Principal Investigators
LOUISE LAMPHERE, Anthropology
MICHAEL W. GRAVES, Anthropology
University of New Mexico and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Doctoral Fellowship Program
Faculty Participants
MIGUEL GANDERT, Communications and Journalism, Mellon Director
MELISSA AXELROD, Linguistics
ANTHONY J. CÁRDENAS-ROTUNNO, Spanish and Portuguese
TERESA L. CÓRDOVA, Architecture and Planning MANUEL
GARCÍA Y GRIEGO, History
ROSE T. DÍAZ, Oral History
LINDA B. HALL, Department of History
BRIAN E. HERRERA, Department of Theater and Dance
TED JOJOLA, Community and Regional Planning ENRIQUE
LAM ADRID, Chicana/Chicano Studies and Portuguese GABRIEL
MELÉNDEZ, Professor, American Studies
LLOYD LEE, Native American Studies
TIFFANY LEE, Native American Studies
NANCY LÓPEZ, Sociology
ANN MASSMAN, University Libraries BÁRBARA
O. REYES, History and Women Studies ILIA
RODRÍGUEZ, Communications and Journalism
SYLVIA RODRÍGUEZ, Anthropology
ANDREW K. S ANDOVAL-STAUSZ, History
ANDREW SCHRANK, Department of Sociology
BEVERLY R. SINGER, Anthropology and Native American Studies
MICHAEL L. TRUJILLO, American Studies
MARÍA VÉLEZ, Sociology
Office of the Provost and Academic Affairs
College of Arts and Sciences
University of New Mexico Foundation
Office of Graduate Studies
Graduate Resource Center
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center
El Centro de la Raza
Project for New Mexico Graduates of Color
Building Future Leadership for the Advancement of Native American
and Latino Humanistic Social Science at the
University of New Mexico
2008-2013
Karen Roybal, Ph.D. 2011, American Studies (2010 cohort).
Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Associate, Latino/Latina Studies
Department, University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign; currently,
Research Scholar and Part-Time Instructor, Center for Regional
Studies and Department of English, University of New Mexico,
Albuquerque. Dissertation: Land, Gender, and the Politics of identity
Formation: Uncovering Hispana/Mexicana Voices in the Southwest.
Karen Roybal is a native New Mexican, raised in the small northern New Mexico village of
Pecos. Her research has focused on cultural studies and southwest studies. Her dissertation
provides a comparative analysis of Hispana and Mexicana testimonies, or “texts” to uncover
their shared history of struggle and strategies of resistance. Karen uses hybrid strategies
such as ethnography, autobiography, historiography and literary theory to examine
conceptions of identity, gender, history, and cultures as these pertain to land rights in the
Southwest.
Stephanie M. Sánchez, Ph.D. Candidate, Anthropology (2009 cohort).
Dissertation: Women and Cultural Production: Fiestas, Families, and
Foodways in San Rafael, New Mexico. Native of the South Valley of
Albuquerque, Stephanie Sánchez conducted her fieldwork in the rural
community of San Rafael, New Mexico. Her dissertation examines the role
played by Hispanic women in multigenerational cultural expression and
transmission of knowledge and labor. Stephanie’s research also analyzes the
various ways in which contemporary Hispanic women conceptualize ethic identity and
heritage practices such as traditional cooking.
Damián Vergara Wilson, Ph.D. 2010, Spanish Linguistics (2008 cohort).
Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the Sabine Ulibarrí Spanish,
Heritage Language Program, Department of Spanish and Portuguese,
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. Dissertation: Formulaic
Language and Adjective Categories in Eight Centuries of the Spanish
Expression of ‘becoming’ quedar(se) + ADJ. Wilson’s study uses a written
record spanning the 13th to the 19th centuries and applies a cognitive model of
mental representation, the exemplar model, to account for linguistic evolution through
usage. He tracks the Spanish verb quedarse, ’to stay/remain’, as it evolves into the
formulaic expression of ‘becoming’, quedars. At first few adjectives are used but, through
time, tangible cognitive categories emerge based on adjective relatedness. This research
demonstrates that formulaic linguistic forms have longevity and that emergent forms are
based on prior usage through analogical extension.
MISSION
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Doctoral Fellowship Program
at the University of New Mexico has the stated goal of “Building
Future Leadership for the Advancement of Native American and
Latino Humanistic Social Science at UNM” by increasing the
Number of graduates; reducing the average time for completion
of their Ph.D.s; and ensuring their professional advancement
within academia while creating a strong, vibrant academic
community dealing with Native American and Latino Humanistic
and Social Science issues.
M ichael Graves, Cha ir an d P rofessor, Depar tm ent of Anthropo logy ,
Unive rs ity of New M ex ico, Andrew W. M ellon Fou ndation , Co -Principal
Investig ato r
Dr. Gr a ves jo i n ed UN M in 20 07. He ea rn ed hi s do ct ora te f ro m th e
Uni versity o f Arizo na in 1981. Hi s a rch a eo lo gic al r esea rch in O c ea nia a nd
the A meri can Sout h w est i s focus ed on prehi storic soci al co mp l exi ty a nd
dryl a nd a nd ir riga ted a gr i cul tu r e. G ra ve s ha s p ubli s h ed 6 vo l u m es, 70
pa pers, a nd w a s edi tor of two jo u rna l s, Ame r ic an Anti qu ity a nd A sia n
Pe r spec ti ve s. As Cha ir o f Anth ro po l o gy at bo th t he Uni versi ty o f Ha wa i i
a nd UNM he co m mit ted t o incr ea si ng th e nu mb er of Na ti ve Ha wa i ia ns
and Nati ve Am eri can s in Anthro po lo gy thro u gh, re search, traini ng and
fello ws hip pro gra ms.
M igue l Gande rt , D irector , Interdisciplinary F ilm a nd D igita l M e dia
Progra m; and Distin guis hed P rofessor, Depa rtm ent of Comm un icatio ns
and Jou rn a li sm , U n i vers i t y of N ew M e x ico , D ir ec t o r , U N M -M e llon
Program
Miguel Gandert is a Nuevo Mexicano and a documentary photographer. His family has
lived for generations in the small town of Mora, northern New Mexico He is an
alumnus of the University of New Mexico. Miguel’s career as cameraman, news
producer, and still photographer, take him throughout the Southwest and to Latin
America, Europe, and Asia. His most recent book is In the Country of Empty Crosses:
The Story of a Hispano Protestant Family in Catholic New Mexico.
Louise L amphere, D isting uished P rofesso r Em erita , Departm e nt of
Anth ropolo gy , University of New M ex ico, A ndrew W. M ellon Foundation ,
Co - P r i n c i p a l I n v e s t i g a t o r
Dr. L a m ph e re i s a Pa st Pr esi d ent o f t h e A m eri ca n Ant hro p o lo gi cal
As so cia tion a n d th e A m er ican Eth n olo gi ca l As so ci a tion a nd is a f o r m er
Vi siti ng Sch olar at t h e Ru ssell Sag e Foun dati on a nd at Pri nc eton
Uni v er si t y . S h e ea r n ed h er do cto ra t e a t Ha r va rd Uni v er si ty i n 1 9 6 8. H er
re s ea r ch i n c ul t u r al a n t h r o p ol ogy i s fo c u s ed on i ss u e s o f g e n d er, l a b or ,
h eal t h ca re, a nd mi g ra ti o n in bot h A m eri can a nd N a va jo cul t ur es.
La m p h er e ha s pu b li sh ed 9 vol u m es (a nd mo re t ha n 50 pa p ers ). H er mo st
re cent book , pu bli s h ed in 19 97, is a bio gra phy of t hre e Na va jo w o m en
enti tl ed: Weavi ng W o me n's Li ve s: Th ree Ge nerati o ns in a N avajo Fam il y.
Nydia A. Martínez, Ph.D. Candidate, History (2010 Cohort) Doctoral
and Post-Doctoral Associate, Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana
(2013-14). Dissertation: Transnational Connections of the Mexican Left
and the Chicano Movement, 1970s. Native of the southern Mexican state
of Guerrero, Nydia’s research explores the transnational political and cultural
connections between Chicano activists in the United States and activists
through the movements established by Chicano activist Mario Cantú of the
United States and the Mexican Maoist leader Florencio “El Güero” Medrano. Nydia’s
research identifies key historical processes such as the international struggles of the Cold
War, ethnic activism in the United States as well as the Mexican “Dirty War.”
Andrea L. Mays, Ph.D. Candidate, American Studies (2010 cohort).
Dissertation: Undoing American Pathologies: Representations of Black
Domesticity and National Belonging 1915-1945. Andrea L. Mays holds a
B.A. in Communications from George Mason University and an M.A. in
Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies from University of New Mexico. Her
dissertation examines significant works by African American artists, who
critiques a twentieth century U.S. national discourse of racial difference and
social pathology through visual and narrative counter discourses of universality and
national belonging. Whilethis work focuses primarily on African Americans, it offers an
intersectional analysis of how African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans were
Strategically deployed in their works to critique U.S. projects or racialization and Western
Expansion.
Elaine M. Nelson, Ph.D. 2011, History (2010 cohort) Assistant
Professor, Department of History and American Indian Studies,
University of Minnesota-Morris. Dissertation: Dreams and Dust in the
Black Hills: Race, Place and National Identity in America’s Land of
Promise. Originally from South Dakota, Elaine specializes in Comparative
Indigenous, Modern U.S., and Western History. In her dissertation, Elaine
studies the historical relationship between race, tourism, economy, and federal
policy to showcase the tensions that exist within the larger celebratory narrative of
America’s western expansion. The Black Hills landscape is a permanent reminder of how
conflicting concepts of place, national identity, and wealth resulted in the region changing
from land promised to the Lakota Nation to a land of promise for Americans.
Elvira Pichardo-Delacour, Ph.D. Candidate, Anthropology (2008
cohort). Dissertation: Labor Market Participation and Its Effects on
Family Type: Female-Headed/Female-Supported Households in the
Dominican Republic and the Dominican Community in New York City,
N.Y.: A Test of the Embodied Capital Theory. Elvira’s research proposes
that concerns about female-headed or female-supported households may be
better addressed by examining the socio-cultural, economic, and political
context in which women primary economic provider. Her study will focus on female
biological and behavioral responses to reproductive demands, the result of socio-economic
changes and female wage labor participation. Elvira’s fieldwork encompasses various areas
such as Bonao, Santiago, and Villa Altagracia, Dominican Republic and Dominican
community in New York City, New York. This study will examine and compare re-productive
behaviors in the Dominican Diaspora community in NYC and in the Dominican Republic.
Edward A Jolie, Ph.D. 2013, Anthropology (2008 cohort) Research
Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, Mercyhurst
University, Erie, Pennsylvania. Dissertation: Social Diversity in the
Prehispanic southwest: Learning, Weaving, and Identity in the Chaco
Regional System, A.D. 800-1200. Ed Jolieis a French and Ogala LakoktaHodulgee Muscogee Indian. His primary interests are in North American
prehistory, perishable technologies, anthropological ethics, and Native
American-Anthropology relations. He has worked a number of collections with significant
perishable artifacts from the United States, Mexico, and Jordan. For his dissertation, Ed
analyzed basketry to examine social variation in the Chaco regional system in northwestern
New Mexico.
Chalane E. Lechuga, Ph.D. 2010 Sociology (2008 cohort) Institutional
Researcher, Office for Equity and Inclusion, and Part-Time Instructor,
Department of Sociology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.
Dissertation: They’ll Expect More Bad Things from Us: Latino/a Youth
Constructing Identities in a Racialized Highschool in New Mexico.
Chalane’s expertise is in the areas of race, ethnicity and public education, with
an emphasis on Latina/o students. Her dissertation documented how high
school students are racialized gendered in the classroom, at school, in their neighborhood,
and in their daily lives. She conducted field research at an urban, public high school in New
Mexico for this project. Lechuga describes how Latino/a students construct their racial and
ethnic identities and their attitudes toward school, as a way to interrogate the educational
inequity Latino/as often experience.
Brian Luna Lucero, Ph.D. Candidate, History (2008 cohort).
Dissertation: Invention and Contention: Memory, Place, and Identity in
the American Southwest 1821-1940. Brian’s dissertation explores the
commemoration and memory of the Spanish colonial past from 1821 to 1940 in
three Mexican towns that grew into prominent American cities: Tucson,
Arizona, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and San Antonio, Texas. By Examining the
stories about the Spanish past that people have told and memorialized in these
cities, my work reveals how people of differing classes and ethnicities gave meaning to that
places they lived and how that meaning shaped their individual and social identities as well
as the flow of power between them.
Tennille L. Marley, Ph.D. 2013, Sociology (2011 cohort) Assistant
Professor, Department of Native American Studies, Arizona State
University, Tempe (2013-14). Dissertation: Indigenous Knowledge,
Land, History, and Health: The Construction of Diabetes on an American
Indian Reservation. Tenille is a member of the White Mountain Apache and
grew up on Fort Apache Indian Reservation in eastern Arizona. She earned a B.A.
degree in elementary education and a MPH from the University of
Arizona. Her dissertation research is focused on Indian health policy. Tennille’s goal in
obtaining a doctorate is to further enhance her ability to understand the myriad health
problems facing Native American from sociological and policy perspectives.
UNM-Mellon Fellows
Claudia Anguiano, Ph.D. 2011, Communications and Journalism (2009
cohort) Lecturer, The Institute for Writing and Rhetoric, Dartmouth
College, Dartmouth. Dissertation: Undocumented, Unapologetic, and
Unafraid: Discursive Strategies of the DREAM Immigrant Youth Social
Movement. Originally from San Luis Potosi, Mexico, Claudia earned both BA
and MA degrees in California State University, Los Angeles. Her research
combines communicative intersections of race, immigration politics and social movements
specifically involving immigrant Latina/o youth. Her dissertation focused on the DREAM Act
movement, specifically on the discursive strategies that undocumented students utilize
communicate about their personal agency given the anti-immigrant sentiment.
Jacobo D. Baca, Ph.D. Candidate, History (2009 cohort). Dissertation:
History of Hispano and Pueblo Land Tenure, Intercultural Relations,
and Government Relations from the Eve of Statehood through the
2004 GAO Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo Land Claims Report. A native of
Peñasco, New Mexico and alumnus of UNM, Baca explores the modern history
of nuevomexicano and Pueblo Indian land tenure. His dissertation seeks to
displace the dominance of colonial narratives in the writing of 20th century
New Mexico history, arguing that we must assess modern interethnic and government
relations in modern New Mexico. Jacobo’s research also addresses the political economy of
nativity and indigenity in the battle for resource rights.
Sonia Bettez, Ph.D. 2013, Sociology (2011 cohort). Dissertation: The
Social Transformation of Health Inequities: Understanding the Dominant Disparities Discourse in the United States from 1970 to 2010.
Sonia was born and grew up in Bogota, Colombia, and considers herself bilingual (Spanish and English) and bicultural (Latino and U.S. cultures). She took
her BA at Merrimack College and earned an MA degree in social work at the
University of North Carolina. Her doctoral research examines the intersection
of health, race and ethnic relations, particularly those faced by Latino communities. Sonia’s
work is targeted to individual actors and the structures that promote health and illness
society health policy.
Kent Blansett, Ph.D. 2011, History (2009 cohort) Assistant Professor,
Department of History and American Indian Studies, University of
Minnesota-Morris. Dissertation: The Biography of Richard Oakes,
American Indigenous Leader and Activist. Kent Blansett is a descendent
from five Tribes: Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Shawnee, and Potawatomie. His
dissertation is a biography of Mohawk activist Richard Oakes, who was one of
the student leaders of the 1969 occupation of Alcatraz Island. Blansett’s
research combines an urban Indian, comparative approach and exposes the roots of
modern Native Nationalism and Red Power, and offers a new methodological construct for
historical biography.
Sean Bruna-Lewis, Ph.D. Candidate, Anthropology (2011 cohort).
Dissertation: Sowing the Seeds for the Future to Honor Tigua History
and Tradition: Type 2 Diabetes Prevention Practices at Ysleta del Sur
Pueblo. Sean Bruna-Lewis is a research scientist on the National Institutes of
Health funded “Corazon por la Vida: Comparative Effectiveness Research for
Eliminating Disparities”, a large interdisciplinary study that examines promotora
led hypertension management among Latinos. His dissertation research utilized
community based participatory research to examine indigenous epistemologies, religious
gardening practices, and diabetes prevention at Ysleta de Sur Pueblo, Texas.
Eric T. Castillo, Ph.D. 2011 American Studies (2009 cohort) Assistant
Director, Multicultural and Diversity Affairs and Director, Institute of
Hispanic Latino Cultures, University of Florida, Gainesville.
Dissertation: Expressions of Another Center: Borderlands Visual
Theory and the Art of Luis Jiménez. Castillo’s dissertation explores the
artwork of Luis Jiménez and concepts of American art and identity. Through
the lens of Borderlands Visual Theory, Eric’s research sheds static notions of “American” by
examining how Jiménez’s art challenges the “center/margin” paradigm. Originally from San
Antonio, Texas, Eric has been a fellowship recipient for the Center for Regional Studies, he
Southwest Hispanic Research Institute, Center for Southwest Research, and New Mexico’s
Higher Education Development initiative.
Melvatha Chee, Ph.D. Candidate, Linguistics (2011 cohort).
Dissertation: Navajo Verb Acquisition in Navajo Children Ages 13
months-10 Years. Melvatha is a Diné woman from Lake Valley, New Mexico.
She received her M.A. in Linguistics at UNM. Her dissertation research
represents a Native speaker contribution to the understanding of language
development in morphologically rich languages by focusing on how children
acquire the complex Navajo verb construction using functional and cognitive
approaches. She is primarily focuses on working with children ages 13 months through 10
years. Melvatha expects her research findings to provide insight and a re-examination of
pedagogical approaches in the acquisition of an indigenous and polysynthetic language.
Teresa Córdova, Ph.D. 2012, American Studies (2008 cohort) Part-Time
Instructor, University of New Mexico West, Rio Rancho. Dissertation:
Recordando Nuestra Gente: Ritual Memorialization along the Camio
Real de Tierra Adentro. Teresa Córdova’s research includes story narratives
that connect Old and New Mexico by way of the Camino Real. Drawing from
ritual experiences of marriages, death, and community that develop mytholgies,
she examines tragedy involving loss, coping , and the memorialization of
women. She proposes how physical death does not terminate spiritual and emotional ties
between the departed and their loved ones. Survivors find comfort by participating in
rituals that assist in the process of transition from physical life to a spiritual afterlife.
Traditional death rituals provide a transition for the survivors, allowing them to grieve, and
to memorialize those who have died tragically. In so doing brings a community together to
recreate ritual practices constructed by old values within new guises and
narratives.
Jaelyn deMaría, Ph.D. 2012, Communications and Journalism (2012
cohort) Post-Doctoral Fellow, Department of Communications and
Journalism, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. Dissertation:
Seeds of Resistance-Harvest of Justice: An Exploration of Spaces
Where Native Seeds Grow. Jaelyn deMaría is a Chicana photographer and
multimedia storyteller from Albuquerque. She specializes in intercultural
communication where she studies the context of globalization and free trade.
For her dissertation research, Jaelyn focused on seed sovereignty, engaging particular
stories from people who are involved in practices of sustainability and resistance to
genetically engineered varieties of seed and so as to context corporate control of land,
water and life.
James Dory-Garduño, Ph.D. 2013, History (2013 cohort). Dissertation:
The Forging of Castilian Law: Late-Medieval Land Disputes in the Real
Audiencia and Transmission of a Legal Tradition. Dory-Garduño’s
research interests include the legal history of the kingdom of Castile, New
Mexico, and U.S. Constitutional Law. He holds a BA in History from UNM, an MA
from Saint Louis University, and a JD from the UNM School of Law. His
dissertation examines the forming of Castilian law in the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries, the applicationof this law in the Audiencia Real Castellana in the
fifteenth century, and the transmission of this law to the Americas. He particularly focuses
on land grants and communal land. He shows the connections between grants issued in the
eleventh through fifteenth century in the Iberian Peninsula nad those from the sixteenth
through eighteenth centuries in the Americas.
Sean Gantt, Ph.D. Candidate, Anthropology (2010 cohort).
Dissertation: Nanta Hosh Chahta Immi (What are Choctaw Ways):
Cultural Preservation in the Casino Era. Sean Gantt conducted his
dissertation research with the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians (MBCI).
His research interests include tribal economic development, Native American
identity and self-representation, visual and public anthropology, and
videography. His dissertation research project is a current study of the
Mississippi Choctaw Nation’s negotiations with capitalist economic development and
western cultural form as a dialectical interaction.
Rebeca Jasso-Augilar, Ph.D. 2012, Sociology (2009 cohort) Part-Time
Instructor and Post-Doctoral Associate, Department of Sociology,
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. Dissertation: How Common
Citizens Transform Politics: The Cases of Mexico and Bolivia. Rebeca
Jasso-Aguilar holds dual MA degrees in Second Language Studies and Sociology.
Her past research has included language needs analysis, the impact of
globalization on health outcomes and policy, as well as social movements
against privatization. Her research focuses on present-day issues, in both Mexico and
Bolivia, and the emergence of organized and politicized civil societies. Rebeca’s research
also seeks to understand the circumstances and processes by which social movements are
successfully institutionalized to represent disenfranchised classes and achieve
accountability.