CRS Graduate Student Fellowships 2026-2027

 Profiles of CRS Fellows

 

Center for Regional Studies Fellowship Award Recipients

This year, CRS provided $127,000 in scholarships to twenty-two graduate students enrolled in various departments and programs. The Ph.D. students received $6,000 and the M.A. students received $5,000. Their research titles are listed below.
 

Fellows' Names

 

Department

 

Project

 

 

 

 

 

Stephania Alarcón AlcaláEconomicsUnderstanding Water Scarcity: Measurement and Valuation in the Middle Rio Grande Basin
Samuel AsareEconomicsTrends in Consumptive Water Use in the Middle Rio Grande Basin: Evidence from OpenET and Policy Implications
Cameron Chavez ReedEarth and Planetary SciencesLand education in geoscience education to engage students in place-based New Mexico geology curriculum

 

 

 

 

 

Brisa del BosqueSpanish and PortugueseLinguistic Ideologies of University-Educated Immigrant Parents and Their Perceptions of Heritage Spanish in the U.S. Southwest

 

 

 

 

 

Erin ElderGeographyA Most Uninteresting River”: seeing the Pecos River anew

 

 

 

 

 

Howard GriegoChicana/o StudiesReturning to Querencia: An Autoethnography of Genízaro Homeland

 

 

 

 

 

Gus GuikemaGeography & Environmental StudiesInfrastructures of Survival: Water, Elk, and Conservation in the Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico
Jasmine HernandezEvolutionary AnthropologyRestoring Identities: Improving Methods for Identification and Repatriation of Migrants Along the US-Mexico Border
Lacey HitesSociology & CriminologyDiscretion By Design: Navigating Advising, Bureaucracy, and Categorical Inequality in a Southwestern Minority Serving Institution

 

 

 

 

 

Jacqueline Kelley-CogdellGeographyDiversifying Oral Histories of Agriculture along the Middle Rio Grande
Grace LeishmanHistoryA Choral of Black Women’s Voices’: Margaret Prescod and the Black Coalition Fighting Back Serial Murders in South Central Los Angeles, 1980s–2010s
Kaitlin LewisAnthropologyFaith on the Border: Polarization, Politics, and Mainline Protestant Revitalization in the Southern New Mexico Borderlands

 

 

 

 

 

Constanza Mier y Teran Ruesga

 

Economics

 

Health Effects of Toxic Dust from the Shrinking Great Salt Lake

 

 

 

 

 

Bianca Ruiz-Negrón

 

Sociology

 

Through the Expert’s Lens: Mental Health Professionals and the Psychological Evaluation of Latino/a/x Asylum Seekers

 

 

 

 

 

Saif SalihCommunity and Regional PlanningThe Genizaro Vernacular: The Cultural Landscape of High Mountain
Sooriyage Salika DulanjaliChemistry and Chemical BiologyPeptide-incorporated hydrogels for selective sequestration of radionuclides and heavy metals in aqueous environments to address water quality challenges in New Mexico
Jane SawerengeraEconomicsAssessing agricultural water users’ willingness to participate in an Environmental Water Leasing Program in the Middle Rio Grande Basin
Aniket SharmaCivil, Construction, Environmental EngineeringAssessing Transportation Safety Inequities for Pedestrians and Bicyclists in New Mexico
Patricia Sotelo ChaviraBiologyPhylogeographic History and Diversification of Sorex monticola Across Sky Island Habitats in the American Southwest
Angela StevensonHistoryEchoes of the South: The United Daughters of the Confederacy in the U.S. West, 1900-1980

 

 

 

 

 

Libby VigilSociology & CriminologyA Comparative Study Between Immigrant Justice and Anti-Carceral Advocacy
Ziqing XieEconomicsA Dynamic Bioeconomic Model for Aquaponic Farms