UC Merced graduate student Danielle Bermudez will spend the next 10 months in El Salvador, conducting research and serving as a cultural ambassador for the campus as a Fulbright U.S. Student Researcher.
She is the campus’s first student winner of the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. There are other types of Fulbright grants, but this one is specific to students.
“I am honored to be the recipient of this prestigious award and represent UC Merced,” said Bermudez, a fifth-year Interdisciplinary Humanities Ph.D. candidate in the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts. “I was mentored by wonderful faculty members and staff, and this would not have been possible without their dedication and support of my application.”
Her research will explore how people bear witness to mass violence and what role social memory plays in healing after societal trauma. She is specifically interested in how indigenous Nahuat women assert ideas of humanity, dignity, justice and respect such as through public commemorations.
“Indigenous epistemologies can collectively teach us how social memories of violence in the aftermath of trauma offer broader solutions for healing and reconciliation,” she said. “While my research centers on El Salvador and on social memories of indigenous communities in this area impacted by violence and trauma, I believe understanding how indigenous communities heal can offer broader cross-cultural solutions for reconciliation and healing.”
She will conduct archival research and interview people as part of the fieldwork for her dissertation.
