Within Guyanese racial and religious discourses, Madrasis are a minority of the South Asian population who embarked for the New World, or British Guiana, between 1838 and 1917 via the southern port of the Madras Presidency of the British Empire as sugar plantation laborers. Particular sonic practices have become emblematic of Madrasi religious and racial…

The CLACLS funding allowed me to travel to Maya indigenous communities in the northern highlands of Guatemala. There, I did fieldwork among people who experienced the war between the years 1969 and 1986. Together with a group of survivors we went to the hamlets and mounts where many resisted and fought during and after the…

With the support of the CLACLS Summer Travel Fellowship, I visited the northern Alta/Baja Verapaz region of Guatemala. While my larger doctoral research is based in the eastern Caribbean coastal city of Puerto Barrios and the surrounding Q’eqchi’ Maya communities, this trip was key for my doctoral project as this area is the territory historically…

The CLACLS Summer Travel Fellowship funding allowed me to reach key stakeholders within Chile’s language market. As my research involves an analysis of a broad spectrum of linguistic ideologies, being in Santiago helped me focus on a close, detailed observation of phenomena. My preliminary findings consisted on a complex weaving of emerging political discourses about…

My dissertation research explores the “democratization of literature” by Chilean cartoneras. They are independent publishing houses that handcraft book covers from repurposed, upcycled cardboard while using digital technology to print pages en masse. Thanks to a CLACLS Summer Travel Fellowship I carried out archival research at local libraries, recorded interviews, and established networks with cartoneras that are dedicated to helping people…