UF Center for Latin American Studies
November 1, 2017
Dear Latin American Studies Community,
The 2017 Charles Wood Thesis Award committee received an exceptionally large number of high-quality nominations. Among these, a panel of judges recognized the following work.
Winner: Akemi Inamoto, Embodied Experiences of Climate Change: Gendered Perceptions and Differentiated Adaptations among Rice Farmers in Tolima, Colombia. Thesis Committee: Susan Paulson, Catherine Tucker, Pilar Useche.
Runner-up: Kerry White, Cruising Havana: Affective Spaces, Public Gestures, and the Worlds They Make in a Contemporary Cuba. Thesis Committee: Lillian Guerra, Susan Paulson, Tanya Saunders.
From the judges:
“We agreed that the bar was set incredibly high by all of the theses we read.”
“Inamoto’s thesis reads with a level of completeness and complexity that is quite impressive. The thesis is exceptionally well written and the methods and data are presented in a clear and compelling manner. We were particularly impressed by the breadth of literature the author takes on and successfully weaves throughout the thesis. We agreed that the thesis is capable of contributing to various scholarly debates (climate change, gender, embodiment, political ecology) in different disciplines.”
“We would like to recognize Kerry White’s thesis as runner-up. The topic, combined with a creative integration of approaches, e.g., including first-person narratives and mapping exercises, was innovative and exciting to see.”
Felicidades to all contestants!
