Seminar Directors: Paulina León and Michele Kettner
Please click on the title of the award winning theses to read them online
Tied Tongues & Worlds: The Language Broker Archetype
Yahir Bahena, Spanish and Linguistics
Mentor: Lorena Hernández
Winner of the Zake Morgan Memorial Thesis Award—Presented for an exceptional thesis that engages histories and practices of social change.
Children of immigrant families frequently serve as language brokers, facilitating communication and bridging cultural and linguistic divides within their households and communities. Beyond interpretation, this role entails navigating power dynamics, developing cognitive and social competencies, and shaping personal and collective identities through language. This study examines the sociocultural phenomenon of child language brokering, drawing on the foundational works of Ofelia García, Kate Seltzer, and Amparo Hurtado Albir. Expanding on existing frameworks, it introduces new dimensions in brokering research, including sociocultural variations in brokering practices, the typology of bilingualism associated with the broker identity, and the reframing of identity consciousness through linguistic mediation. Employing an autoethnographic approach and first-person metaphorical storytelling, this study challenges conventional academic perspectives on these emerging dimensions. Additionally, it seeks to counter the historical inaccessibility of linguistic research by incorporating visual representations and diagrams to present theoretical concepts in a more engaging and comprehensible manner. Findings suggest that child language brokers develop a unique form of bilingualism shaped by necessity rather than formal instruction, which in turn influences their self-perception and socio-emotional experiences. The study highlights the complexities of their role as mediators and the broader societal forces that shape their linguistic and cognitive development. “Tied Tongues & Worlds” is an unapologetic research narrative that seeks to resonate with every language broker who has shouldered the weight of translation, felt the dissonance of belonging, and navigated worlds they never chose yet masterfully shaped.
Navigating Memory Sites in the Wake of the Civil War in El Salvador (1980-1992)
Sam Moscoso, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development (Teaching World Language 7-12: Spanish) and Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Mentor: Lourdes Dávila
Winner of the Sylvia Molloy Memorial Award for Outstanding Thesis—Presented for overall excellence and originality in an honors thesis
In “Feeling the Past: Display and the Art of Memory in Latin America,” Andrea Giunta speaks about the tensions present in the relationship between spaces, memory and history and asks: “How is […] history to be remembered? How can the relationship between aesthetics and effectiveness be activated? How can the art of memory be conceptualized?” My thesis considers these questions in two stages. I first look at the novel Dios tenía miedo—by the Salvadoran author Vanesa Núñez (2020)—as an aesthetic archive; I explore the main character’s deliberate need to understand her place in the conflict by collecting fragments of her own memory with various historical documents from the conflict. In this case, the novel itself becomes the archive where memory lives and discoveries are made. I then move on to analyze the spaces and curatorial practices of two very different museums/memory sites: the Centro Monseñor Romero—built on the site of the November 1989 massacre of 6 priests and 2 bystanders and controlled by the Catholic Church—and the Museo de la Revolución, built near the site of a guerrilla encampment and founded and directed by ex-guerrilla combatants. Drawing from my own interviews and visits to these spaces, my research inspects their role in constructing a contemporary historical narrative of the armed conflict and questions the interaction between site and aesthetics practices in the process of knowledge production and dissemination.
Activism and Care: How Feminist Networks and Health Professionals Transformed Abortion Access in Argentina
Gabriella Radice, Spanish and Portuguese, Pre-Med track
Mentor: Paulina León
This study explores the role of feminist activism in Argentina from 2000 to 2020 in reshaping the discourse on abortion as a healthcare issue and advocating for its legalization. It highlights the work of La Campaña Nacional por el Derecho al Aborto Legal, Seguro y Gratuito, Socorristas en Red, and Ni Una Menos, and healthcare professionals within the Red de Profesionales Para el Derecho de Decidir. Specifically, it analyzes how these groups defied institutional barriers, reduced stigma, and integrated abortion care into mainstream medical practice. Drawing on primary sources—including materials disseminated by activist organizations, academic analyses, legal journals, and an interview with obstetrician and activist Dr. Sebastiani—this study provides insight into the strategic shifts that reframed abortion as a public health issue, emphasizing the intersection of feminist principles and healthcare policy. Additionally, it highlights the challenges forward-thinking medical professionals face in advocating for abortion rights within a historically conservative medical institution. These findings imply that Argentina’s approach—merging legal advocacy, medical activism, and destigmatization—provides valuable insights for abortion rights movements worldwide. Future research might explore how this model, emphasizing redes de acompañamiento, physician-led resistance, and misoprostol advocacy, could be applied in different contexts, including the US. Another important area for study is the role of adopting a wide interpretation of the laws—challenging restrictive legal frameworks by leveraging ambiguities and alternative readings—in advancing legalization efforts. Since some advocacy took place outside legal channels and thus went undocumented, a closer examination of the actions undertaken by both women seeking abortions and professionals may reveal further lessons about the evolving abortion landscape.
Conservative Latinos: The Cuban Alliance
Jullisa Jasmine Sindingan Herrera, Politics and Spanish
Mentor: Cristina Beltrán and Ameya Tripathi
This study examines the early history that shaped the intertwined political and economic relationship between the United States of America and Cuba. It briefly analyzes how this relationship then contributed to the mass migration of exiles by giving Cubans a special refugee status, which allowed many Cubans to obtain legal status in the United States. By analyzing how U.S. policies granted Cuban exiles special refugee status and pathways to legal residency, this study traces the development of a Cuban voting bloc in Miami. The thesis explores how this voting bloc evolved under Democratic presidents such as John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton, as well as Republican administrations, including those of Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush, ultimately fostering a conservative partisan identity. Through the build up of early history, mass migration, and conservative partisan identity, this thesis can illustrate an exile community that was shaped by migration, and one in which once cared for pro-immigration legislation and prioritized presidential candidates’ positions on Cuba. A political ideology that has shifted under the recent 2016 and 2020 elections of Donald J. Trump and has focused on U.S. policy rather than international policy and rhetoric of anti-citizenship and anti-immigration. In order to demonstrate this shift this thesis will analyze a highly popular campaign ad by Los 3 de La Habana, and their song the “Canción de Donald Trump” (2020). This campaign ad will demonstrate themes of national identity, citizenship, a concern for U.S. policies rather than foreign policies, misinformation, and voting preferences. By examining Cuban voter turnout and support for President Trump, this research underscores the paradox of Cuban American backing for an anti-immigration agenda—marking a significant departure from past political alignments.
ethnic minorities given their predisposition towards not having an ID and the extreme monetary and time constraints associated with obtaining a valid ID. Despite research examining the electoral effect of voter ID laws on minorities, the findings have been mixed. My research contributes to the robustness of the field by including both aggregate and individual data, extending the time frame, and accounting for variation in the impact of these laws according to a four-point strictness scale. Using both county-level turnout and random samples of each state’s official voter files from 2004 to 2022, both two-way fixed effects analyses provide evidence consistent with recent research: voter ID laws do not drastically depress racial and ethnic minority voter turnout. After accounting for a variety of state and county-level controls, the effect is even smaller and in some cases positive. Though not empirically tested in this study, these unexpected results may be mediated by countermobilization efforts to counteract the effects of voter ID laws. Future scholarship aimed at assessing the impact of voter ID laws should seek to include an array of measures that allude to the presence of countermobilization, amongst additional factors that may further conflate this relationship.
Beyond Words: The Unseen Influence of Language Brokering in Shaping Individual Lives, Society, and Public Policy
Madison Yousefzadeh, Spanish; Sociology; Childhood and Adolescent Mental Health Studies
Mentor: Lorena Hernández
In 1995, Lucy Tse coined the term “language brokering” to refer to the translation and interpretation of language by children between their parents or other adults and speakers of the dominant language. This special type of translation and interpretation is filled with policy injustices, emotional intelligence, independence, and power dynamics. This project highlights the social dynamics between overlooked Spanish speaking communities who have often migrated and English speakers residing in the U.S. Children from these families seek new opportunities and an overall improved quality of life, specifically through the education system. The vital function of language brokers in bridging communication barriers between their families and dominant language speakers emphasizes the need to define the role of language brokers in the spaces that they occupy and how it translates to the struggles that this vulnerable population endures as a result of governance–addressing language barriers in schools. Using social history, theoretical approaches, and public policy evaluation, this project examines language brokering as a theory that manifests itself through the interpersonal relationships and social dynamics of immigrant communities in the context of the education system and the government. As a result, I demonstrate that language brokering theory is not solely built upon verbal exchanges, but upon an act of negotiation that gives individuals a chance to collaborate, to learn and understand a foreign culture and system. Recognizing and supporting language brokers in the education sphere can pave the way to ensure equal opportunities for immigrants and their families in their futures.
