Vanessa Torres

PhD in World History

Vanessa (She/Her/Ella) is a second year World History Ph.D. student and 2021-2023 HASTAC Scholar at Northeastern University. As a graduate research assistant, she has been involved in “Reckonings: A Local History Platform for the Community-Archivist,” “Apartheid Heritages: The Spatial History of ZA’s Black Townships,” and the “Visualizing Spatial Violence: Tools for Social Justice Advocacy” (multi-disciplinary community engaged projects). She is also currently involved in the 2022 – 2023 Humanities Center Collaborative Research Cluster, “Queering the Archive.” Prior to her graduate studies at Northeastern, Vanessa received her Bachelor of Arts in Chicana/o/x-Latina/o/x Studies with a double minor in Latin American Studies and Literary Journalism in June of 2021 from the University of California, Irvine. In the Summer of 2022, Vanessa participated in two Mellon Foundation stipend fellowships: University of Maryland’s Social Media Corps and University of New Hampshire’s Summer Institute in Public Humanities. Following the latter fellowship, she received a 2022-2023 Mellon Foundation and UNH Public Humanities seed-funding grant to support her healing arts and community engaged project on Undocu/Queer Latinx experiences. She has also co-lead two “Deep Mapping with Scalar workshop sessions for NEH’s Engaging Geography in the Humanities Institute at Northeastern University alongside Dr. Angel David Nieves and Cassie Tanks, MSLS. She then served as an assistant with a 360-photography workshop session for this summer institute. In the Spring of 2022, Vanessa presented at Northeastern University’s 2022 Grad History Conference and University of Alberta’s Digital Humanities Conference: Kindred Cyberspaces on her paper, “Building ‘Undocu/Queer Imaginaries:’ A Collection for Undocumented Immigrant & LGBTQ+ Latina/o/x Experiences in the United States” (a digital book project). In addition, she was a panelist alongside Cassie Tanks representing keynote speaker Dr. Angel David Nieves for the Barbara Meyers Pelson ’59 Faculty-Student Engagement Annual Lecture at The College of New Jersey. Then, with Cassie Tanks, she was a roundtable discussion participant representing Apartheid Heritages for “Digital Archives, Anti-Racism, and Critical Metadata Practices,” an event co-sponsored by the NULab for Texts, Maps, and Networks, the Northeastern University Humanities Center, and the Speculation in the Archive research cluster at Northeastern University.

Related Schools & Departments

History

Cohort: 2021

Research Interest: As a Latina scholar, she is interested in investigating generational and emotional approaches to documenting Latina/o/x, more specifically Queer Latina/o/x, oral and visual histories. This way she can develop an understanding of how socioeconomic experiences, racial/ethnic identity and markers, and gender and sexuality identities intersect in the queer framework of education and immigration experiences in Latinx local communities.

Latina/o/x histories, (Im)migration Politics and Journalism, LGBTQ2IA+ Histories and Testimonios, Generational (oral, written, and visual) Histories, Education Trajectories, Gendered Emotional Labor, Public/Community Engagement, Digital Humanities

More Student Paths

Charles T. Wallace-Thomas IV

Charles took "Sustainable Renewable Energy Development in the Global South" with Professor Shalanda Baker, which pushed him to further question systems as they exist, no matter their entrenched in society.
He did community service as part of the Ujima Global Leaders Program through the John D. O’Bryant African American Institute. He worked on the Timebank team, helping give back to local communities.
Charles split his time for his first co-op between the Center for Economic Democracy and the Boston Ujima Project, where he analyzed studies on community needs, including infrastructure and childcare.
He was one of the co-creators of the #BlackAtNU campaign and advocated for racial literacy courses and a restorative and transformative justice center on campus.
Charles made his own research project- a macroeconomic index to measure democratic participation in municipal economies, partnering with NU, the Columbus Foundation and the Center for Economic Democracy.
He worked at the Participatory Budgeting Project as a Program Associate, helping city systems and other organizations actively decide how to invest money across different spaces.
Charles graduated in 2022. ..

Casey Greenleaf

Casey took Global Markets and Local Cultures. After traveling, she better saw how the coursework mirrored real life, and knew her education was preparing her for the world.
She went on a DOC to Argentina and Uruguay, and become highly proficient while living in Buenos Aires and visiting the glaciers of the Patagonia region.
Casey completed her first co-op at the Museum of Fine Arts as a community arts program assistant. She gained valuable hands-on experience assisting in arts classes for local communities.
She joined the Sociology & Anthropology Student Association during her third year. It allowed her to get to know her fellow students and mirrored the small school experience she loved.
Casey studied abroad in Nepal for her capstone thesis. She lived alone for a month while she researched and wrote about the lived experience of climate change in the lower Himalayas.
She worked for the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative, founded by Professor Sarah Wylie. She produced promotional videos, developed a virtual research event, wrote event programming, and more.
Casey graduated in 2020. ..

Sunita Pfitzner

Sunita took Revolution, Civil War, and Insurrection, taught by Professor Risa Kitagawa. The course invited students to question the motives behind acts of violence against governments.
She traveled on a Dialogue of Civilizations to Jordan and Egypt; while there she grew interested in Middle East politics and the Arabic language.
Sunita worked at the Institute for Economics and Peace in Sydney, Australia, where she analyzed data on the corruption of police forces in Mexico.
Sunita was a member of the International Relations Council and traveled abroad with the club to compete in Model Arab League, Model NATO, and Model UN conferences.
Sunita conducted research with Berna Turam, developing a greater understanding of the Mediterranean migrant crisis. She also researched the feminist response to Covid-19 with Val Moghadam.
She graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2022.
..

Yasser Aponte

Yasser was in the Foundation Year program at Northeastern. The program was a rigorous deep dive into core subject classes that helped Yasser bridge the gap between his high school and college experiences.
He took Issues in Cities and Suburbs with Professor Erin Graves in Fall 2018. As someone deeply invested in urban life, he found the course was an enlightened look at the problems endemic to cities.
Yasser joined the Boston Beer Company as a Program Operations and Event Assistant for his first co-op. He worked on inventory, public relations, brewery events, and workspace organization.
He implemented community gardens all over Boston on deserted plots of land during his time as the Northeastern Campus Director for the campus’ United Nations Millennium Fellowship.
Yasser maintained a farm in Dorchester for The Food Project. He harvested crops, distributed produce through donations and food markets, and worked on overall logistics.
In 2020, Yasser won the Community Service Leadership award, given to students who show exemplary community engagement. He was recognized for his work at The Food Project, Northeastern Crossing, and more.
He graduated 2022 with his Bachelor’s in International Affairs and Religious Studies and his Master’s in Security and Resilience Studies, through Northeastern’s PlusOne program...