About

Julia L. Fernandez joined the SSRC in May 2018 as a program assistant of the Mellon Mays Graduate Initiatives Program. She recently graduated from CUNY Brooklyn College with a BA for her double major in Puerto Rican & Latinx studies and psychology. During her undergraduate career, she assisted her mentor in research that focused on the history of slavery in Cuba in the nineteenth century, and how the relationship between slavery and space defined a legacy of housing inequality and racism which directly impacts black Cubans to this day. This research was funded partially by the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Transfer Student Research Fund, as well as the Tow Undergraduate & Graduate International Research Stipend. She continues to aid her mentor in this research and uses the knowledge gained to formulate her own theoretical questions regarding race, space, and politics in the Caribbean and in Central and South America. She hopes to one day earn her PhD and publish her own works in the general field of Latinx and Latin American/Caribbean studies.