Tinker/UMIA Field Research Grants

As early career grants, the Field Research Grants are aimed at helping graduate students at the University of Miami to develop cutting-edge research projects and gain firsthand knowledge of Latin America and the Caribbean. These experiences increase significantly the ability of graduate students to secure external funding for their subsequent research, and are fundamental for the type of engaged scholarly work encouraged by the institute. The goals of these grants are:

  • To offer students an opportunity to acquire a comprehensive knowledge of language, terrain, and culture.
  • To familiarize themselves with information and sources relevant to their studies.
  • To conduct pilot work and preliminary investigations.
  • To develop contacts with scholars and institutions in their fields of study. 

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  • 2024 UMIA Field Research Grant Recipients

    Lina Aragón Baquero - "Deciphering the complex drivers of treeline stability in the warming Andean mountains: sun, chill, or symbiosis?"

    Cristina Fayad Martinez- "Volcanic Ash Influence on Indoor Dust for Public Health"

    Daniela Fuenmayor - "Textile of Colca Valley (Provisional Name)"

    Luis Garcia Conde - "Understanding journalism for social change as a potentially transformative innovation: The case of Mutante in Bogotá, Colombia"

    Maytte Hernandez Lorenzo - "The expanded scene and its articulations with cultural policies in Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic" 

    Nina Jean-Louis - "Exploring Cultural Relational Values in Defining Cultural Landscape Resilience: An Ethnographic Approach"

    Haley Johnston - "Interdisciplinary Insights into Waterfowl Movement and Human Impact in the High Andes"

    Massiel Medina - "Urbanization in Trujillo's Image"

    Lourdes Schmader - "Indigenous Women's Collaboration and Activism in Ecuador: An Exploration of Ancestral Practices, Empowerment, and Territorial Protectio"

    Yuri Silva de Souza - "Unraveling the Functional Role of Earthmound Structures for Carbon Dynamics in a Brazilian Savanna"

    Maxwell Trombley - "Reviving the Lost Music of Felipe Gutiérrez y Espinosa"

  • 2023 Tinker/UMIA Field Research Grant Recipients

    Hannah Artman - "Perceptions and exposure to mis/disinformation in Mexico: Exploring flows from north to south"

    Richard Carrillo - "A Conductor's Guide of Frank LaRocca's Mass of the Americas"

    Marcia Fanti Negri - "WeMigration: Re-Mapping Women's Voices in Brazilian Contemporary Writing"

    Riley Fortier - "A longitudinal study to test for the acclimation of the individual tropical trees to multiple decades of climate change"

    Marilia Kamil - "Instituto Baccarelli, where music transforms" 

    Alyssa Kullberg - "Exploring endemism through a permanent forest dynamics plot at the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia"

    Jordan Rogers - "Black Affinities / Afinidades Negras"

    Reid Rumelt - "Vocal Traits and Community Assembly in a Speciose Montane Bird Community"

    Joann Seunarine - "Comparative Analysis of the Healthcares Sysytems of Brazil and Guyana and Their Relationships with the Indigenous Populations of the Countries"

  • 2022 Tinker/UMIA Field Research Grant Recipients

    Karen Backe - "Designing Digital Serious Games to Support JEDI in STEM and Heritage Access"

    Melanie Ferrabone - "Entre Mares: Concerto for Bassoon"

    Giltrecia Head - "Exploring the Grassroots of Black Consciousness"

    Victoria Nieto Betancourt - "Misa del Oriente Venezolano by Albert Hernandez: a conductor's guide and performer edition"

    Fabio Tarazona - "Evaluating plant-frugivore meta-population dynamics in defaunated Caribbean islands"

  • 2020 Tinker/UMIA Field Research Grant Recipients

    Manuel Bernal Escobar - "Long-term effects of climate change on tree growth and water use efficiency along an elevational gradient in northern Andes of Colombia"

    Melissa Castillo - "Awareness and Attitudes Towards BRCA Genetic Screening in Women from Dominican Republic"

    Michael T. Connelly - "Investigating the effects of coral genetics and the environment on symbiotic microbial communities of Pocillopora corals in the Galápagos"

    Fernanda Da Silva - "Perceptions of Brazilian Immigrant Identity as Portrayed Through WhatsApp"

    AJ Hudson - "Post-Maria Hurricane Recovery: The opportunity to build agricultural and
    social systems more resilient to climate change through examination of Cuba’s agroecology practices"

    Hannah Junco - "Investigating Latin American cultural politics and music following the Cuban Revolution of 1959"

    Alyssa Kullberg - "The Boiling River, Peru, as a model forest system for the Amazon under climate change"

    Víctor Manuel Rubio Carrillo - "Understanding the Education of Music in Ecuador"

    Dieyun Song - "The NGO Decade: U.S. Foundations in Colombia During the Alliance for Progress Era, 1961-1973"

    José Stoute - "Background Research for Feature Film in Panama"

  • 2019 Tinker/UMIA Field Research Grant Recipients

    Manuel Bernal Escobar - "Long-term effects of climate change on tree growth and water use efficiency along an elevational gradient in northern Andes of Colombia"

    Rosario Concha - "Women in Abortion Cases in Chile (1874-1950)"

    Lidiana de Moraes - “Sowing Women, Harvesting a Nation: Rethinking Angola, Brazil, and Mozambique through Female Discourses”

    Eric Griffin - “A Nation from the Ashes: Paraguay in the Early Twentieth Century”

    Laura Iesue - "Security on Paper. Security in Practice: Crime Prevention and Control in Guatemala"

    Christine Pardo - "The Cultural Values and Perceptions of Plant Invasions in a Rural Community of San Vito, Costa Rica"

    Olivia Pineiro Ramirez - "Rapid hurricane and anthropogenic impact assessments in the northcentral coastal zone of Cuba"

    Jordan Rogers - "Afinidades negras"

    Tarika Sankar - "Indo-Caribbean Feminist Navigations in the United States: Jahajee Sisters and Community Organizing"

    Kapriskie Seide - "Bringing in the Black Body: A Qualitative Study of Acquired Physical Disability among Earthquake Survivors in Haiti"

    Dieyun Song - "Politics of Partnership: Colombian Engagement with the Ford Foundation, 1962-1972"

    Juan Vera - "Re-Imagining Expeditions: Communications and Community in the Time of Science"

    Adrianne Wilson - "Population structure and growth of lane snapper, a data limited species"

  • 2018 UMIA Field Research Grant Recipients

    Anne Barkley - "The Impact of Transported African Dust on Air Quality and Soil Health in Cayenne, French Guiana"

    Stephanie Clements - "Using habitat corridors and matrix permeability to mitigate the effects of deforestation on biodiversity loss"

    Sam Johnson

    Lillianne Lugo Herrera - "Intermediality in Francophone and Hispanophone Caribbean Theater"

    Dainerys Machado Vento - "21st-century Cuban Fiction: The Gateway to Understanding Gender and Race by Latin American Intellectuals"

    Alexandra Santiago

    Jazmyne Simmons - "Understanding the use of memes for targeted HIV/STD prevention among Black and Hispanic Young Men Who Have Sex with Men"

    Dieyun Song - "Foundation Imperialism: Foreign Non-State Actors and Cold War Politics in Colombia"

    Andrea Sullivan - "The Impact of Water Insecurity on Environmental Health Conditions in Cartagena, Colombia A Mixed-Methods Study"

    J. Camilo Vera - "Imposing Medicine: Science and Exploration in Colombia and Mexico, 1783-1816"

  • 2017 UMIA Field Research Grant Recipients

    Matthew Davidson - "The Gospel of Health in Occupied Haiti"

    Lorella Di Gregorio - "Looking for Traces and Graces: a Mexican Route through Migratory Corridos and Exvotos"

    Marta Gierczyk -"Feeling the City: Immigrant Fiction and the Geographies of Urban Belonging"

    Lina Jardines del Cueto - "Islam as a New Religion among the Catholic and Afro Cubans"

    Belen Jimenez Fadrique - "Functional traits and climatic tolerances of woody bamboos along an Andes-Amazon transect"

    Timothy Perez - "Are long-term declines in growth rates of tropical trees due to thermal stress?"

    Craig Raffenberg - "Larval Fish Acoustic Space: Physical and Biological Noise and Signals"

    Shireen Rahimi - "How a Cuban coral reef will transition through human-induced change"

    Mary Soares - "Zika Virus Outbreak Response: Determining the Lessons Learned from the 2015/2016 Zika Outbreak in Brazil"

    Rafael Torralvo da Silva - "From Suassuna to Guerra-Peixe: 'The Armorial Music Movement in Brazil'- Constructing Notionsof Northeastern Identity Through Music and Literature"

  • 2016 Tinker/UMIA Field Research Grant Recipients

    Mario Ariza - "Translation of Miguel Rueda’s Canciones de la frontera"

    Winter Beckles - "Signal adaptation in an introduced species of anole, Anolis distichus"

    Melissa Bumbach - "Examining the Cuban Professional Choral System: A Case Study of the Coro Nacional de Cuba"

    Kerli Kirch - "Teenage Pregnancy in Jamaica" 

    Alexander Lane - "Elucidating Current Psychological Practices in Cuba"

    Elizabeth Langley - "The Occupied Speak: Comparing Cultural Resistance in Haiti and the DR"

    Nelson Marques - "Re-Fashioning Soldiers: Warfare and Identity in the Portuguese Atlantic, 1624-1668"

    Soroya McFarlane - "A culture centered approach to understanding adolescent pregnancy in Jamaica"

    Alexandra Puritz - "Marine Protected Areas in Cuba: An Analysis of Cuban Marine Conservation Relative to the Greater Caribbean Region"

    Shireen Rahimi - "Incorporating Local Ecological Knowledge into Cuba’s Dynamic Fisheries"

    Maria Veliz - "Global Maya: Contemporary Indigenous Visual Art in Guatemala in the 21st Century, a Decolonial Approach"

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