Senior Spotlight

Maya Phelps Spotlights Ale Uriostegui

Ale Uriostegui is a senior Mellon Fellow majoring in Latin American studies and Spanish with a minor in educational studies. Her research employs social movement theory to examine radical schools in Mexico established by the Zapatistas through their curricular and community impact through the framework of critical hope. When asked what motivated her interdisciplinary project, she stated, “My classes on social movements and Latin American revolutions inspired my focus on student movements. Since my family is from Mexico, I decided to look into Mexican student movements which led me to the 1968 Mexican Student Movement.” Ale embarked on independent research through the Mellon Mays program, and over time she gave space for her project to develop with her.

When asked about advice she has for juniors she emphasized embracing changes, stating “Lean into the changes that are naturally going to happen. Your project will change in some form, and that is normal. It’s not only normal, it is GREAT! Let your curiosity lead you and do not feel like you have to stick to some part of your project.” As these changes came along the way, Ale mentioned benchmarks of her Mellon experience that modeled how her project developed. She told me that regional conference resonates as a staple moment for her in the program explaining that, “It was my first time going to an in-person conference, and I enjoyed being surrounded by other aspiring scholars who are committed to their research in a personal way.” She also expressed that the conference as an opportunity to create closer bonds with the Mellon Fellows from WashU. Through experiences like our trip to Chicago, Ale believes that her greatest takeaway from

Mellon is that “fellowship is truly about community.” She explained that aside from the work we do, we all have “amazing stories to share.”

These stories she will carry with her beyond her time at WashU, as she furthers her scholarly journey. She envisions herself as a scholar of Latin American Studies with a focus on Latin American Social Movements. She says, “I’m interested in how people express and act on their hope for social change therefore social movements are a personal research interest.” But more importantly for Ale, she is invested in pairing her scholarship with community activism. She explains her passion for community-centered work, “I also want to become a community activist, particularly within the realm of education policy and curriculum. I think community work is just as important to me as scholarly work, the two components are not separate in my view.” We are so grateful for Ale’s contributions to the Mellon Mays program. Her passion for community and critical hope shines beyond her scholarship, and leaves a lasting impact on our Fellowship; we love you, Ale!

What do you believe the future of your discipline(s)/ interdisciplinary field to be?

What do you theorize will be the future of this academic field(s) and their real-life implications/importance?

Maya Phelps:

My project is deeply interdisciplinary, employing African &African American studies, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and Sociology. More specifically, my research focuses on the networks of care formed outside the purview of the state to prevent queer youth from entering the child welfare system (family policing system). I believe the future of research in the area of child welfare is moving towards an abolitionist framework through tangible approaches with concrete recognition that the family policing system is an extension of and embedded in the carceral state. Research around foster care, family policing, and abolition has historically centered on cisgender, heterosexual youth and families, but projects like my own push the field to think about the unique impact of these systems on queer communities. I hope that research around child welfare will find more robust and expansive ways to understand what family means to resist upholding or relying on the nuclear family to legitimize care/valid support networks for youth. Lastly, emerging scholars from these disciplines engage more community-based approaches in researching the impact on the family policing system. I hope that academia as a whole move to engage directly with the communities impacted by the topics of their research, and I hope that my field will continue to work to center these approaches in supporting marginalized youth and families.

Olivia Kerr:

My academic career has been somewhat irregular. I transferred to WashU during my sophomore year from Brandeis University. I majored in African & African American Studies which is my same major here at WashU. I also have a minor in History, and I believe the two (inter)disciplines combined have provided a lens through which I can better focus on my research interests. As my research interests can be encapsulated under “Twentieth Century Black Women’s History,” I find myself at a crossroads. Black Studies is inherently interdisciplinary in nature as there is a multitude of “traditional disciplines” that fall under the title Black Studies through their focus on Blackness and its manifestations both materially and epistemologically. However, at this crossroads, History has the capacity to be rigid and constricting in its emphasis on the “canon.” I see a shift in how History has become increasingly open and accepting of multiple histories—instead of viewing history through a Eurocentric, Western perspective. Black Studies has provided me the breadth to explore African American social histories. The future of Black Studies is a hopeful one. Through the radical research being done— such as my work in Black Queer Women’s Studies —burgeoning and underappreciated Black Studies scholars can and do disrupt these notions of the Western epistemology as being objective — leaving other “nontraditional” (inter)disciplines in the margins. This will not be the case in the future—especially as long as I am in the academy as an activist-scholar.