Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellows
2023-2025 Fellows
Natalya Rowe
Major: History
Minor: Art
Project: The Rise of the Ideal Urban City Model: Amsterdam, Netherlands and the Evolution of Dutch-Jewish Urban Design
Mentor: Dr. Paulo Simoes (Honors)
Natalya Rowe (they/she) is a first generation student at Cal State Fullerton. Natalya is a History Major with an Art minor, a President’s Scholar, University Honors Fellow, Phi Alpha Theta member, and Secretary for President’s Scholars Student Association. Natalya plans on further expanding their research on the history of Urban Design and Planning from the Industrial Revolution to Pre-WWII within Western Europe through the MMUF program. Natalya hopes to address issues of social history and justice through a reexamination of public infrastructure and transportation, especially as it relates to the progression of civil rights for minorities.
Isabella Praslin
Major: History
Project: Women's Hidden Roles in Ancient Christianity
Mentor: Dr. James Rietveld (History)
Isabella “Izzy” Praslin is an Honors History major with a research interest in women's roles in ancient world religions. She is researching women in ancient Christianity who performed leadership roles during the time of Jesus Christ and after through the reading ancient texts and analyzing archaeological evidence sites. Izzy is passionate about giving back to her community through peer mentorship for students with disabilities, serving as a project director of Titans Forever – a volunteering service where students do activities with senior citizens receiving memory care.
Shyamali Perera
Major: English
Project: Breaking Language Barriers that Shape Sri Lankan Identity: Linguistic Nationalism, Civil War in Post-Colonial Era
Mentor: Dr. Maria Bo (English and Comparative Literature)
Shyamali Perera is majoring in English with a minor in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). However, her teaching background is Early Childhood Education, particularly in the Montessori method. Her research involves studying Sri Lanka's linguistic landscape, the role of language in the Sri Lankan Civil War, and strategies to promote linguistic diversity and understanding. She aims to find ways to dismantle language barriers created by linguistic nationalism, a critical factor in Sri Lanka's ethnic disparities. Shyamali hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in Education or English to further her research and contribute to resolving language-related disputes causing diaspora in Asia.
Henry Rodriguez
Major: English
Project: Maurice White and “Evil”: Earth, Wind and Fire and Kemetism in the Post-Civil Rights Era
Mentor: Dr. Edward Piñuelas (English)
Henry Rodriguez is a recent transfer student and English major. He has worked as a jazz drummer, musician, and music teacher for over two decades, prior to continuing his education. His research interests include the origins of jazz music, cultural expression, communication, and the melding of European music styles with Indigenous expression.
2022-2024 Fellows
Mario Benitez
Major: Sociology and Religious Studies
Project:Cultural Displacement and Sacred Spaces: Unpacking Gentrification's Effects on Religious Institutions
Mentor: Dr. Christina Chin (Sociology)
Mario Benitez is a senior majoring in Sociology & Religious Studies. His research delves into the intricate interplay between urban gentrification and religious institutions, shedding light on how cultural displacement impacts sacred spaces. By examining the evolving dynamics and challenges these institutions face, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of the broader socio-cultural transformations resulting from gentrification. He is also a first generation, transfer, and adult re-entry student. Mario enjoys reaching about religion and Catholicism, and historical documentaries.
Niyyah Jackson
Major: English
Project: Identifying Black Femininity: Examining the State of Black Femininity in America
Mentor: Dr. Bonnie J. Williams-Farrier (English)
Niyyah Jackson is a senior, majoring in English minoring in African American Studies. Her research focuses on the depictions of black women’s femininity in literature and taking a closer look at the current conversation surrounding black femininity as it relates to colorism and it's dynamic with black masculinity. She is passionate about Black women’s literature, African American language, the role of colorism as it affects Black women, and Black female stereotypes. She is currently working at the California State University, Fullerton Writing Center as a writing tutor. After she receives her Bachelor's degree, she plans on continuing further to get her Ph.D in English and hopes to eventually teach African American Women’s Literature.
Jasmine Raine Rivera
Major: English
Minor: History
Project: : “Thy valiantness was mine”: Volumnia in Tanghalang Pilipino’s Coriolano, and the Role of Shakespeare in Filipino Drama
Mentor:Dr. Marlin E. Blaine (English)
Jasmine Raine Rivera (she/her) is a 4th year English major, History minor at California State University, Fullerton. Her project examines the character of Volumnia in Tanghalang Pilipino's 2019 production of Coriolano, a Tagalog translation of Shakespeare's Coriolanus, to explore the purpose of adapting Shakespeare in present-day Philippines and how Shakespeare adaptation fits into the still developing identity of Filipino drama.
Cesar Villatoro
Major: Philosophy
Project: Climate Instability, Ecosocialism, and Grounded Normativity: How Indigenous Place-Based Ethics Can Inform Alternatives to Capitalist Relations Towards Land
Mentor: Dr. Matthew R. Calarco (Philosophy)
Cesar’s research critically examines Marxist solutions to capitalist relations towards the environment in the face of growing global climate instability. By analyzing these solutions through an Indigenous and environmental ethics lens, he proposes that the Indigenous ethical framework of "grounded normativity" is able to provide ecosocialist solutions with a strong normative ethics to compel a new sensibility towards nature in order to combat widespread ecological degradation.
2021-2023 Fellows
Amalia Contreras
Major: History
Project: No Place like Home: An Insight into the Resilience of Mexican Women affected by Unconstitutional Deportations of the 1930s
Mentor: Dr. Margie Brown-Coronel (History)
Pauli Cuellar Aguilar
Major: Linguistics
Project: Queerly said: a sociolinguistic analysis of cisheteronormative ideologies in Japanese popular media
Mentor: Dr. Satoko Kakihara (Japanese)
C. J. Quion
Major: History
Project: Trouble in the Tropics: An Exploration of the Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893
Mentor: Dr. Mike Perez (Sociology)
2020-2022 Fellows
Thai Butterfield
Major: Religious Studies
Project: The Bible and Judeo-Christian Writings on Homoeroticism: Deconstructing Gender Complementarity and Its Hermeneutical Implications toward Same-Sex Relationships
Mentor: Dr. Janet Bregar (Religious Studies)
Ayza Martinez
Major: American Studies
Project: America’s False Narrative of Gender Equality: Dissection of Misogyny within Women’s Policy
Mentor: Dr. Pamela Fiber-Ostrow (Politics, Administration and Justice)
Starlina Sanchez
Major: Sociology
Project: Beyond Incarceration: Exploring the Reentry of Latinx Women in California
Mentor: Dr. Tala Khanmalek (Women and Gender Studies)
Gabriel Taggard
Majors: English
Project: Applying Queer Theory to Shakespeare’s Irony
Mentor: Dr. David Kelman and Dr. Nicole Seymour (English, Comparative Literature, and Linguistics)
