the Center for Latin American Studies was awarded a three-year Tinker Field Research Grant from the Tinker Fondation to support pre-dissertation graduate students' exploratory research trips.
The Tinker Field Research Grant award has had a markedly important and positive effect on Latin American studies at the University of Chicago. Our students have benefited tremendously from this opportunity to establish field contacts, assess research sites, and sharpen their focus and methodology, thus laying the groundwork for future doctoral research and positioning them favorably to compete for long-term field research fellowships from programs such as Fulbright-Hays, the Social Science Research Council, and the National Science Foundation, among others. Over the past three years, 15 Latin Americanist doctoral students at the University of Chicago were awarded prestigious Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad awards, all of whom had enjoyed earlier Tinker Field Research support. And as students return from the field to present their findings and experiences with colleagues in formal workshop settings, intellectual exchange is greatly enriched.
In 2008, CLAS awarded 27 Tinker Field Research Grants to doctoral and master's students to conduct field research in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Spain, and Uruguay.
Anecdotally, a recent Tinker Field Research Grant recipient wrote the following: "I would like to let everyone at CLAS know how thankful I am for receiving the [Tinker Field Research] grant. I used it to do pre-field research, which served as the basis for my grant applications for the extended dissertation research period. I am happy to report that I received 3 grants: Fulbright-Hays, Wenner-Gren, and NSF. My pre-field experience was pivotal in making a case for my competence as a researcher and for synthesizing my project idea. Thus, many, many thanks for your support, and I look forward to sharing the results of the research at WALAC soon."
2008 Tinker Field Research Grant Recipients:
Jorge Abril Sanchez
Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
"Ghosts, Demons and Goblins: The Supernatural in the Spanish Golen Age"
Spain
Jonah Augustine
Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
"Archaeology of Households and Domestic Space at Tiwanaku"
Bolivia
Maria E. Balandran-Castillo
Department of History
"Institutional policies of the post-revolutionary government to incorporate indigenous populations into the Mexican state through the Department of Anthropology (1917-1925) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Promotion"
Mexico
Matthew Barton
Department of History
"State Capacity and Regionalism in Brazil, 1850-1880"
Brazil
Ieda Bispo
Department of Music
"The Renascer Church in Sao Paulo and the Political Economy of Gospel Music"
Brazil
Lorenzo Caliendo
Department of Economics
"A counterfactual analysis of trade policy - The Uruguay Case"
Uruguay
Lauren Duquette
Department of Political Sciences
"Migrant Collective Remittances: Transforming Local Public Works in Mexico"
Mexico
Stuart Easterling
Department of History
"Politics, aesthetics, and the arts in Mexico City, 1940-1960"
Mexico
Timothy Gaster
Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
"The Image of Japan in Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literature"
Spain
Guengerich Anna
Department of Anthropology
"Proyecto Jatanca archaeological site"
Peru
Amanda Hughes
Department of History
"Coffee Bureaus, Elites and the Production of States in Guatemala and Costa Rica"
Guatemala and Costa Rica
Mary Leighton
Department of Anthropology
"The New Indigenismo - Conflicting Responses to Archaeology in Aymara Communities"
Bolivia
Jessica Lester
Latin American Studies
"Home Bodies: Recognition of Difference in Racially Ambiguous Households in Costa Rica"
Costa Rica
Jenna Leving
Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
"The Self-Image of the Revolution in the Literature of the Cuban Diaspora"
Cuba
Romina Malandrucco
Department of History
"Rural Social and Economic Transformation, Jalisco 1930-1980"
Mexico
McKay Erin Lindsey
Latin American Studies
"Dairy and Development in the Dominican Republic"
The Dominican Republic
David Pacifico
Department of Anthropology
"Preliminary Field Investigations of Sector B at El Purgatorio"
Peru
Novia Pagone
Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
"Women Writing Essays: Jornalism and the Shaping of Contemporary Spanish Identity"
Spain
José Luis Ramos
Department of History
"Imperialism and Cooperation in US-Mexico Relations, 1934-1952"
Mexico
Jonah Rubin
Department of Anthropology
"Digging up the Past: The Controversy over whether to exhume Federico García Lorca"
Spain
Laurencio Sanguino
Department of History
"Railroad Recruitment Program between Mexico and the United States, 1942-47"
Mexico
Jennifer Schaefer
Latin American Studies
"Representations of Youth during Argentina's Last Military Dictatorship"
Argentina
Erica Simmons
Department of Political Science
"Resource Rebellion: Social Movements, Subsistence Resources and the Bolivian Water Wars"
Bolivia
Joseph Jay Sosa
Department of Anthropology
Brazil
Garry Sparks
Divinity School
"Xalqat B'e and Theologia Indorum: The Americas' First Theology"
Guatemala
LaShandra Sullivan
Department of Anthropology
Brazil
John Thomas
Department of Political Science
"Towards a broader theory of Afro-Latino mobilization in Latin America"
Brazil
