Harvard faculty have a long history of engagement with Central American countries. Below you can read the profiles of faculty that have worked in the region, as well as explore the various projects under their supervision.

Faculty Initiatives in the Region

Anthropology and Archaeology

An Anthropological Look at Technology’s Role in Education

Professor Laserna is leading a Harvard Summer School Course to Costa Rica to conduct anthropological research into the role of technology in the Costa Rican classroom.  The importance of education and development in Costa Rica makes it an ideal location for this program, which explores how anthropological knowledge can inform the design of culturally responsive learning environments. Through this program, students participate in the implementation of Costa Rica’s One to One Computing initiative. This course explores the intersection between anthropological and educational research and theory building. Topics include the comparative ethnographic studies of educational forms (including craft apprenticeship and formal schooling); socio-cultural theories of cognitive and linguistic development; and varieties of literacy, including computer-based literacy, which we term “cybercy.” We work to demonstrate how ethnographic inquiry and theorizing can provide critical insight into the ways digital technologies mediate practices of the school and local community.

Participating Harvard faculty: Catalina Laserna, Lecturer in Social Anthropology, Senior Research Analyst, and Director of the Master of Liberal Arts in Educational Technologies Program, Harvard Extension School

Collaborators: Claudia Urrea, PhD candidate, Future of Learning Group, MIT Media Laboratory; 
Collaborating Institutions: Omar Dengo Foundation, Costa Rica

The Copan Hieroglyphic Stairway Scanning Project

The Hieroglyphic Stairway Scanning Project is a collaboration between the CMHI, the Peabody Museum at Harvard University and the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History to produce a three-dimensional model of the fragile and deteriorating monument as a safe copy for posterity. Using a new non-invasive methodology, the portable structured light optical SmartSCAN system by Breuckmann, 3D data of the inscription is captured at high resolution without harming the original. While complementing traditional documentation, the new 3D model will preserve a copy of the longest inscription in the Americas and Copán’s dynastic history from 425-756 AD. The resulting model will facilitate a new virtual reconstruction of the inscription, which was restored 65% out of order in the 1940s and was recently 80% deciphered and reordered with a team of the top Maya epigraphers. Three local Copán staff are trained in all aspects of the scanning operation, and a complete data set is stored in both Honduras and at Harvard. The field scanning is estimated to be completed in 2011.

Participating Harvard faculty: William Fash, Bowditch Professor of Central American and Mexican Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University; Howells Director of the Peabody Museum; Barbara Fash, Director of the Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions Program

Collaborating Institutions:  Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History

Economics and Business

What Roosevelt Took: The Economic Impact of the Panama Canal, 1903-29

The Panama Canal was one of the largest public investments of its time. In the first decade of its operation, the Canal produced significant social returns for the United States. Most of these returns were due to the transportation of petroleum from California to the East Coast. Few of these returns, however, accrued to the Panamanian population or government. U.S. policy deliberately operated to minimize the effects of the Canal on the Panamanian economy. The major exception to this policy was the American anti-malarial campaign, which improved health conditions in the port cities.

Participating Harvard faculty: Noel Maurer, Associate Professor of Business Administration in the Business, Government and the International Economy unit at Harvard Business School.

Design

A Lo Que Vinimos: Revitalization of Central San José, Costa Rica

This 2007-2008 design studio led a group of students to San José, Costa Rica to consider the problems of urban expansion in a Colonial setting.

Participating Harvard faculty: Peter Rowe, Raymond Garbe Professor of Architecture and Urban Design; Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor; Mark Mulligan, Adjunct Associate Professor of Architecture

Environmental Science

Behavior and Ecology of Panamanian Lizards


Professor Jonathan Losos is leading a summer research trip to Panama to study lizards in the genus Anolis.  The research trip aims to investigate differences in ecology, behavior patterns, and habitat use in species of Anolis at two sites in Panama.  Participating students will videotape the undisturbed behavior of lizards in the field, as well as take data on where in the habitat they are found, and will use clay models to test the effect of microhabitat use on predation pressure. The field component of the project will last four weeks, from mid-July to mid-August at two locations in Panama.

Participating Harvard faculty: Jonathan Losos, Monique and Philip Lehner Professor for the Study of Latin America and Curator in Herpetology;

Cavitation Reversal in Tropical Dry Forest Trees: Linking Leaf Hydraulic Properties with Patterns of Embolism Repair – Santa Rosa National Park, Costa Rica

With support from a DRCLAS faculty grant, Professor Missy Holbrook is looking at questions concerning the transport of water in plants.   Plants “pull” water from the soil and supply it to their leaves due to the negative pressures generated by the curvature of air: water interfaces at the sites of evaporation in leaves.  While this mechanism allows trees to transport hundreds of gallons of water each day, it threatens their primary supply-line due to the fact that water at pressures < 0 is in a metastable state and thus at risk of the spontaneous conversion to the gas phase in a process known as cavitation.  A number of laboratory studies suggest that at least some species have evolved the ability to reverse cavitation and to refill embolized conduits.  Such repair capacity clearly must entail some costs and/or constraints as cavitation remains a significant impediment to the vascular system of plants and its avoidance a major factor guiding the evolution of wood structure.  Professor Holbrook’s research examines the extent to which embolism repair occurs among co-occurring trees growing in Santa Rosa National Park in northwest Costa Rica and explores the costs and constraints associated with different strategies of embolism management.

Participating Harvard faculty: Noel M. Holbrook, Professor of Biology and Charles Bullard Professor of Forestry, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University

Collaborating Institutions: Santa Rosa National Park, Costa Rica

History and History of Science

Contagion: Historical Views of Diseases and Epidemics: Tropical Diseases and the Construction of the Panama Canal, 1904–1914

In constructing the Panama Canal, American planners and builders faced challenges that went far beyond politics and engineering. The deadly endemic diseases of yellow fever and malaria were dangerous obstacles that had already defeated French efforts to construct a Panama Canal in the 1880s. The crippling effects of these diseases, which incapacitated many workers and caused at least 20,000 to die, led the French to abandon their goal in 1889.  Contagion: Historical Views of Diseases and Epidemics is a digital library collection that brings a unique set of resources from Harvard’s libraries to Internet users everywhere. Offering valuable insights to students of the history of medicine and to researchers seeking an historical context for current epidemiology, the collection contributes to the understanding of the global, social–history, and public–policy implications of disease.  Contagion is also a unique social-history resource for students of many ages and disciplines.  These materials include digitized copies of books, serials, pamphlets, incunabula, and manuscripts—a total of more than 500,000 pages—many of which contain visual materials, such as plates, engravings, maps, charts, broadsides, and other illustrations. The collection also includes two unique sets of visual materials from the Center for the History of Medicine at Harvard’s Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine.



Participating Harvard Institution: The Harvard University Library
Collaborating Institutions: The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

The Northsouth Passages


Professors Jimena Canales and Peter Pellegrino organized a conference to reexamine the understanding of history of science in Latin America, operating under the premise that differences between the history and philosophy of science in Latin America and in European and North American settings have diminished in terms of themes and methodology. The primary purpose of the conference was to set aside the older agenda of marginal, national, or salvage history and to delineate common questions which cut across the field of history of sciences.

Participating Harvard faculty: Jimena Canales, Assistant Professor of the History of Science, Harvard University; Peter Galison, Joseph Pellegrino University Professor; Director, Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, Harvard University
Collaborators: Alexis De Greiff, Universidad Nacional de Colombia

Law

Central American Deportation Project


For several years, U.S. Immigration authorities have intensified deportations of undocumented foreign nationals, as well as “green card” holders that have committed felonies. There have been a range of concerns expressed about the deportations themselves, and the raids that ordinarily precede them. This clinical project focuses on the consequences for those individuals that are deported.   In the spring of 2006, the clinic began research, traveling to El Salvador and Honduras to speak with deportees on their arrival at airports, in detention centers, and other settings. In August 2006, students participated on a follow-up field mission to El Salvador, conducting further interviews and documentation. In February 2007, the International Human Rights Clinic released a report, No Place to Hide: Gang, State, and Clandestine Violence in El Salvador, documenting the phenomenon of youth gangs in El Salvador, human rights abuses associated with gang violence, and the Salvadoran government's response to gang activity.

Participating Harvard faculty: Jim Cavallaro, Clinical Professor of Law, Harvard Law School (HLS); Executive Director of the Human Rights Program at HLS

Collaborating Institutions:  Human Rights Program, HLS

Panamá Prison Conditions

Like many of its neighboring countries, Panama’s penitentiary system is characterized by harsh prison conditions. However, in contrast to several of its neighbors, there has been little significant international attention regarding this problem. This project seeks to document prison conditions and possible human rights violations in Panama’s detention centers. Initial research was done over the fall term 2006. Interviews were conducted in Panama with government officials, former prisoners, and civil society members over January Term 2007. In March 2007, students participated on a fact-finding mission to Panama City, where they visited six detention centers, met with government officials and human rights groups, and interviewed over 100 inmates. The students are currently compiling their documentation into a report to be released in Spanish and English.

Participating Harvard Faculty: Jim Cavallaro, Clinical Professor of Law, HLS; Executive Director of the Human Rights Program at HLS

Collaborating Institutions:  Human Rights Program, HLS; Harvard Immigrant and Refugee Clinic, HLS

Public Health and Medicine

Dietary Fatty Acids, PPAR Activated Genes and Coronary Heart Disease in Costa Rica

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the major cause of death in most industrialized and developing countries. Links between genetic and dietary factors that modify the risk of CHD should give fundamental insight into its causes and improve population-based CHP prevention strategies. This study proposes to identify genes that modulate the association between dietary fatty acids (FAs) and myocardial infarction (MI). The study will use DNA samples obtained during a population-based, case-control study in Costa Rica of 2,150 subjects who experienced MI and 2,150 matched controls. The study will use gene-diet association studies and a candidate pathway approach to elucidate genetic mechanisms that link risk of MI with exposure to polyunsaturated FAs. The study will focus on peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) genes, and PPAR-regulated genes that are involved in vascular inflammation. Among controls, the study will examine whether genetic and dietary factors independently affect biochemical markers (phenotypes) of the proposed genes, and whether these phenotypes are more clearly identified when genetic and dietary factors are examined together.

Participating Harvard faculty: Hannia Campos, Senior Lecturer on Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health

The Genetic Epidemiology of Asthma in Costa Rica

This project seeks to examine the genetic factors that influence the development of asthma in a minority group at high risk for the disease. To this end the study will concentrate on a genetically isolated Hispanic population with high asthma prevalence living in the Central valley of Costa Rica. To identify regions of the genome likely to contain genetic determinants of asthma and associated phenotypes in this population, the project will utilize a unique study design that entails collection of phenotypic and genotypic data on 15 large pedigrees multiplex for asthma (600 individuals) and 300 unrelated asthmatic children and their parents (900 individuals). A genome screen on these large pedigrees will be conducted as well as an analysis of asthma and seven intermediate phenotypes related to asthma. A genome screen will also be conducted in the parent-child trios, and ancestral haplotypes will be reconstructed to identify regions influencing asthma- associated phenotypes. By utilizing a unique study design with a large sample size in a genetically isolated population, we should be able to address an important but insufficiently studied problem; the genetic influences on the expression of the asthma phenotype in Hispanics. Thus, this project will greatly contribute to our understanding of the pathogenesis of a significant public health problem among Hispanic Americans: bronchial asthma.

Participating Harvard faculty: Christoph Lange, Associate Professor of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health
Collaborating Institutions: Brigham & Women's Hospital

The Impact of Insurance on Health-Care Utilization among Informal Workers in Managua, Nicaragua: Evidence from Randomized Health Insurance Study

There has been increasing attention among governments, NGOs, as well as microfinance institutions, to the risks and limitations facing micro-entrepreneurs. Recently, policy markets, donor agencies and microfinance institutions have identified health shocks as an important source of economic vulnerability in this sector due to lack of access to low cost high quality health services. To mitigate possible health shocks among micro-entrepreneurs, MFIs in several developing countries have begun to offer health savings or insurance services designed to meet a perceived demand for cost-effective health care products among their clients. In Nicaragua, the Nicaraguan Social Security Institute (INSS) has recently taken major steps towards addressing the complete absence of health insurance or low cost health services available to Nicaraguan micro-entrepreneurs.  In particular, the Nicaraguan Social Security Institute (INSS) is currently rolling out a voluntary health insurance benefit to informal sector workers through a pilot program that utilizes a network of the country’s microfinance institutions (MFIs) to offer the INSS health insurance to workers in informal enterprises. The program was developed by the Nicaraguan government in conjunction with USAID in early 2006.  Although formal sector workers have been covered by government provided health insurance, prior to 2006, informal sector workers were not included in the services provided. With the support of a DRCLAS faculty grant, Professor Erica Field has been conducting an on-going investigation of the impact of this new health insurance product on health care utilization (health-seeking behavior and quality of care) and health outcomes.

Participating Harvard faculty: Erica Field, Assistant Professor of Economics, Harvard University

Investing in People: Healthier, Better Educated People - Dialogue for Increased and Improved Health and Education Investment in Guatemala

The goal of this project is to increase the commitment of the Guatemalan government, local level governments, and civil society to increase investments in health and education and to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of public social sector expenditures in Guatemala. The International Health Systems Program within the Department of Population and International Health at HSPH will work with the Academy for Education on activities specifically related to achieving more efficient expenditures in the Ministry of Health and increased and more efficient decentralized investments in health.


Participating Harvard faculty: Thomas Bossert, Lecturer on International Health Policy, Harvard School of Public Health
Collaborating Institutions:  USAID; Academy for Education; Ministry of Health of Guatemala

Government

Active Citizenship through Deliberative Capacity (CADE) – Costa Rica


CADE is an initiative of Omar Dengo Foundation’s Research Department that has been developed to stimulate active citizenship, deliberation, perspective taking and consensus building in elementary school children. The project focuses on the development of critical thinking and interpersonal skills. Through it the children address real problems that they select from their own communities and agree on solutions that they discuss and implement. CADE has developed its own “preferendum online,” a powerful web-based tool that is used to discuss topics, vote, and reach agreements among children from different schools. This project has been developed in collaboration with the Harvard University professors, Maya Carlson and Felton Earls.

Participating Harvard faculty: Maya Carlson, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School; Felton Earls, Professor of Social Medicine at the School of Public Health and Professor of Human Behavior and Development at Harvard Medical School 
Collaborating Institutions: Omar Dengo Foundation, Costa Rica

Sociology

When Women Wage War: Explaining the Personal and Political Consequences of Guerrilla Activism in El Salvador

In this project, a book manuscript entitled When Women Wage War: Explaining the Personal and Political Consequences of Guerrilla Activism in El Salvador, Viterna uses data from 140 in-depth interviews with men and women guerrillas, guerrilla supporters, and non-participants in rural El Salvador to identify the ways that gender structured guerrilla mobilization and participation. She then analyzes the gendered consequences of that participation for individuals and communities, and whether and how patterns of micro-level political participation in turn can create cohort effects that shift gender relations in the broader society. An article from this project, "Pulled, Pushed and Persuaded: Explaining Women's Mobilization into the Salvadoran Guerrilla Army" was published in the American Journal of Sociology in 2006.


Participating Harvard Faculty: Jocelyn Viterna, Assistant Professor of Sociology and of Social Studies, Harvard University