Tulane University

Xela Korda was awarded her M.A. in Latin American Studies with distinction from Tulane in 2006 after completing a thesis entitled "Aesthetics of (In)Security: Mentally Mapping Morumbi". She has traveled extensively throughout Latin America and Europe, particularly in Brazil. As a master's student, Xela served as a summer teaching and research assistant to Tulane faculty in both São Paulo and Curitiba, Brazil. She also served as a teaching assistant to Dr. Martha Huggins of the Department of Sociology during the spring of 2007 for courses on Brazilian society and the sociology of deviance. In addition to serving as a teaching assistant, Xela has taught for the Stone Center and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. She has presented her research nationally and internationally, most recently in 2009 at the SECOLAS conference held in New Orleans where she presented her paper, "Sand Cinderellas and Lesbian Prostitutes: Sexuality, Gender Performances, and Secrecy in NE Brazil." Xela has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including two FLAS summer language immersion fellowships and a grant from the Tinker Foundation to conduct research in São Paulo. In 2007, she was awarded an SSRC Dissertation Prospectus Development Fellowship for summer pilot study and workshops and in 2010 she received an SLA merit fellowship from Tulane. While at the Stone Center, Xela has won both the Richard E. Greenleaf Award for best graduate paper in the Social Sciences written by a Latin American Studies graduate student as well as the Donald Robertson Award for excellence in undergraduate teaching in Latin American Studies. During the summer of 2010, Xela worked for the Robertson Scholar’s program out of Duke / UNC as an onsite liaison for their 10 scholars completing internships in New Orleans.