Jessica Alvarez Starr, Tania Trejo-Mendez win Charles Wood Thesis Award

May 14, 2025

This year the Charles Wood Thesis Award was bestowed on two co-winners, Jessica Alvarez Starr (“Antislavery and Anticolonial Alliances in Puerto Rican Abolitionist and Nationalist Movements, 1800-1898”) and Tania Trejo-Mendez (“Mujeres Pa’lante: Writings of the Women of the Young Lords and the Formation of a Third World Feminist Counterpublic”).

The selection committee noted that both theses were well written, presented thorough analysis, and made distinct contributions to the field of Latin American Studies. Congratulations, Jessica and Tania!

Read our interview with the winners below to learn more about their research topics, challenges, and motivations. 

Q: What are your thesis topics?

JESSICA ALVAREZ STARR: My thesis examined connections between abolitionist and nationalist discourses in 19th-century Puerto Rico through what I term a shared rhetoric of liberation. I traced the history of antislavery and anticolonial mobilizations in Puerto Rico to examine how historical actors employed discursive strategies in pro-abolition and pro-independence publications, positing that this shared rhetoric of liberation informed both movements and broader revolutionary alliances. My thesis argued for the importance of considering both antislavery and anticolonial, in tandem, as central to the longstanding legacies of liberation struggles by Puerto Ricans in the archipelago and beyond.

TANIA TREJO-MENDEZ: My thesis examines the writings of the women of the New York Young Lords Party, which was a revolutionary nationalist and civil rights organization focused on political and community empowerment. I specifically analyze articles authored by women in the party’s bilingual newspaper, Pa’lante, during the years 1970 to 1971. I argue that these writings constitute what I term a Third World feminist counterpublic: a space where women of color challenged dominant narratives about Puerto Ricans and working-class communities, while articulating their own visions for liberation.

Q: What challenges did you face in your research?

JAS: For me, the biggest challenge was that I had to rely on only published and digitized primary sources, which definitely informed the scope of what I was able to examine. Source limitations meant that my analysis focused mainly on elite, formally educated men who had the access to publish written works. I wasn't able to get as much documentation for more on-the-ground mobilizations without traveling to conduct archival research, so that led to my focus on the discursive strategies employed in abolitionist and nationalist propaganda rather than other forms of antislavery and anticolonial efforts.

TTM: My challenges were similar, in terms of the source material I was able to work with. I had wanted to research what the women were doing in the organization, and I realized pretty quickly that there wasn't a ton of archival material focused on them. So I had to shift, and look where I can actually see women's words and thoughts represented—which is in the newspapers.

Q: Both of your theses seek to expand or add nuance to topics that aren’t included or accurately represented in existing scholarship or popular narratives. Why was that important for you to pursue?

TTM: With the writings in Pa’lante, these women were trying to put themselves into the historical narrative. In the 1970s, the dominant narratives in public schools and mass media portrayed their communities in negative, harmful ways. Or, women of color were not included in the narratives, period. I think this is why a lot of them were motivated to write about local struggles they were facing. In a weird way, it felt meta to be reading them 50 years later, knowing that it's such a struggle to find anything other than these newspapers that focuses on the women of this organization. It motivated me to try and add to that gap, and maybe in the future more folks will push the research further.

JAS: I was specifically engaging with narratives of insularity and insignificance that have relegated Puerto Rico to the margins of Atlantic historiography. Specifically, for the Age of Atlantic Revolutions, a lot of scholarship has painted the archipelago's population as passive in the revolutionary movements of the time. For me, it was important to challenge those narratives that conflicted with what I had seen in the primary source material and really center that Puerto Rico was in fact a major player in the antislavery struggle for the Spanish Caribbean as a whole. More broadly, I believe it is the work of all historians to ensure that stories of the past, especially those that have been intentionally silenced, are heard and given the respect and recognition they deserve. That’s what I hope to do.

Q: Jessica, you’ve continued to a PhD program. Tania, you’re pursuing a career outside academia. How did you decide that each of your paths was right for you?  

JAS: The timing for that decision is really hard, because you're still in the thick of writing the thesis and trying to do PhD applications and make big life decisions that feel completely overwhelming and permanent. My biggest takeaway is that the choice doesn’t have to be permanent; there are always other options. For me, support from my incredible advisors, our cohort, and Center staff and faculty was crucial in guiding me through this process and reminding me that it is not a life-or-death, binding decision.

TTM: Yeah, I realized there weren’t any negatives to me waiting and taking the time to think through where I might want to go, if I want to do a PhD. This is going to sound very “mom” of me [laughs] but every year that I get older I realize, “Wow, I've grown so much in the past year.” That can only benefit me in whatever work I do next. Going back to do a PhD is not off the table, but I've also appreciated being in a non-academic role. And honestly, I'm still doing things that I was interested in as a grad student. I'm still learning. I'm still reading books. I'm still teaching in a lot of ways. The work doesn't have to stop, no matter what path you take.

JAS: I love that. I want to reiterate the same thing from “the other side.” If you choose to continue in academia, it may look different, but public history, outreach, and activism work also don’t have to stop.

Q: Maybe we need to take to task this idea of two paths. Maybe it’s a false binary.

TTM: Yeah, I think so.

Q: Do you have any other advice for MALAS students?

JAS: Remember to make time for yourself and your community! It’s easier said than done because of all the deadlines and expectations, but I think that’s crucial for any program. And specifically for the MALAS program, don’t forget about the library. We are so lucky to have amazing librarians, collections, and resources at UF, so take advantage of them.

TTM: Yeah, UF is such a big school, with a ton of resources. Take advantage of all the resources there. In terms of research, stick to whatever you want to study, even if it doesn't feel like the most perfect fit. Being at the Center for Latin American Studies, I psyched myself out a little bit doing a Latinx Studies topic, about these folks that grew up in New York and Chicago. But I'm really happy I stuck with it. I found professors and advisors who encouraged me, and really taught me to think of my work in an expansive way.

JAS: Yes, if we're talking about challenging binaries, the imposed binary between Latinx and Latin American Studies is another one. So many of the publications I analyzed were published in New York, Tampa, Haiti, Mexico—everywhere across the diaspora. There's a sense that Latinx Studies is somehow separate from Latin American Studies, and I think both of our work suggests that this is a false dichotomy that should be disrupted.

Q: Even though your research sources are from different geographies, time periods, and social contexts, both of your theses explore the idea of liberation. What does liberation mean for the authors writing in 19th century Puerto Rico compared to the 1970s diaspora of New York City?

JAS: There’s no single definition. The meaning of freedom and independence was highly contested in the 19th century. Different people, based on their different positionalities and perspectives, had very different ideas. One of the major aspects of liberation for the 19th-century context was an end to slavery, but this was often a top-down, legalistic framing of an end to the licit slave trade and official systems of slavery. On-the-ground realities could differ, as we see the continuation of exploitative systems based on enslavement practices in post-emancipation societies after official abolition. It's important to note, too, that many published proclamas or demands for abolition came from people in positions of privilege—literate men with access to education—who defined liberation differently from people themselves enslaved, who also fought for their own conceptions of freedom.

TTM: The women of the Young Lords Party argued that liberation was a socialist, decolonial, feminist society rooted in the struggles of working class people. Their view of liberation was a really big, expansive view of society that provided for all people, regardless of race, background, income, any of these other identities that they viewed as marginalized identities. But they also faced inequal internal gender dynamics within the organization. So for these women, liberation also meant getting the men alongside their ranks to view them as equals and to treat them as such.

Q: The difference in scope is so interesting and challenging—the question of how to scale social changes from the individual to a society is an evergreen one.

TTM: Absolutely. Something that I focused on a lot in my thesis is that the women were writing about their very specific personal stories and experiences, but also trying to scale them out and say, “It's not just me. It’s not just us who are facing these issues of inadequate access to healthcare or gender oppression or U.S. imperialism.” They wanted to communicate that these issues also affect a broader community. Their vision of liberation was really interconnected with the struggles of people across the globe, because they knew that these core motors of oppression that they identified as capitalism and imperialism were not solely impacting them. So to them, liberation starts at home, yes, and then you can't talk about liberation at home without talking about what liberation would look like to women in Vietnam or folks in Mexico, for example.

JAS: I think it’s really fascinating to see that expansion of scope. In the 19th century, there were shared efforts between the antislavery and anticolonial struggles within Puerto Rico, and ideas of regional alliances like an Antillean federation, although it never actually came to fruition. Within the Black Atlantic specifically, we see regional solidarities in the struggle against slavery and colonialism. I think it speaks to the power of history itself: we always build off the work of those who came before us. We can look critically at the abolitionist publications I analyzed and acknowledge the lack of consideration for enslaved women’s experiences or emancipated individuals who continued to face exploitation, but can also recognize the value of these discourses to inform later expressions of alternative visions for more expansive liberation. That is what history is—looking to those in the past for this foundation to learn from the limitations and to continue building upon.

TTM: Beautifully put.

Q: Any final remarks?

JAS: I want to emphasize that my thesis and current position would not have been possible without my incredible advisor, Dr. Fernanda Bretones Lane, my committee members Dr. Max Deardorff and Dr. Paola Uparela, and my cohort. I thank them all for their support!

TTM: I would echo that too, with my advisor Dr. Rafael Ramírez Solórzano and committee members Dr. Paul Ortiz and Lourdes Santamaría-Wheeler. I’d also like to say that the beauty of the MALAS program is how interdisciplinary it is. It allows you to explore different fields, work with different professors, and create something really expansive and robust. Those interdisciplinary connections made the thesis really fulfilling to research and write.  ◆

 

About the Charles Wood Thesis Award 

This award recognizes a UF MALAS student who has produced an outstanding MA thesis in the field of Latin American Studies. It honors the contributions of Charles Wood, former director of the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Florida, and eminent sociologist who made significant scholarly contributions to a broad range of topics. Dr. Wood was a committed teacher and mentor who took special pride in introducing MA students to the pleasures and demands of research. That effort has been reflected in many excellent theses produced in the MALAS program at UF.

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