August 13, 1999
The Smithsonian Center for Latino Initiatives announced the selections for two of its fellowship programs: the Humanities Fellowships in Latino Cultural research in a National Museum Context, "Issues of Representation and Interpretation"; and the Graduate Student Fellowships in Latino Studies.
The Humanities doctoral fellows are: George Sanchez (associate professor of history, University of Southern California), Gerald Poyo (associate professor of Latin American and U.S. Latino history, St. Mary's University, San Antonio, Texas), Arlene Torres (assistant professor of anthropology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) and Maria Lorena Chambers (doctoral candidate, University of Michigan).
The graduate student fellows are: Darshan Elena Campos (University of California, Santa Cruz), Melissa Carrillo (University of Texas, El Paso), Melinda Gandara (University of California, Santa Barbara), Nora Michelle "Miki" Garcia (University of Texas, Austin) and Oscar Macchioni (University of Arizona).
Both fellowship programs are co-sponsored by the Inter-University Program for Latino Research, a national consortium of university research centers, with headquarters at Norte Dame University. The Humanities Fellowships in Latino Cultural Research receives financial support from The Rockefeller Foundation Programs in Culture & Arts. The two programs make available the extensive Smithsonian Institution collections to scholars of Latino studies and graduate students who are working on projects involving Latino art, history and culture.
Humanities Fellowships in Latino Cultural Research
George Sanchez of the University of Southern California was selected as a senior fellow. His areas of scholarship are Latino identity, race, immigration and cultural history. His fellowship research is titled "Latino Identities, American Identity: Exploring Latino Ethnicity in Urban America." Sanchez's research project will result in an edited volume focusing on Latino culture and history, based on the material culture holdings of the National Museum of American History. He is in residence at the Smithsonian in July and again in June/July 2000.
Gerald Poyo of Saint Mary's University in San Antonio was selected as a senior fellow. His areas of scholarship are Latino history, Spanish colonial history of Texas, the Southwest, Cuba and the Caribbean. The title of his fellowship research is "Interpreting and Exhibiting U.S. Latino History." Poyo will analyze several specific themes around which a narrative of Latino history might be fashioned. He also will explore the possibility of a major exhibition on Latino history. Poyo is in residence at the Smithsonian in July and again in June/July 2000.
Arlene Torres of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was selected as a senior fellow. Her areas of scholarship are African and Latino diaspora, theories of race, gender and nationalism, "transnationalism," representation and economic development. Her fellowship project will be on "Puerto Ricans in Search of Africanity: Blackness and Nation in Unusual Spaces, Places and Locales."
Torres will explore how notions of Africanity and blackness in Puerto Rico are expressed in museums, festivals and literature. She will focus her study on the Theodoro Vidal collection and exhibition at the Museum of American History. She is in residence at the museum from July until Dec. 30.
Maria Lrena Chambers of the University of Michigan was selected as a junior fellow. Her fields of research are United States history of gender, Chicana and Chicano history, and theories of representation, identity and subjectivity in American Culture. Her fellowship project is title "Vaqueros and Charros in the American Landscape."
Chambers will research and plan a showcase at the Museum of American History in highlighting how vaqueros and charros performed, what they included in their theatrical segments, what they wear and why. Chambers is in residence from April to August 2000.
Graduate Student Fellowships in Latino Studies
Darshan Elena Campos is a graduate student in the history of consciousness program at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Her research focus is on race and gender in music and visual culture, specifically the representation of women salsa artists in mixed media, film, videos and material culture.
In residence at the Museum of American History in the fall of 1999, she will examine oral history projects and the popular entertainment and mass media artifacts.
Melissa Carrillo is a graduate student of contemporary art and photography at the University of Texas at El Paso. Carrillo's interest in digitally archived and presented cultural materials comes from her research in creative applications of new electronic media in educational environments. She will be in residence at the Smithsonian Center for Latino Initiatives in the fall.
Melinda Gandara is a graduate student in the department of art history at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Her research focus is on Latin American modern art and Chicano art. Gandara's research project is titled "Second Generation Cuban Artists: An Exploration of Art Generes and Movements." While in residence this summer at the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art, she will develop research on primary source materials such as oral histories, newspaper clippings and artists' papers.
Nora Michelle "Miki" Garcia is a graduate student in the art history department at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on contemporary Latino/Chicano art and she will be at the Smithsonian in the summer of 2000. Garcia is particularly interested in the role of alternative spaces in Chicano art, how they influenced Chicano artists and changed the way broader audiences came to understand Mexican-American artists.
Oscar Macchioni is a graduate student in the music department at the University of Arizona. His research focuses on the sociocultural impact of Latin American music. While in residence at the Center for Latino Initiatives in the summer of 2000, he will investigate the sociological and cultural impact of Argentinian tango in the United States. His research will involve historic photographs, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, concert programs, publicity materials, films and recordings.
The Smithsonian Center of Latino Initiatives is providing application materials for the next cycle of these programs. Short descriptions of the programs along with application forms and deadlines are found at the center's Web site: www.si.edu/latino.
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