CSWS Graduate Student Research Grant

A drawing of the interior of an Indian home with a woman cooking, children playing, and family members resting.

Informal Labor Blues: Gendered Effects of COVID-19 and Beyond on Backward Caste Women in India

by Malvya Chintakindi, PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology

These quotes illustrate the lived experiences of women I have worked with in the past two years. They belong to backward caste communities—engaged in informal labor economy working jobs as manual scavengers, domestic help, construction labor, cleaners—in India. They constitute a whopping 90 percent of India’s working population, neither regulated nor protected by the state. My research delves into the short-term and potential long-term effects of COVID-19 on women belonging to backward castes engaged in informal labor work in the city of Hyderabad, state of Telangana, India.
An image from Jaramillo's CSWS Noon Talk / illustration provided by Jon Jaramillo.

Viral Bodies: AIDS and Other Contagions in Latin American Narrative

by Jon Dell Jaramillo, PhD Candidate Department of Romance Languages

My dissertation analyzes examples of viral bodies which materialize in the works of three Latin American authors who wrote about HIV/AIDS in the 1990s: Reinaldo Arenas (Cuba), Pedro Lemebel (Chile), and Pablo Pérez (Argentina). In many ways, my dissertation responds to the Marxist legal sociologist Boaventura de Sousa Santos, who in his book La cruel pedagogía del virus (2020) calls for new strategies of contamination to overcome pandemics, natural disasters, financial collapses, the triumphant resurgence of authoritarian exceptionalism, and the technical circumvallation of patriarchal capitalist power that now leads the world toward catastrophe—strategies that enter the lives of citizens “por la puerta trasera” (14).
A screen capture of the South Korean television drama "Love and Truth"

Revisiting Korean TV Drama "Love and Truth"

by Jeongon Choi, PhD Candidate, Department of East Asian Languages & Literatures

The market success of South Korean television dramas in Asian countries during the 2000s was termed Hallyu 1.0, and their narrative trend centered on Cinderella stories. So-called candy girl characters who charm aristocratic men with their cheerful and hard-working attitude still define K-drama now, and even though these Cinderella romances usually end up in the acceptance of patriarchal ideology, the candy girl story is not merely a fantasy about longing for upward marriage.
Brooke Burns, PhD Candidate, Department of Philosophy

Sylvia Wynter and the New Seville Project

By Brooke Burns, PhD Candidate, Department of Philosophy

After witnessing the cruelty inflicted upon the Indigenous Arawak peoples of the Caribbean islands in 1514, Spanish priest Bartolemé de Las Casas underwent a “conversion experience” that would take him on a journey across the Atlantic Ocean to first meet with King Ferdinand II and later with the co-regents of Charles V. There, he argued for the abolition of the encomienda system, and as a replacement for labor proposed the importation of 4,000 African people into the Caribbean islands.
Isabella Clark, PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology

Too Sensitive? Living with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity

By Isabella Clark, PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology

My dissertation examines multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), a condition where people experience physical symptoms in response to “normal” doses of everyday chemicals. These symptoms vary and include brain fog, rashes, headaches, respiratory problems, nausea, and fatigue, amongst other things. MCS is a contested illness; its material reality is often dismissed in favor of a psychological explanation by both doctors and lay people.
Memory Museum in Huamanga, Ayacucho, Perú / photo by Gloria Macedo-Janto.

Gender Roles in the Testimonial Narratives of Andean Women

by Gloria Macedo-Janto, PhD Student, Department of Romance Languages

To better understand a 20-year period of political violence in Peru, in this project I analyze the testimonies of Andean women, especially from the Ayacucho area, to make visible their contribution to the reconstruction of an important part of Peruvian history. In accordance with their worldview and their roles as women, in their tragic and painful testimonies they tell how they suffered ethnic and gender discrimination, and it is observed that they are capable of recalling many details and telling their experiences from different perspectives and with their own narrative.
Rosa at her home with a lamb from her flock / photo by H. Moulton.

Futuremaking in a Disaster Zone: Indigenous Women and the Everyday Politics of Climate Change in Peru

by Holly Moulton, PhD Candidate, Department of Environmental Studies

In the summer of 2019, I took a bus to my friend Rosa’s house, which is located in the middle of a Quechua community within a glacial lake outburst flood hazard zone in the Peruvian Cordillera Blanca. In the family’s garden there is a spectacular view of Andean peaks in all directions. There is a sense of being in an oasis, shielded from the noise of the street right outside the gates and the bustle of the town of Huaraz below.
Daizi Hazarika, PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology

The Rise of Witch-Hunting & Witch-Killing in Assam, India

by Daizi Hazarika, PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology

During the winter of 2023, with the help of a CSWS graduate student research award, I had an opportunity to visit Assam, India, for two months to conduct dissertation research on witch-hunting and witch-killing. During my field trip to Assam, I conducted research in Guwahati (the capital city of Assam) and a village called Dabli, among the Rabha community (a tribal community of Assam) in the Goalpara subdivision of this region. In Guwahati, I interacted with several government officials regarding their perceptions of the current-day witch-hunting in Assam and the steps taken by the Assamese government to combat this practice.
Rosa M. O'Connor Acevedo, PhD Candidate, Department of Philosophy

Disclosing Enslaved Women’s Resistance in Puerto Rico’s History of Slavery

by Rosa M. O’Connor Acevedo, PhD Candidate, Department of Philosophy

On February 20, 1824, a mayor in Puerto Rico writes to Governor Miguel de la Torre pleading for support to apprehend a fugitive slave referred to in the colonial documents as “Negra Martha.” According to the letter, Negra Martha ran away from the grips of her enslaver, Daniel Peterson, two years before the letter was written describing the maroon woman’s whereabouts.
Annie Ring, PhD Candidate, Department of Philosophy

White Women’s Linguistic Terrorism

by Annie Ring, PhD Candidate, Department of Philosophy 

J.L. Austin’s How to Do Things with Words demonstrates that language is not just descriptive but in some cases is performative. That is, Austin’s speech act theory argues that language itself performs, changes, or does things in the world. Speech act theory classically considered institutions like marriage, where a pronouncement weds people into a legally binding relation, or boat christening, where naming and blessing a boat before the maiden voyage protects its passengers (Austin).

Subscribe to CSWS Graduate Student Research Grant