Two history PhD students, Aaya Kingsbury and Miguel Torres Yunda, received Foreign Language Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships for summer research and language study.
Aaya Kingsbury will use her FLAS summer fellowship to study the K’iche’ language. She studies Guatemala in the twentieth century and is excited about the opportunity to learn a Mayan language, like K’iche’ in order to understand more about people’s experiences, cultures, and traditions both then and now. Her FLAS will involve a six-week intensive immersion course filled with both grammar, language, and cultural education.
Miguel Torres Yunda will be using the FLAS Summer Fellowship to begin learning Quechua. UF has an online program with a native-speaker instructor, allowing him to participate in the FLAS locally. He is interested in researching the Amazon Rainforest, particularly the history of the rubber boom, Antillean migration to the Amazon, and Indigenous social and political movements. As such, learning Quechua will be an important step for building social and cultural understanding and sensitivity that are essential for establishing interpersonal and community relationships. Having the opportunity to learn Quechua will facilitate his future research and allow him to maintain the safety of the people and communities included in the research and writing process.