Meet the 2024 Public Humanities Fellows and Partnering Organizations

The Latinx Project is thrilled to present the fourth cycle of the Public Humanities Fellowship program. Ten graduate students from New York University and area institutions will gain career experience with local arts and culture organizations. Fellows will develop collaborative, reciprocal projects and advance public humanities relevant to their creative and research interests. 

This year’s fellows include Mel Adún, Teresa de J. Martinez Chavez, Rachel Duff, Ana-Hilda Figueroa de Jesus, Irma Gallo,Victoria Genao, Jordan Lopez, Angelique Molina, Maralyn Quiñones-Stead, and Juan Camilo Velásquez. Partnering organizations include Alianza Cultural Dominicana Center, Anthology Film Archive, CUNY Mexican Studies Institute, Franklin Furnace Archive, Kilomba Collective, La Sala de Pepe, New York Theatre Ballet. 

As part of the program, fellows will participate in workshops with professor Charlene Villaseñor Black (UCLA Art History and Chicana/o Studies) and writer and artist Barbara Calderón.

The Public Humanities Fellowship is made possible with support from the Mellon Foundation.

Meet the 2024 Public Humanities Fellows:

Mel Adún

Partner Organization: Kilomba Collective

Mel Adún is a Brazilian writer, editor, and researcher. Raised in Salvador, she holds an MA in Literature and Culture from the Federal University of Bahia. Her thesis explored the concept of Black Literature in Brazil. She received her BA in Journalism from UniJorge University where she produced and directed the documentary Zamani - Mulheres que transformam/ Zamani-Women Who Transform. Mel calls herself an Amefricana, thanks to the Brazilian scholar Lélia Gonzalez who forged the term; her research interests include the African Diaspora, gender, Latin America, and Black feminism in contemporary diasporic Black Literature.

Teresa Martinez Chavez

Partner Organization: Casa de Español

Teresa Martinez Chavez is a Zapotec doctoral candidate in the Department of Anthropology at New York University. Her research interests include Indigenous women’s social movements in Latin America, Indigeneity, elderly care, colonialism, and the State. She is currently working on her thesis, an ethnographic study that explores the activism of Zapotec women in elderly care. Her research aims to bring more exposure to the nuances of Indigenous women’s resistance tactics, political ideologies, and the transformative effects these had on their communities. Her dissertation is supported by The National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and the Social Science Research Council - International Dissertation Fellowship.

Rachel Duff

Partner Organization: Shape of Cities to Come Institute

Rachel Duff (she/her/ella) is an educator, organizer, and learner. She is from the Deep South and Puerto Rico, two integral parts of her positionality. She is a former teacher union member activist, educator of English for emergent multilingual students, and has worked in education policy research in both Washington, DC and Jacksonville, FL. She is a current PhD student in Urban Education at the Graduate Center, CUNY. Her research interests include understanding how early career educators develop critical consciousness and subsequently how critically conscious teachers impact student belonging and family engagement for newcomer and/or undocumented youth. She seeks to engage in research that is participatory, reflexive, and humanizing. She has organized in Northeast Florida with a Black led grassroots organization fighting for self-determination and freedom.

Ana Hilda Figueroa de Jesus

Partner Organization: La Sala de Pepe

Raised in San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico, and based in NYC, Ana Hilda Figueroa de Jesus is an emergent curator and art critic. She is pursuing an MA in Latin American and Caribbean Studies and an Advanced Certificate in Museum Studies at New York University on a MacCracken Fellowship. Her research focuses on contemporary art, memory, affect, decolonization, subjectivities, and transnationalism emphasizing in the Caribbean, Latinx and Latin American experiences. A first-generation college student, she holds a BA in Art History from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras campus. Her most recent work includes “Remembering the Island of Enchantment” on (de)constructing representations of Puerto Rico as a paradise in art exhibitions after Hurricane María. 

Irma Gallo

Partner Organization: CUNY Mexican Studies Institute

Irma Gallo was born in Mexico City. She is the author of four non-fiction and fiction books, most recently the novel El susurro de las estrellas, published by Paraíso Perdido in 2023, as well as three textbooks co-authored with Miguel Ángel Gallo. Her texts are included also in two anthologies, ¿Por qué escribo? (Hay Festival-Gris Tormenta, 2018) and Materna, published by Editorial Fondo Blanco in 2022. She was a reporter and TV host on Canal 22 México and has collaborated in other national media such as Gatopardo, El Universal, Letras Libres and Revista de la Universidad de México. She is pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish at NYU. Instagram: @irmaevangelinagallo

Victoria Genao

Partner Organization: Franklin Furnace Archive

Victoria Genao is a Mexican-Dominican graduate student at NYU from Los Angeles pursuing an MA in Museum Studies. Having studied art history and interdisciplinary humanities at Scripps College, she’s interested in working with time-based media art collections, with a particular focus on performance and film work. In the past, she worked as an assistant to contemporary artists, and at art spaces including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, and Museum of Modern Art. Through her Public Humanities Fellowship, she will be interning with the Franklin Furnace Archive, establishing a Latine network of performance artists, conducting archival research concerning past exhibitions on avant-garde performance art from Latine artists, and imagining a future show of such artwork.

Jordan Lopez

Partner Organization: New York Theatre Ballet

Jordan Lopez is a graduate student in the NYU Steinhardt Performing Arts Administration Program. Originally from South Florida, she has been in New York for the past six years. She hopes to stay in the city to work in the vibrant arts scene. Majoring in psychology in undergrad and focusing on music therapy, she is interested in the importance of arts on human development and connection. Jordan is looking forward to working with New York Theatre Ballet to expand its arts outreach programs and bring dance into more individuals' lives.

Angelique Molina

Partner Organization: Alianza Dominicana Cultural Center

Angelique Molina is a graduate student at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and full-time Reporter at New York Nonprofit Media. She received her MPA at NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and BA at Hunter College. Prior to her journalism career, Angelique spent eight years in the public service sector advocating for reproductive justice and teaching sex education in juvenile detention facilities. Realizing the need to uplift marginalized communities through storytelling, Angelique moved to NYN media, reporting on all aspects of the nonprofit sector and giving a voice to activists and public servants. When she is not working, she is writing her fiction novel or taking care of her 2-year-old son and 6-month-old daughter with her husband in their apartment in Queens.

Maralyn Quiñones-Stead

Partner Organization: New York Theatre Ballet

Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Maralyn Quiñones-Stead received her BA in Theatre from Georgia College and State University in 2018. Following graduation, she found her home as a Stage Management Apprentice at Aurora Theatre working on all MainStage productions and leading the apprentice company in traveling TYA productions for the surrounding community. Her love for supporting and championing artists has brought her to New York University, where she is currently pursuing an MA in Performing Arts Administration and continues to champion underrepresented voices in the theater industry.

Juan Camilo Velásquez

Partner Organization: Anthology Film Archive

Juan Camilo Velásquez is a PhD candidate in Cinema Studies at New York University. His dissertation project focuses on theories and techniques of simultaneity in cinema and visual culture. His other research interests include Latinx and Latin American cinemas, queer cinema, and digital media. His academic work has appeared in Film-Philosophy and Cultural Politics, and his public essays have been published in Mubi, Screen Slate, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and others. 

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About the Latinx Project at NYU

The Latinx Project at New York University explores and promotes U.S. Latinx Art, Culture and Scholarship through creative and interdisciplinary programs. Founded in 2018, it serves as a platform to foster critical public programming and for hosting artists and scholars. The Latinx Project is especially committed to examining and highlighting the multitude of Latinx identities as central to developing a more inclusive and equitable vision of Latinx Studies.