Isdanny Morales Sosa is a PhD student in the Latin American Studies program. She holds a BA in Art History (Summa Cum Laude) from the Universidad de La Habana (2016). Currently, she is in the final stages of writing her doctoral thesis in Philosophy, with a specialization in Aesthetics and Art Theory at the Universidad de Chile, which has received funding from the National Agency for Research and Development of Chile (ANID). In this research, Ms. Morales draws from the works of filmmakers such as Enrique Álvarez, Carlos M. Quintela, and Alejandro Alonso to analyze the presence of dead time in post-Soviet Cuban cinema, arguing dead time is no longer confined to the exceptional period in the year when sugarcane production is halted, but rather it is a temporal experience that permeates all aspects of post-Soviet Cuban life. She has taught aesthetics, art theory, and Cuban cinema at the Universidad de La Habana and the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso. Additionally, she was one of the organizers of the Colloquium “Addressing the Past: Revolution and Memory in 21st Century Cuban Media and Cinema,” which was sponsored by the University of Connecticut, Yale University, Rialta Ediciones and the University of Chile. In 2022, she was awarded a grant from the Chilean Ministry of Cultures, Arts, and Heritages to undertake the research project titled “Displaced Memories and New Affections: The Poetics of South-South Migrant Artists in Chile.” From November 2022 to February 2023, she was a Visiting Student Research Collaborator (VSRC) at Princeton University. Her research revolves around Latin American and Caribbean cinema, with a specific focus on topics such as memory, archives, history, trans-identities, and women’s cinema. At the Stone Center, she intends to conduct research on migration in contemporary Latin American cinema, employing comparative analysis across different countries in the region.

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.