Profiles of 2026-2027 CRS/CSWR Fellows

Rae French is an MS student in Geography & Environmental Studies and holds a BFA in Art History from The University of Texas at Austin. Prior to relocating to New Mexico, she staffed DIY archives of agitprop and worked as a research assistant to the Steere Herbarium at the New York Botanical Garden processing historic pharmacological collections. She has held an assistantship with the UNM Herbarium at the Museum of Southwestern Biology and is a National Science Foundation Museum Research Trainee. Her research attends to the history of botanical science and horticulture as vehicles of authority, commerce, and ideology. In particular, she is interested in the story of apple cultivation in New Mexico and its role in cultural assimilation and local identity construction. Her interest in the History of Science’s relationship to visual culture and her archival experience has motivated her to relate collections across repositories disciplined as Cultural or Scientific.

Josh Heckman-Archibeque is a Ph.D. candidate in American studies and a fellow at the Center for Southwest Research. Josh’s research focuses on the production and reproduction of working-class social relations in New Mexico. Josh was a TA/GA for four years in American Studies. They are currently teaching at CNM and was a substitute teacher with APS working at various schools like Rio Grande Highschool, Atrisco Heritage Academy, and Jimmy Carter Middle school. Josh is an experienced community activist and union organizer who has worked with organizations such as MEChA de UNM and The Red Nation. They have organized community self-defense classes through Shifting Sands Dojo for People of Color, Working folks, and the LGBTQ+ Community. Josh is a teacher, worker, martial artist, and community member.

Maria Feliza Monta- Jameson is an Educational Linguistics PhD candidate in the LLSS Department at UNM College of Education and Human Sciences. Former recipient of the 2016-2018 Center for Regional Studies Post Custodial Spanish American Fellow, she managed the Fideicomiso FAPECFT in its early stages by translating original metadata from Spanish into English and making this collection accessible via New Mexico Digital Collections. In the A.Y. 2022-2023, she joined Digital Initiatives and Scholarly Communication (DISC) at UNM Libraries as a G.A. to digitized and disseminate LaDonna Harris Digital Collection. At present she is working on her dissertation that focuses on language education policy, investigating how public-school teachers in Ecuador characterize education reform in the field of foreign/second language teaching. An avid researcher of language as social action and identity shaper, she also collaborates as an Associate Paleographer and Archive Researcher with the Native Bound Unbound Digital Archive of Indigenous Slavery, a Mellon Foundation sponsored Project that supports the creation of an open-source central repository centered on the life of enslaved Indigenous Americans. She cherishes all her experiences and skills with the historical archives as assets for her prospective academic career.