Fellows

James Almeida, Faculty Fellow and Co-Convener

Assistant Professor, Department of History, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences

Dr. James Almeida has a BBA in International Business from Boise State University, an MA in History from Florida International University, and a PhD in Latin American History from Harvard University. He teaches lower-division courses on world history and historical methodologies as well as upper-division courses on colonial and modern Latin American history and Atlantic history. Dr. Almeida’s areas of interest include forms and formulations of human difference (race, gender, sexuality, religion, disability, etc.), citizenship practices, and the intersections of social and economic history

Dr. Almeida is most interested in sociohistorical approaches to the classification of human difference (race, gender, sexuality, etc.). He conducts research within the field of Afro-Latin American history, bridging the disciplinary divide that has traditionally separated peoples of African and Indigenous descent and centering voices that have previously been marginalized in the histories of Latin America. Using methodologies developed in social and labor history as well as tools from cultural anthropology, he writes histories focused on how racialized subaltern subjects created communities, contested subordination, and shaped power structures. 

María del Mar González-GonzálezMaría del Mar González-González, Faculty Fellow and Co-Convener

Assistant Professor, Department of Visual Art & Design, College of Arts & Humanities

Dr. María del Mar González-González received her PhD in Art History from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she specialized in modern and contemporary art history with a focus on Latin American, Caribbean, and U.S. Latinx visual culture. She holds an MA in Art History from Indiana University Bloomington and a BA in Visual Arts from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. She teaches courses on global modern and contemporary art and visual culture, with an emphasis on the Americas, including Latin America, the Caribbean, and U.S. Latinx contexts. Her areas of interest include socially engaged practices, art biennials, the history of collecting and museums, and reprographic arts.

Joseph MulliganJoseph Mulligan, Faculty Fellow and Co-Convener

Assistant Professor, Department of World Languages & Cultures, College of Arts & Humanities

Dr. Joseph Mulligan received his BA from SUNY Albany with a double major in Spanish and English. He completed his MA and PhD in the Hispanic Literatures and Cultures track of the Romance Studies Department at Duke University. He teaches lower division classes on Spanish language acquisition, as well as intermediate and upper division classes on Latin American literature, culture, and intellectual history with a focus on the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as seminars on the practice, method, and field of translation.

Carlos Eduardo AviñaCarlos Eduardo Aviña, Student Fellow, Fall 2025

Carlos Eduardo Aviña is a Social Science Composite Teaching undergrad with a deep interest in Latin American Studies. Currently with an Associates of Art degree, Carlos is especially interested in the Cold War Era and how U.S. foreign policy shaped the trajectory of the Civil War in El Salvador. His interest in overlooked and misunderstood periods of Latin American history has directed his research toward the stories of marginalized people and what is known as history from below. Carlos has also worked on the Celebración de Mariposas Graduation committee and is a proud member of the Phi Alpha Theta National History Honors Society.

Faith BryceFaith Bryce, Student Fellow, Fall 2025

Faith Bryce is a fourth-year undergraduate student at Weber State University with a major in History Teaching and a dual minor in Spanish and Latin American Studies. She has primarily studied Latin American History and history of the American west. Her areas of interest include the history of social movements, protests, and demonstrations. As a LASCOLAB Student Fellow, Faith is working on research for her undergraduate thesis on the clandestine independence movements in Puerto Rico in the 1970s and 1980s. She seeks to uncover strategies activists used to interact with the US government and the ideologies that motivated them to do so.

Sara BuenoSara Bueno, Student Fellow, Fall 2025

Sara Bueno is a senior Psychology major with a minor in Latin American Studies at Weber State University and a Student Fellow in the Latin American Studies Co-Lab (LASCoLab). Her current research examines the looting of Peruvian libraries during the War of the Pacific and its historical, cultural, and intellectual significance. She contributes through translation, bibliographic research, archival work, community interviews, mapping, and critical writing.

Luna MalagónLuna Malagón, Student Fellow, Fall 2025

Luna Malagón is an undergraduate student at Weber State University, majoring in Spanish Translation with a minor in International Relations. Her academic interests include literature, history, and languages. As a LASCoLab Student Fellow, Luna works with Dr. González and Dr. Mulligan, and conducts interdisciplinary research at the intersection of literature and visual cultures on the origins of violence and memory studies in the context of Colombia. Her work seeks to explore how violence became a structuring component of Colombian society and why the topic of violence is often excluded from major debates in the public sphere.

Aislyn WhitneyAislyn Whitney, Student Fellow, Fall 2025

Aislyn Whitney is a third year student at Weber State University, studying as an Art major and Art History minor. Her academic interests focus on political art in Latin America and among U.S. Latinx artists. She is working for the LASCo-Lab as a research assistant under Dr. Maria del Mar Gonzalez. She is contributing to the development of a comprehensive bibliography for Dr. González’s manuscript, which explores the San Juan Print Biennial and its subsequent San Juan Poly/Graphic Triennial as symbols of Puerto Rican national identity. There are three primary areas of research: the administration, the artists and curators and the public, as well as the political reception of the Biennial.

Spencer YoungSpencer Young, Student Fellow, Fall 2025

Spencer Young is a fourth-year undergraduate who will be graduating in spring 2026 with a major in Spanish and a minor in Linguistics. In addition to human language, their research interests include sociology, history, political economics, and geography. In the LASCo-Lab, Spencer is exploring social movements and experimental forms of governance in 20th-century Uruguay, with a special focus on radical politics and the proposal of leaderless movements.