Cohort 2021-2023

Michelle Avila

Michelle Avila

Hometown: Inglewood, CA

Major(s): Art History and Archaeology

Graduate Interests: Art History, Women in Art

Scholarships and Academic Awards: The Middle-Class Scholarship (MCS)

MMUF Mentor: The Middle-Class Scholarship (MCS)

Research Project Title: Fat Women in Art: A Look into the Depictions of Gendered Fatness through the Female Gaze and the Male Gaze

Research Project Abstract: The female body has traditionally been a famed subject for the gazes of artists, models, and audiences. As the female body became a preferred artist subject, the depictions of diverse body shapes diminish. As a result, western society began to uphold unrealistic standards of beauty when painting women in art. Due to these unrealistic standards, the male gaze further portrays fat women in inaccurate perspectives that demonstrate them as subjects of mockery, misrepresentation, and over-sexualization. On the contrary, female artists presumably embody the fullness of their female muses. Artists like Artemisia Gentileschi (1610–1653) strive to reject the typical male gaze to create diverse depictions of women. Gentileschi utilizes her strengths as a woman and as an artist to produce art that diminishes the portrayal of inferior women in 17th-century art by depicting fat women in positions of power. This research will explore fat female bodies in the art of Artemisia Gentileschi and Peter Paul Rubens to demonstrate the differences between the male gaze and the female gaze. The goal of this project is to argue that art created by the female artist's gaze may portray larger bodies without the alleged compartmentalized views of the male gaze. In conclusion, by delivering research on diverse female subjects, the narrative of what it means to be a woman in art can shift to prove that representation matters.


Florencia Bravo

Florencia Bravo

Hometown: Rosario, Argentina

Major(s): English Literature, Minoring in Creative Writing

Graduate Interests: English Literature, World Literature, Gender Studies

Scholarships and Academic Awards: Dean’s Honor Roll List

MMUF Mentor: Dr. Hernandez

Research Project Title: “What Makes a Man: Exploring Male Stereotypes, Machismo, and Toxic Masculinity in Gabriel García Márquez’s Novels”

Research Project Abstract: Ideas of machismo and toxic masculinity are still prevalent in Latin American societies today. Even with modern feminist movements and newer ways of thinking both men and women find themselves trapped within patriarchal structures. Gabriel García Márquez challenges these values and ideals in his novels, Love in the Time of Cholera and Chronicle of a Death Foretold by questioning men’s roles in the family and society. By depicting his male characters as one of three stereotypes: a womanizer, a provider, or a dictator, he challenges what is considered to be the perfect Latino man. Furthermore, these cycles of machismo and toxic masculinity plague families across generations and those that stray away from the status quo can fear being ostracized or worse. The two womanizers, Florentino Ariza and Santiago Nasar mistreat and use women while also being sexually objectified themselves. Ultimately, they prove to be unable to hold healthy romantic or platonic relationships with women. Similarly, the providers, Bayardo San Román and Dr. Urbino are often seen more as banks or financial resources than actual men. They are admired for their status and held up to an unachievable standard. Lastly, the dictators, Lorenzo Daza and the Vicario Twins are not only portrayed as patriarchal leaders, but protectors. These three characters are blind to their own hypocrisy and are obsessed with their families’ legacies and reputations being tarnished. García Márquez uses these three stereotypes to criticize all these standards which objectify, trap, and fetishize Latino men to this day, completely challenging the way Latin America still values these dated and sexist machista standards.


Daniella Enriquez

Daniella Enriquez

Hometown: Santa Ana, CA

Major(s): History

Minor: Art History & Communications

Graduate Interests: 20th Century United States History

Scholarships and Academic Awards: Dean’s Honor Roll List

MMUF Mentor: Dr. Kate Fawver

Research Project Title: “Prohibition’s Unintended Consequences”

Research Project Abstract: Prohibition came after the ratification of the eighteenth amendment, which prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol. The passage of the eighteenth amendment was piloted by a religious movement; however, anti-immigration sentiment and policy were also a primary driver. My research will examine how Prohibition impacted the lives, experiences, and opportunities of immigrants in New York. Prohibition impacted the saloons leading to the rise of speakeasys. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Border Patrol utilized enforcing mechanisms to implement the eighteenth amendment and its impact on the immigrant communities in New York. Furthermore, immigrants found economic opportunities sidestepping federal law prohibiting alcohol consumption and distribution. Immigrants arriving to the United States were directly affected by Prohibition because they had limited job opportunities: low-wage construction, dock jobs, and other types of manual labor. Saloons were places of hospitality where immigrants could connect with others from their home countries and provide new immigrants with food for survival. During Prohibition, the United States emerged from its involvement in World War I, experienced the roaring twenties, and underwent the beginning of the Great Depression.


Ricardo Lopez Jr

Ricardo Lopez Jr.

Hometown: Los Angeles, CA

Major(s): English Education

Graduate Interests: 20th and 21st Century Latin American Literature, Ethnic Studies, Culture Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies

Scholarships and Academic Awards: Dean’s Honor Roll List

MMUF Mentor: Dr. Roderick Hernandez

Research Project Title: Militarized Machismo: Latin American Military Men in Roma and El Secreto de Sus Ojos

Research Project Abstract: The Dirty Wars of Latin America during the 1960s-1980s left a cultural scar on the several countries involved. One of these scars is how the identities of men who were a part of the various paramilitary groups during the Dirty Wars were shaped by their experience training with Americans. The method in which young Latin American men were exposed to nationalist ideologies in combination with the level of humiliation and oppression they experienced in their training created a hypermasculine machismo described by Anzaldua in her seminal work Borderlands: the New Mestiza = La Frontera. Films like Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma (2018) and Juan Jose Campanella’s El Secreto de sus Ojos (2009) provide examples of how young men in military groups develop a hypermasculine identity and contribute to the high level of violence towards women. The trauma that shaped this kind of identity is intergenerational, passed on to the sons of these paramilitary men. This research intends to investigate the root of machismo identity and how it has persisted into our contemporary culture.


Kevin Jones

Kevin Jones

Hometown: Los Angeles, CA

Major(s): Africana Studies

Graduate Interests: 20th and 21st Century Latin American Literature, Ethnic Studies, Culture Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies

MMUF Mentor: Dr. Donna Nicol

Research Project Title: Africanisms in North American Food Culture

Research Project Abstract: Africanisms in North American Food Cultures shows the steady retention of indigenous African food and its surrounding culture historically in North American History. Debunking the association with Double Consciousness ideology, as applied to the American negro. The propaganda that was circulated, suggesting that the African diaspora in America have no history prior to slavery, and brought no contributions from their culture with them, has done seemingly irreparable damage to the African American community. Employing literature and findings, claims are made to uncover and prove the retentions, losses, innovations and adaptations of the Africans before, during and after the slave trades.


Caitlin McClister

Caitlin McClister

Hometown: Torrance, CA

Major: History

Minor(s): Political Science and Anthropology

Graduate Interests: I intend to pursue a Ph.D. in history with a specialization in 20th Century U.S. Foreign Relations and war as a source of socioeconomic and cultural change.

Scholarships and Academic Awards: Dean's List, UMG Lew Wasserman Scholarship, Phi Alpha Theta National History Honors Society, History Club President, California Promise Finish in Four Scholars Program

MMUF Mentor: Dr. Christopher Monty

Research Project Title: "American Duplicity: How Humanitarian Aid Bypassed Millions"

Research Project Abstract: World War II will forever be one of the most horrific events in our world history. About seventy-five million people died from a large variety of causes. Six million of those people were European Jews. For Americans, the war really started in 1941 with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The reality is that World War II started in 1939. As information has unfolded, and the contribution of the United States in terms of aid to European Jews has come under investigation numerous times. The role of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration and the various American voluntary associations that were responsible for providing aid have already been researched. The International Committee of the Red Cross has also released their records, providing some controversy about their supposed positive impact on victims of Nazism. Regardless, it is clear that not enough was done. My research focuses on a different aspect of this topic that has not been examined thoroughly. I will analyze how the relationship between the FDR administration and the American Red Cross directly impacted the aid given to European Jews during World War II. This will involve looking at specific individuals within President Roosevelt’s administration and the American Red Cross, as well as defining the relationship based off of the correspondence between them. I hope to provide a clearer understanding of what occurred during these years, and fill in the gaps that led to the millions of people left to suffer through the Holocaust.


Monique Mangum

Monique Mangum

Hometown: Torrance, CA

Major: Language & Linguistics

Graduate Interests: Phonology & Fieldwork

Scholarships and Academic Awards: OUR Summer Research Fellowship, Deans Honor Roll List

MMUF Mentor: Dr. Iara Mantenuto

Research Project Title: "Gaddang: Grammaticalization & Rule Ordering"

Research Project Abstract:This study focuses on Gaddang (ISO: gad), an understudied language spoken in the Philippines that has shown effects of change occurring overtime. By comparing my own data and past works by Calimag (1965) and Troyer (1959), I present evidence of grammaticalization and change in phonological rule ordering. In order to show evidence of grammaticalization, I focus on the development of a verb that is produced from a noun by adding a prefix /ma/ as shown in (1)-(2). In present progressive aspects, a part of the verb should be reduplicated before the prefix is added, as in (3). However, sometimes the prefix is added before reduplication occurs, and thus it is reduplicated together with a part of the verb stem as shown in (4). The derivations reported in (5) and (6) show a prefixation and reduplication rule applied to a verb to help one understand how words are conjugated in Gaddang and demonstrate the idea of rule orders competing with one another.

  1. diyut: ‘bath’ | Calimag (1965: 46)
  2. maddiyut: ‘bathe(s), will bathe | Calimag (1965: 46)
  3. a) malakad 'walk'
    b) malaklakad ‘is walking’
  4. a) matagab 'burns'
    b) matmatagab 'is burning'
  5. /lakad/ input
    laklakad Reduplication rule
    malaklakad Prefixation rule
    [malaklakad] Output
  6. /tagab/ Input
    matagab Reduplication rule
    matmatagab Prefixation rule
    [matmatagab] Output

These competing rules that were absent in previous reports by Calimag (1965) and Troyer (1959) may exist because overtime native speakers may have forgotten that matagab was actually tagab. In the presentation, I focus on whether or not the prefixation rules are competing with the reduplication rules in Gaddang progressive, I also explore additional phonological rules present in the language. I conclude by showing how this effects the linguistic community and how my research may be beneficial to native speakers of Gaddan.