PhD Candidate Elena Guzman received a Mellon Mays dissertation writing grant for next year. The title of her dissertation is "Performing on the Fringes: Cross-Border Dialogues and Networks in Haiti and the Dominican Republic." Elena describes her project below. During the fellowship as a part of the MMUF dissertation writing fellowship I will be using the year to complete my dissertation. In addition, I will make trips back to the border region of Haiti and the Dominican Republic to complete archival and ethnographic research and also move forward on the visual ethnographic component of my dissertation research. Each visual component is associated with a section in my dissertation. The visual components will include a film, photo essay, shorts, and a museum exhibit. Elena Guzman is a PhD candidate in the department of at Cornell University. She did her undergraduate degree at CUNY Hunter College majoring in and minoring in Africana Puerto Rican and Latino Studies. Her research interests include Caribbean dance and music, feminist and activist practice, blackness in Latin America and the Caribbean, and ethnographic film. Her dissertation research focuses Haitian and Dominican history, relations, and identity on the border of Hispaniola through performative spaces such as carnival and the spiritual practices of Rara and Gaga in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
