Meet the Fellows

Victor Doan 
Junior
English Literature with a minor in History

Research Interests: 19th, and 20th Century Literature. Asian and Asian-American Literature. Queen Literature. Chinese History. Feminist and Gender Theory.
MMUF Mentor: Dr. Rene H. Trevino
Project Title: The Role of Multicultural Analysis in Changing the Literary Canon
Abstract: As the United States progresses, its students become increasingly diverse; minoritized voices, though relatively prevalent, remain largely unheard. The belief that the literary canon must fit ethnic works is vital, but that incorporation would fail without paying attention to ethnic works through a combination of multicultural and literary analysis. By undertaking a literary and multicultural analysis of Asian-American works by highlighting the effects of the Cold War on the Asian-American diaspora, I argue that understanding the unique struggles of Asian-Americans demonstrates how ethnic works require insight on ethnic perspectives. I use Thí Bui’s The Best We Could Do to highlight themes of generational trauma and family to demonstrate how while those themes can be demonstrated in other works, multicultural analysis creates a more empathic understanding of the particulars of an Asian-American perspective.
    

Ayleen Huerta
Junior 
Chicano & Latino Studies with a minor in Legal Studies 

Research Interests:  Looking into the City of Los Angeles, CA. and the negative impact urban development and unaffordable housing has caused in areas with a notable immigrant population. Gentrification. Homelessness. 
MMUF Mentor: Dr. Dario Valles
Project Title: How Gentrification and Legal Status Impacts Access to Affordable Housing
Abstract: This presentation will examine the role of legal status in heavily impacting access to affordable housing for Latinx families in areas such as South-Central LA, East LA, and Long Beach. In the case of most federal rental assistance programs, including public housing, Housing Choice Vouchers, Section 8 project-based rental assistance, and rural rental assistance, most noncitizens with permanent status are eligible for assistance, whereas temporary and unauthorized immigrants are ineligible. Mixed-status families (those composed of both eligible and ineligible members) may receive prorated or reduced benefits, depending on the program. As low-income immigrant families lose access to needed housing assistance listed above, they face an increased risk of eviction and homelessness. Latinxs are vulnerable to experiencing housing insecurity and less likely to receive public benefits, such as housing assistance which can impact a household’s economic resources. Incorporating evidence from government articles, scholarly articles, and U.S. Census Data to gather demographics about neighborhoods in Long Beach and Los Angeles. This paper calls for innovative, mixed methods approaches to understanding the social and structural determinants of housing for marginalized populations.

Meagan Kim
Junior
Classics with a minor in Anthropology

Research Interests: Women in ancient antiquity. Homosexuality. Progression of society for women and those in lower class.
MMUF Mentor: Dr. Kathryn Chew
Project Title: Androgyny in Ancient Rome
Abstract: In ancient Rome, androgyny was implemented in the sacred and secular. Roman society had the tendency of going along binary lines. Therefore, in times of turmoil, Romans would target the androgynous and sacrifice them to the gods, hoping their deaths would bring back order to the world. The androgynous were the ones breaking boundaries, having an influence that goes beyond human identity as they would become the connection to divinity. In order to understand androgynous sexuality, religious groups such as the Vestal Virgins and Magna Mater will be investigated. Hermaphrodites will also be researched to get a better knowledge of androgynous gender which will provide insight as to how society viewed and retaliated against androgyny. Thus, there is the question as to what lengths androgyny was accepted and why they were the ones being sacrificed in times of hardship in Rome.

Demetrius Tien
First-Year Transfer
History

Research Interests: I hope to research the ways "Asian" has emerges as a category with the advent of modernity. More particularly, I hope to investigate the ways in which the category is not only tied to race but is also sexualized and gendered. Expectations of Asian people as sexual, exotic, or submissive are maintained in Western representations through time. I would like to historically and historiographical analyze such depictions and how they both create and maintain what we in the West understand as the category of "Asian"
MMUF Mentor: Dr. Rajbir Singh Judge
Project Title: The Exhibition of Afong Moy: Racial Construction of The Chinese Lady through Representation
Abstract: My paper outlines how "Chinese femineity" is defined relationally to an emerging conceptualization of white, America modernity in the 19th century. In doing so, it shows how race has been contingent to the power relations inherit in its construction. Using the Exhibition of The Chinese Lady, Afong Moy, as a case study, I show how the exhibit constructs a definition of 'Chinese femineity" through the process of Moy's displacement, staging, and decoration. Indeed, the aspect of being a "Chinese woman" was not inherent or natural to her, but instead created in highlighting relational differences and ornaments. In thinking of Afong Moy through the lends of the commodity fetish, the way in which difference is constructed, the centralities which make up that difference, are made clear. The bound foot in particular, is centralized and emerges as a fetish which signifies the ornamentality and immobility of the " Chinese woman". As aa whole, this paper finds that Moy is racialized through the exhibit and emerges as a relational signifier of " Chinese femineity" to the modern, white American.  

Emma Benitez
Sophomore
Art History with a minor in Anthropology

Research Interests: Contemporary Latin American Art, Indian Hindu Art and Architecture, and Buddhist Art and Architecture throughout Asia. 
Scholarships/Awards: Middle Class Scholarship
MMUF Mentor: Dr. Paulina Gaviria

Alyssa Damore
First-Year Transfer 
Art History

Research Interests: Exploring my own identity through the lens of Latinx art of the American Southwest. Folk art of the Americas. Examining the role museums play in relation to taste and education. How to have museums better reflect broader realities of artistic creation. Deconstructing the Eurocentric canon of art history and taste.
MMUF Mentor: Dr. Nizan Shaked

Kelli Nakamura
Sophomore
Asian American Studies

Research Interests: Transcultural Asian adoption
MMUF Mentor: Dr. Barbara Kim

Brian Trat
First Year Transfer
History

Research Interests: Imperialism in Vietnam. 19th and 20th century. Identity creation of the Vietnamese diaspora. Transnational politics of the Vietnamese diaspora. The formation of South Vietnamese nationalism. The memory and legacy of the Vietnam War in Media. Southeast Asia as a periphery region in world-systems theory.
Project Title: South Vietnam in exile: Transnational Influence of Orange County Business Leaders in Viet Kieu Politics
 

Audrey Bui
Junior
Political Science and Art History

Research Interests: Post colonial criticism in art history, racial, and ethnic politics, biopolitics, and Western art theory and criticism. 
Scholarships & Award: ASI Judiciary Scholarship
MMUF Mentor: Dr. Heather Graham
 

Andrew Chandar
Junior
History with a minor in Religion Studies 

Research Interests: My research interests are investigating the effects of imperialism and colonialism. I want to concentrate on the experiences of people who were displaced because of slavery as well as from indentured servitude because I am a product of that very system. I believe that there is the psychological trauma that is passed down from generation to generation because of slavery, capitalism, colonialism, imperialism, and globalization.
 

Zuleyma Cortez
First- Year Transfer 
Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies 

Research Interests: Feminization of Poverty Public Health Lesbian Latinx Histories Women. Labor/ Economy Decolonization of social norms and ideals of Intersectional Feminism
MMUF Mentor: Dr. Bradley K. Hawkins
 

Fernando Mendez
Junior
History

Research Interests: History of People of Color in 20th century United States. Race based policymaking. Immigration trends. Diplomatic relations between the US and Mexico 
Scholarships & Award: College of Liberal Arts (CLA) Dean's Scholarship
MMUF Mentor: Dr. Abigail Rosas 

Paola Villareal
First- Year Transfer 
Sociology with a minor in History

Research Interests: Globalization. Implications of Homogenization. 
MMUF Mentor: Dr. Esa Syeed

Joshua Acosta
Junior
History

Graduate Interests: Early Modern Southeast Asia, Material Culture in the Pacific World, Colonialism, Gender, Religious History 
Scholarships & Awards: Elizabeth Nielsen History Award (Spring 2019) 
Project Title: Visible from the Veil: Identity and Agency in the Early Modern Spanish Philippines, 1600-1750 
Abstract: 
        In 1684, Ignacia del Espíritu Santo, a woman of Chinese and native ‘indio’ descent created one of the first religious orders in the Spanish colonial Philippines. However, within the colonial social hierarchy, Chinese and native people were considered subaltern people, those left at the bottom of the hierarchy of power. Hierarchies emerged from the constructs imposed upon the colonized by the Spanish based on ethnicity to emphasize Iberian superiority and civilization. In this study, I argue that despite rigid ethnic hierarchies and religious norms of the Spanish Colonial period, subaltern people sought to acculturate and negotiate social spaces for themselves within colonial society. Using a biography written in 1749 that chronicled the life of Ignacia del Espíritu Santo by Jesuit priest Pedro Murillo Velarde and the Constitution and Rules Mother Ignacia had promulgated for her order of nuns, this case study will examine the rhetoric and perceptions of how mestizos were perceived by colonizers and how mestizos made themselves visible in the public sphere. 

Batoul Akil
Junior
Art History

Graduate interests: Islamic Art History 
Scholarships & Awards: MMUF Fellow Spring 2019-Present
MMUF Mentor: Dr. Mariah Proctor 
Project Title: Orientalizing Calligraphy in Jean-Léon Gérôme’s painting, The Snake Charmer 
Abstract: 
        Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904) is a well-known Orientalist French painter. One of his most thought-provoking paintings is The Snake Charmer (1870). This is such a quintessentially Orientalizing painting that Edward Said made it the cover image of his 1978 book, Orientalism, the starting point for post-colonial theory. Nowhere in the Arab world is it normal for a young boy, clearly under the age of 14, to entertain old men with a snake, casually wrapped around his naked body with an old man playing the flute. Further, his performance is being done inside a mosque, something that would never be allowed. This painting is meant to encourage Europeans to perceive the East as people who partake in barbaric events, like snake performances. As Said argues, Orientalist painters also mashed numerous Middle Eastern cultures into one in their works. The ceramic tiles on the wall depicted in decay derive from the Topkapi palace in Istanbul, Turkey. And the stone flooring resembles that in the mosque of Amr ibn al-As in Cairo, Egypt, while, the snake charming performance itself, derives from India. What captures my attention most, however, is Gérôme’s attempt at Arabic calligraphy. Anyone well-versed in Islamic art understands the importance of mathematical accuracy and for words to fit effortlessly in their designated frame. Comparing his version of Arabic calligraphy to the work in the Topkapi Palacee, Gérome’s work is not evenly proportioned. Most importantly, the “Arabic” Gérome pretends to convey in this ultra-realistic detail, is actually nonsense, forming few intelligible words. Many of the letters drawn by Gérôme are clear signs of someone who does not comprehend the artform. Dots are placed unfittingly, creating letters that are not part of the Arabic alphabet. This painting that claims such accuracy through its almost invisible brushstrokes is actually pure invention, and nowhere is this more evident than in the “calligraphy.”

D'Naja Gates
Junior
Film & Philosophy

MMUF Mentor: Dr. Cory Wright 
Project Title: "Film-making Narratives of Blaxploitation" 
Abstract:
        Blaxploitation was a short-lived subgenre of film in the 1970s. Characterized by depictions of gratuitous violence and negative stereotypical black characters, the family of these films have faced controversy since its inception. What many found redeeming of these films, however, was the underlying theme of black empowerment against “the man”. This theme can be originated, along with the genre, in Melvin Van Peebles’ Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, (1971). Not only is this narrative of “the black man against the system” predominantly present in the film, but it is a narrative that characterizes Van Peebles journey to make the film itself. With Hollywood, at the time, only recently opening its resources to black filmmakers, Van Peebles became disillusioned by the little control he seemed to have over the production of his previous films. Knowing Sweetback could never be made under the close scrutiny of the studios, Van Peebles resorted to tactics of “guerrilla filmmaking” to make his film outside of the Hollywood system. Following the research of scholars Donald Bogle and Ed Guerrero, I would like to expand upon this relation between the products of the blaxploitation era and the experience of the filmmakers behind them. Even if Sweetback’s success opened the door for more similar films to be made and also opened Hollywood’s consideration of the black audience as a lucrative market, the same could not be said of the studio system’s views on the bankable power of black filmmakers. Considering that many of the blaxploitation films to follow were made both by white and black filmmakers within Hollywood, it would be interesting to see how these various productions compare to Melvin Van Peebles’.

Jacquelyn Macias 
Junior
Physical Anthropology & Forensic Studies 

MMUF Mentor: Dr. Bridget Alex 
Project Title:Using 3D technology in Anthropology 
Abstract: 
        Digital Anthropology is revolutionizing Anthropology, and the study of ancient bones. In my presentation, I will review current applications of digital anthropology and propose potential outcomes and future directions for this research. Biomedical imaging techniques have been a significant advancement to the overall study of anatomy. Researchers are now using these methods in anthropology because they pose minimal risks to fossils, artifacts, and their original matrix or context. This burgeoning specialization known as “virtual anthropology,” combines anthropological techniques (i.e. field surveying and excavations) with the usage of 3D software to create a nearly identical model of objects and contexts. 3D imaging techniques create 3D models, which can be “digitally dissected,” thus avoiding destructions of rare and valuable specimens (e.g. fossils). Specimens can be accurately rendered prior to excavations, and while excavating, an exact reconstruction of the site can be re-created virtually. Furthermore, this improves the accuracy and reliability of differentiating between tooth marks, stone tool marks, and/or other qualitative features of bone modifications. In order to generate 3D anatomical models, a micro-computed tomography scanner is used to obtain X-ray projections of the selected specimen. Then computer software can reconstruct the image sequences that can then be segmented using freeware. I therefore argue that visual reconstructions in anthropology provides a new and potentially effective medium to analyze bones with, which will aid in understanding human evolution and cultures. On a broader scale, this can also democratize anthropological research because people everywhere can access the data and analyze unique artifacts that otherwise would be in exclusive or in hard-to-access collections. 

Nathan Carbajal
Senior
Chicano & Latino Studies

Research Interests: Political Theory, Neoliberalism, Marxism, Political Economy
Scholarships & Award: Honors Program, Leadership Alliance Mellon Initiative Alumni 
MMUF Mentor: Dr. Abigail Rosas 
Project Title: Neoliberal Opinion: A Legal Analysis of Expert Testimony 
Abstract: 
        The turn to neoliberalism in the 1970’s has engendered colorblind racism that has permeated the legal system. Current research focuses on how law enforcement controls and punishes poor, Black and Brown communities through the neoliberal race project. However, there is a lack of research treating expert testimonies within the courtroom that allow for the legal maintenance of colorblind racism. Thus, this project focuses on the expert testimony of Marshall Robert Almonte as it was utilized within the courtroom to maintain the neoliberal framework necessary to uphold racial and class hierarchies. The courts’ legitimization of Almonte’s testimony describing Latinx Catholic images as a proxy to Latinx criminality permits for the use of cultural artifacts as markers to label Latinx people as criminal through their display of Catholic images. Therefore, without mentioning race or ethnicity, Almonte is able to police and criminalize Latinx people through their religious practice. In turn, this means that the court systems are able to dole out “justice” while protecting the white and bourgeois class. 

Anastasia Nesbitt
Senior
History & International Studies

Research Interests:  
Science and Technology Studies, History of Science
Scholarships & Awards: 
Phi Beta Kappa - Junior-year election 
Phi Alpha Theta – National History Honor Society                       
Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship    
CSULB Department of History 2018  
         HIST 301 Portfolio Award, 2nd Place.                                     
CSULB Student Research Competition 2018 
First Place Winner, Humanities          
MMUF Mentor: Dr. Jane Dabel 
Project Title: Children of “vice and misery”: Youth, Reform, and Racial Politics in North Carolina 
Abstract:  
        The fundamental interconnectedness of race and childhood are explicitly clear in the dynamics of reform in the United States, particularly within women’s progressive reform efforts in the late nineteenth century. Through works such as Delinquent Daughters by Mary E. Odem and Gender and Jim Crow by Glenda Gilmore, the politics of gender and race in the context of the Progressive era are clear. However, a discourse specifically examining the racialized construction of the child as a social category is lacking in the discussion of Southern women’s reform efforts. Because the constructions of childhood and race both inform and underpin each other, it is necessary to carry out an analysis that analyzes the language of progressive reformists in light of these intertwined social apparatuses. By examining North Carolina specifically, this paper will reveal how the creation of “the child” as a white category contributed to the division among black and white women reformers. The contrast in language and reformatory approach concerning children between these groups of women exposes the entrenchment of racial ideologies and their centrality to the definition and treatment of children. This paper will explore how the discussion of childhood as a white category disrupted and ultimately divided the cross-racial reform efforts of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union of North Carolina. Though the WCTU of North Carolina offers a rare glimpse of cross-racial collaboration during a period marked by white supremacist terrorism, ultimately this collaboration failed as a result of white women’s refusal to consider black women as equal partners in the progressive project and their proposal of the white child as the only child deserving of progressive protection. 

Jacqueline Piña
Senior
Art History & Graphic Design

Research Interests: Art history, Mexican Colonial Art, Mexican and Chicanx 20th century art, 
Scholarships and Awards: Iron Mountain Education Fund, 2017-2020 
Edith Macho Art History Scholarship, 2019-2020  
Sally Casanova Scholar, 2019-2020 
MMUF Mentor: Dr. Catha Paquette 
Project Title: The Modern Museum: Leaving a ‘Fantastic’ Existence for Home 
Abstract:         
        The Getty PST: LA/LA series of exhibitions from 2017 to 2018 was a landmark event that finally brought to center stage an inclusive view of Latin American art. In contrast, early survey exhibitions done in the 1980’s produced vastly different spaces that were limited in contextual information, favored the opinions of Euro-American curators, and circulated problematic perspectives. I explore past museum methodology and analyze how it has informed current practices. In discussing current curatorial methods, my research paper highlights how twenty-first century curators have created different spaces that honor the diversity within the field of Latin American art. Comparing the twenty-first century exhibition, Home: So Different, So Appealing, against the twentieth-century exhibition, Art of the Fantastic: Latin America 1920-1978, my research ascertains the progress made, as well as giving visibility to the ongoing need of complex representation of Latin American art. 
        The results of my research indicate and further support the ongoing need for complex representation of Latin American art. While Latin American art exhibitions have improved, improvement is always needed when the field is historically marginalized. By ascertaining the progress made in my research, it is now easier to understand scholars' suggestions and ways to implement solutions. 

Dejah Rodriguez
Senior
Communication Studies & Public Relations

Research Interests: Rhetorical Criticism and Mass Media 
Scholarships/Awards: Recipient of Award for Outstanding Student in a Foreign Language (RGRLL Outstanding Student Award), Spring 2017 
MMUF Mentor: Dr. Amy Heyse 
Project Title: (Re)Defining Nigerian Female Agency: A Close Reading of Adichie and Achebe 
Abstract: 
        This analysis investigates the concept of “talking back” to colonialist literature through the praxis of defining Nigerian female agency. One of the many problems of colonial literature is how narratives reduce an entire people—and often many colonized communities—to a single story. One of the goals of postcolonial literature is, as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie says in her TedTalk, to avoid the “danger of a single story” and show the plurality of human experiences, both good and bad. Bearing that idea in mind, this investigation conducts a close reading of a short story (Girls at War) by Chinua Achebe and one story (The Thing Around Your Neck) by Chimamanda Adichie in light of post-colonial discussions and the concept of “Double Colonization.” In this way, the current analysis examines how Achebe and Adichie “talk back” to colonial authors like Joseph Conrad in his novella, Heart of Darkness. The present analysis also illustrates how Adichie “talks back” to Achebe in terms of redefining feminine agency. The outcomes of this analysis reveal that redefining feminine agency contributes to the ongoing critical discourse about colonialist thought in a post-colonial space.