We congratulate Laurian Rosa, Geography PhD candidate, on receiving the Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship. This fellowship, awarded by the American Council of Learned Societies and the Mellon Foundation, supports doctoral students pursuing innovative approaches to dissertation research in the humanities and interpretive social sciences. Laurian’s dissertation, titled “Colonial Remains: the afterlives of militarization and the politics of redevelopment in eastern Puerto Rico,” explores how the establishment of the Roosevelt Roads Naval Base in Ceiba transformed the town’s social dynamics and how new tourist-led redevelopments are being negotiated. The fellowship will allow Laurian to conduct fieldwork in Ceiba and receive training to build a digital archive. Laurian’s proposal was selected from a pool of over 1,000 applicants for 50 awards for pushing the boundaries of traditional approaches to dissertation research.
We celebrate Laurian’s achievement and wish her continued success in her research.