Sebastian Cardenas was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska. He is a Latin American Studies Master’s Student that focuses on Indigeneity in the Americas. By completing this degree program, he intends to expand his knowledge on indigenous cultures, languages, and traditions that were prevalent in the Americas before and after Europeans arrived. Prior to coming to the University of New Mexico, Sebastian graduated with highest distinction from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where he studied Global Studies, History, and Spanish. After completing his undergraduate education, Sebastian participated in the North American Language and Culture Assistants Program. This program allowed him to assist English teachers in Valdepeñas, a small city in the Spanish autonomous community of Castilla-La Mancha.

As part of the Mellon Initiative, Sebastian assists the Latin American and Iberian Institute as well as other associated departments in promoting humanities programs at the University of New Mexico to prospective students. Examples of his work towards the initiative include tabling with faculty from the Latin American and Iberian Institute as well as helping them advertise events they sponsor on campus to gain interest from students who may want to join the program. Aside from this, he has also worked on the initiative by attending events hosted by other departments and taking photos to be used to promote it.

As a philosopher, I am most interested in understanding what a human being is, particularly in regard to our relationship to technology, the environment, and our individual and collective struggles with mental and emotional well-being. My most recent work explores mental illness through the framework of alienation and argues that mental illness is at its core a state of being alienated. This project was heavily informed by my own struggles toward stability after having spent two decades making sense of myself and my experiences as a former foster youth.

Foster youth in the United States do not typically have access to a single stable family, location, or education as a child (or as an adult). On average, despite their aspirations, 2% will earn a two-year degree while just a few thousandths of 1% (roughly, 0.0006% of 500,000) will earn a graduate degree or equivalent. Instead, they are encouraged by their circumstances to rapidly adapt to survive a particularly alien existence only to become part of an extremely under-represented minority in almost every metric for success. Such experience causes one to exist outside of many established norms. It tends to provide an overwhelming awareness of how important structures of meaning and recognition are in the development of a sense of self and how this access is hindered by class, family status, impaired access to education, and even access to one’s own “histories”. My experience as a foster youth deeply influenced my conceptions of identity, self-narrative, self-description, and the intelligibility of the self which play crucial roles in my developing philosophical framework.

It is my hope that with Mellon, I can help to identify barriers to education faced by people of various backgrounds. In particular, I hope to encourage students with difficult backgrounds to harness their experiences as a form of critique and disruption of these barriers.

Instagram: @la.ha.ha

Lauren E. Toho-Murrow Haupt is a citizen of the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma and a descendant of the Creek and Seminole Nations. She is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Native American Studies at the University of New Mexico. Lauren graduated from Fort Lewis College, Summa Cum Laude, with a B.A. in Anthropology and a minor in Native American Studies. Her research is focused on shifting practices within anthropology to recognize and incorporate Indigenous ontologies and methodologies to assist in supporting anthropology as a tool for social justice. She is currently working with her people, the Caddo Nation, and the Caddo Mounds State Historic Site in Texas, to establish better collaboration between state and federal government agencies when working with Tribal nations.

City of Boulder's Tribal Consultations, Caddo Mounds State Historic Site's Caddo "Koohoot Kiwat" Grass House Build 2021, University of Missouri-St. Louis "Heritage and the Human Spirit" Pilot Program.

A PhD candidate in the American Studies department at UNM, a Fellow at the Center for Southwest Research, and part Time faculty at CNM.

Joshua Heckman-Archibeque grew up in a Chicano household in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Josh's culture and identity have influenced their research and career path. Josh joined the New Mexico Air National Guard (like their abuelo) at 19 to help pay for their undergraduate tuition. Josh started their academic career at Central New Mexico Community College (CNM), and their Philosophy and History professors profoundly impacted their career. After graduating with an Associate in Liberal Arts, Josh transferred to the University of New Mexico and Majored in Philosophy and American Studies. El Centro de la Raza, MEChA, advisors, and their friends in the Service Learning program guided them through undergrad, and they were only successful with the support of others. Josh's professors at UNM encouraged them to apply to graduate school. Josh went on to earn their MA in American Studies at UNM and is currently a Ph.D. candidate. Josh is a Part-Time faculty with CNM, and this semester, Josh started working with Mellon and Extended Pathways to teach Introduction to Chicana and Chicano Studies at CNM. Josh is proud to introduce CNM students to the humanities. Josh is humbled to be guiding the students who have come after them and to give back to my community.

Humanities is critical to understanding ourselves, our communities, and our world. The humanities allow students to research and learn about their communities' social relations and material conditions and challenge dominant ideologies. The humanities give students the tools to be community leaders and address community problems.

The humanities allowed Josh to study at El Colegio de Mexico, the University Guadalajara in Mexico, the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, and the Digital Humanities Summer Institute at the University of Victoria in Canada. Josh's research has taken them across the Southwest to conduct oral history interviews of nuevomexicano elders on New Mexico history and to conduct online and physical archival research in the Southwest.

Instagram: @ruben_loza

I graduated from an arts-based university in Savannah, Georgia in 2022.

I want to focus my design work around Chicanx + Mexican communities and causes and write on culturally prevalent matters.

My research interests feeds into the 15th annual Fandango Fronterizo music event along the San Diego-Tijuana border. 

Noah grew up and attended college in the northeast United States, and since then has taught at a high school in Toulouse and as an outdoor educator in the mountains of Northern California, been involved in local politics in his hometown outside Boston, and traveled across the U.S. for an environmental project. His undergrad research focused on a narrative analysis of Édouard Levé’s experimental autobiographical book Suicide (2008), examining how paratextual information informs the reading of the text, as well beginning to outline a history of the suicidal artist trope. His current project revisits, interprets, and appraises the present usefulness of Guillaume Dustan’s political philosophy as outlined in later works, especially Génie Divin (2001), as documentaries of underground queer life in the late AIDS era, cogent histories of the backlash to the cultural revolutions of the 1960s and 70s in France, and audacious prescriptions for the French Republic that could provoke a renewed push toward fulfilling the Enlightenment-era promises of its Constitution. He is also working on a translation of Génie Divin for Semiotext(e).

Noah is helping to put together a series of videos that will showcase the various options for study in the humanities at UNM Albuquerque.

I am currently a PhD student in American Literary Studies in the Department of English. Before coming to UNM, I went to school in North Carolina where I got my Bachelor of Arts in English at Salem College and my Master of Arts in English literature at North Carolina State University. In between my time in school, I have worked in the government sector at taught Composition courses for two years at a community college.

I came to UNM because of my research interests in motherhood in American literature. I wanted to look at literature written by Chicana, Native American, and African American women in the United States. Because I already had a background in African-American literature, I came to UNM because it has strong programs and links to Chicana/o and Native American/Indigenous literature and narrative studies. It was a good choice for my research and teaching interests to take an in-depth look at these studies.

Much of humanities research is spending hours in a library reading. Some of that reading involves looking at the library’s archives that have boxes of papers on important people in history. This semester, I am going to be traveling to the Witliff Library at the University of Texas San Marcos campus to look at the Sandra Cisneros collection. In 2015, Cisneros donated 305 boxes worth of documents that show her life, writing, career, and personal and business endeavors. Part of being a Humanities scholar is looking at the life of the person you are researching and I get to spend two weeks going through those boxes to discover more information about Cisneros and see what inspired her writings. This will be part of my dissertation project. In the past, I’ve conducted research at Duke University’s Rubenstein Library as well.

Thierry Samuel is a passionate scholar, educator, and writer with a diverse academic and professional background. Currently pursuing a Ph.D. in French and Francophone Studies at the University of New Mexico (UNM), Thierry delves into complex interdisciplinary fields, blending literature, philosophy, and cultural studies. He is a Graduate Assistant for student organizations under the African American Student Services at UNM, where he fosters inclusivity and cultural engagement. Thierry’s creative endeavors include poetry and novel writing, often inspired by themes of community, materialism, and humanity's shared struggles.
As a dynamic teacher, Thierry Samuel teaches Mandarin Chinese, blending linguistic proficiency with cultural depth. Beyond academics, he contributes to his community through initiatives like the New Mexico Veteran Soccer Club.
Research
Thierry Samuel's research explores the relational self in contemporary African and Chinese philosophy, with a comparative study of Achille Mbembe and Li Zehou. His work critiques Western individualism and examines non-Western perspectives on selfhood. Additionally, his scholarly focus includes the portrayal of China's image in contemporary African art.

Thierry Samuel serves as a graduate assistant for the Mellon program at the University of New Mexico, where he collaborates with grant recipients to promote the importance of humanities. Through innovative projects and engaging initiatives, he works to inspire college and prospective university students to consider humanities majors. Thierry's efforts aim to highlight the critical role of the humanities in understanding human experiences, fostering critical thinking, and addressing global challenges. His dedication contributes to strengthening interest in these vital fields at UNM and beyond.

When I graduated from High School, my father gave me two decisions, either begin working or go to school. As a first-generation student, I chose school and felt confused yet determined to pursue higher education. After all the obstacles in my way, and confusing and frustrating moments, I graduated from community college, a four-year institution, and I am a couple of months away from achieving a graduate education.

The Chicanx studies program at UNM is a very friendly, supportive, and professional program that cares for its students and assures that every student receives the proper help they need. In addition, the Chicanx studies program at UNM is a national powerhouse in this area of study, being one of few institutions that offer online study and in-person for a professional degree.

I am currently researching the modern campesino conditions in the Salinas Valley, California to advocate for farmworker well-being. I hope to offer awareness of the campesino working and living conditions in order to help them obtain better healthcare or social assistance in any way due to the fact that their labor is crucial for society.

My undergraduate degree is from UNM with a double major in Native American Studies and Anthropology. However, I've had a range of different work and academic experiences. I took a break between earning an Associates of Applied Science in Film and returning to academics a decade later. During that time I worked as a furniture and cabinet maker in NM and WA, as well as a cameraperson for music and documentary films. I first returned to school at UNM-Taos branch and took a limited number of courses online while I was still working full-time. Then, with the help of work-study, undergraduate research opportunities that offered scholarships, and other campus services for underrepresented and low-income students, I was able to move to Albuquerque and complete my degree in-person. Making the move to main campus gave me the chance to connect with other students, professors, and campus groups that led to my current positions in Mellon and the Center for Southwest Research, and has led to other research and community involvement.

Speaking from my experiences in humanities at UNM in the Native American Studies and now Chicana and Chicano Studies programs, I can say that I appreciate how interdisciplinary the programs are. I have learned frameworks and practices that will assist me in helping my community in ways that fit my skills, interests, and upbringing. As well, the connections between community organizations and folks in my academic departments, helps me see practical directions I can take my degree when I finish school.

During my time in the humanities programs at UNM, I have had the opportunity to attend and present at conferences, and host and volunteer at important community gatherings. As an undergraduate, I was an El Puente undergraduate research Fellow supported by El Centro de la Raza. My research proposal, which inquired into traditional running traditions as land-based research, led to co-organizing the Traditions of Endurance conference, a primarily Indigenous discussion and celebration of the many roles of dancing and running. Along with my current role as a Mellon Graduate Assistant, which gives me the chance to support other transfer and non-traditional students achieve success in humanities programs, I hold a position as the Distinctive Native American Collections Fellow at the Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections. In this position I have the chance to assist with various projects of preservation, accessibility, outreach, and generating new culturally appropriate models of managing archival content.