Juliette Maasland is originally from The Netherlands but spent most of her life moving between Sweden, Russia, and Miami. Juliette holds a Bachelor of Science in Governance, Economics, and Development from Leiden University College and has experience studying the social determinants of malnutrition in indigenous mothers and children in Guatemala. She is a Mellon Community Engagement fellow and hopes to work with indigenous communities and land security in Louisiana. Her academic interest focuses on natural resource extraction of copper and lithium, land rights, indigenous communities, and sustainable development.

A native of Mobile, Alabama, Erin Hannahan received her B.A. in Language and Linguistics from Baylor University. During a gap year between her undergraduate and master’s studies, she taught English as a foreign language at Máximo Nivel, an English language institute in Cusco, Peru, where she also began studying Quechua. After attending the 2019 Linguistic Society of America Summer Institute, she began an M.A. in Linguistics at the University of Georgia and was awarded three consecutive Foreign Language Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships to continue her study of Quechua. After graduating with an M.A. in Linguistics and a Graduate Certificate in Latin American and Caribbean Studies, she taught Spanish and Latino/a Multidisciplinary Studies at the University of Georgia. Her research interests include language documentation, second language acquisition, Latin American multilingualism, language prestige, and women’s health in Latin America.

Bebel DeMoura Nilo is a first-year student in the Latin American Studies M.A. program. A first-generation born Brazilian-American, Bebel holds a B.A. in Black Studies from The City College of New York. Her academic interests include Brazilian studies, Latin American music, the exportation of Latin culture outside of Latin America, migration, popular culture, and race and cultural studies. Bebel hopes to become a writer and build a cultural center in Brazil that facilitates community events and learning programs for the youth.