Join us for our annual Graduate & Undergraduate Symposium “Coastal Voices” on November 9th at 5 PM. The symposium will be held both in-person in Greenlaw 222 and streamed via Zoom. The symposium features Kiara Rodriguez, Christopher Catanese, Dailihana Alfonseca, Natalia Galindo, and Elly Veloria. Click here to register.  Learn more about our speakers below:

Kiara Rodriguez

Kiara Rodriguez is an undergraduate sophomore from Burlington, North Carolina pursuing a major in Human Development and Family Science as well as minors in Women and Gender Studies and Sexuality Studies. When not discussing her Boricua identity, she can be found practicing with the UNC Men’s Rowing Team, working as a counselor for The Campus Y’s Carolina Kickoff Program, or spending way too much money at Epilogue.

Christopher Catanese

Christopher Catanese is a doctoral candidate in UNC’s English department working on 18th-century British and transatlantic poetry, and the history of economics and agriculture. He has published scholarly articles on genre, vitalism, and working-class poetry, and he is coeditor of the poetry press Golias Books.

Dailihana Alfonseca

Natalia Galindo

Hello! I’m Natalia Galindo. I’m a first-year MA Global Studies student at UNC. My pronouns are she/her/hers. I was born in Lima, Peru, but I’ve been living in the US for a few years, and I went to high school in Ohio. I have a BA in Social Anthropology and Linguistics. I have a range of research interests that I begun exploring in my undergraduate degree. These research interests include education development, gender disparities, and LGBTQIA+ rights in Latin America. My hobbies include listening to Taylor Swift and drawing/painting.

Elly Veloria

Elly Veloria (she/her/ella) is a Cultural Anthropology PhD student at Duke University. Her research interests include the production and consumption of food within Puerto Rican popular culture. Previously, she received a Fulbright fellowship and worked in philanthropy. She attended Bowdoin College.