Two Texas Tech students awarded Crossing Latinidades Mellon Humanities Fellowship
Doctoral students Maria Sanchez and Megan Miner have been awarded the Crossing Latinidades Mellon Humanities Fellowship for the 2022-23 academic year by the Crossing Latinidades Humanties Research Initiative.
Led by the University of Illinois at Chicago, the initiative is part of the Alliance of Hispanic-Serving Research Universities, a consortium of 16 R1 Hispanic-serving institutions including Texas Tech University.
Fellows receive a one-year stipend of $30,000, made possible by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and must forgo other employment to focus on proposal writing and working group research.
"I am so proud of both Megan and Maria for their acceptance into this very prestigious research opportunity,” said Miguel Levario, an associate professor of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies in the Department of History at Texas Tech. “They will work with some exceptional and well-respected scholars in the field of U.S. Latino studies and pave the way for more Latina/o scholars to enter academia and research. Texas Tech is well represented by these two fine scholars.”
Sanchez, a doctoral student in the Department of Psychological Sciences, has been assigned to the “AfroChicanx Digital Humanities Project: Memories, Narratives, and Oppositional Consciousness of Black Diasporas.” Working with Claudia Garcia-Louis, a professor of education leadership and policy studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio, Sanchez will help create a digital archive of the experiences and histories of Afro communities in Mexico and the U.S.
“I am beyond grateful to be awarded the prestigious Latinidads Mellon Fellowship,” Sanchez said. “The opportunity to be mentored and trained by several reputable researchers will significantly assist my goal of becoming a well-versed academic in AfroLatinx research. With the assistance of my mentors and research group, I hope to contribute to the literature on AfroLatinx populations and any potential protective factors against their unique challenges.”
Miner, a doctoral student in the Department of History, has been assigned as junior peer and researcher for the “Race Laws in the U.S. Southwest: Research Working Group to Document Laws and their Impacts 1936-Present.” Under the guidance of Richard Flores, a professor of Mexican-American cultural studies at the University of Texas at Austin, Miner will help build a comprehensive collection of race laws and city ordinances affecting Latinx and other racial and ethnic groups in Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas from 1836 until today.
“To me, this fellowship means opportunity,” Miner said. “It is an opportunity to expand upon my skills as a researcher and to collaborate with other graduate students from other R1 institutions across the country. I also see this fellowship as an opportunity to meet some of the best academics from across the country and represent Texas Tech. I hope this will allow me to reach my full potential as I go on to write, research and publish.”
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Two Texas Tech students awarded Crossing Latinidades Mellon Humanities Fellowship
