Visiting Scholars & Fellows

Visiting Scholars & Fellows

Dora Maria Tellez presenting

Our fellowships strengthen ties between Harvard and global institutions by hosting cohorts of distinguished academics and practitioners from varied disciplinary fields who conduct research on Latin America and the Caribbean. Through our three current fellowship positions, DRCLAS forges communities of inquiry and impact that span disciplinary fields and countries, providing a unique space for enduring collaboration.

 

Apply to Become a Visiting Scholar or Fellow

Each year, DRCLAS welcomes a select group of distinguished academics (Visiting Scholars and Ivorra Scholars) and practitioners (Visiting Fellows) to spend one or two semesters at Harvard pursuing independent research and engaging with Harvard's dynamic intellectual community. Scholars and Fellows are selected through a competitive process based on their qualifications, the quality of their proposed research, and the relevance of their work to the Center's mission and priorities.

Visiting Scholars
Next application cycle opens June 2027

These positions are aimed at academics with a current affiliation in a university or research center. 

Visiting Fellows
Next application cycle opens June 2027

These positions are aimed at established practitioners with advanced careers in their fields and a strong scholarly bent, who wish to work on a research-oriented project while at Harvard. 

Ivorra Visiting Scholars
Next application cycle opens June 2027

This position is aimed at early-career academics whose work focuses on democracy, governance, and/or the defense of human rights in the region. 

Nicole Jenne

The fellowship at DRCLAS provided an exceptional setting for scholarly work: optimal research conditions combined with an intellectually vibrant environment that sets a high bar and motivates one to meet it. It has meaningfully shaped my development as a researcher.

Nicole Jenne
2025-26 DRCLAS Cisneros Visiting Scholar

2026-2027 DRCLAS Scholars

For the 2026–2027 academic year, DRCLAS welcomes Visiting Scholars and Professors from across Latin America and the Caribbean, including the inaugural Ivorra Visiting Scholar, as well as Harvard–UAI Visiting Researchers participating in short-term research stays through the Harvard–UAI Collaborative Research Grant.

Ignacio Chuecas Saldías
Fall 2026 and Spring 2027 Luksic Visiting Scholar
Ignacio Chuecas Saldías is a Professor in the Faculty of Humanities and Communications and a member of the Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program in Humanities at Universidad Finis Terrae in Santiago, Chile. He earned a PhD in Old Testament Studies from the...
ignacio

Paola Cortes-Rocca
Spring 2027 De Fortabat Visiting Scholar
Paola Cortes-Rocca is a cultural critic specializing in the intersections of writing and visuality in Latin America. She is Professor at the Universidad Nacional de las Artes and the Universidad de Buenos Aires, and a Researcher at Argentina’s National...
paola

Laura Fahrenkrog
Fall 2026 Harvard-UAI Visiting Researcher
Laura Fahrenkrog is Associate Professor of History at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez (Chile). Her research centers on musical practices in colonial Spanish America, examining their connection to social and cultural problems, labor, and colonial categories. Her...
Laura Fahrenkrog

Sebastian Gallegos
Fall 2026 Harvard-UAI Visiting Researcher
Sebastian Gallegos is an Associate Professor of Economics at the Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez Business School in Chile. He holds a PhD in Public Policy from the University of Chicago and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Economics at...
Sebastian Gallegos

Forrest Hylton
Fall 2026 Santo Domingo Visiting Scholar
Forrest Hylton’s research focuses on the Wayúu in the Colombian-Venezuelan Caribbean in the 18th century and the Aymara in the Bolivian Andes in the 19th century. At DRCLAS, he will be completing a manuscript on state formation, property rights and law...
Forrest

Américo Mendoza-Mori
Spring 2027 Custer Visiting Scholar
Américo Mendoza-Mori (Ica, Perú) is an Assistant Professor of Romance Languages at St. Olaf College. His work bridges literary, sociolinguistic, and cultural studies, with a focus on Latin America, U.S. Latinidad, and Indigeneity. His recent book Cusco...
Americo

Lauro Miranda Demenech
Spring 2027 Cisneros Visiting Scholar
Lauro Miranda Demenech is an Associate Professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande (FURG), Brazil, where he serves as Head of the Graduate Program in Psychology. His research focuses on the social determinants of mental health, with particular...
Lauro

Mirzam Pérez
Central America Visiting Scholar
Mirzam Pérez (she/ella) is an artist-scholar who explores questions of place and belonging through fabric and paint. As Professor of Spanish at Grinnell College, her research bridges seventeenth-century theater, visual culture, and digital humanities with...
Mirzam

Emilia Simison
Spring 2027 Ivorra–IAP Visiting Scholar
Emilia Simison is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Latin American Politics at Queen Mary University of London. Her research focuses on the comparative political economy of policymaking and policy change. She uses qualitative and quantitative methods to...
emilia

Past Recipients

Past Recipients

The Visiting Scholars and Fellows program has a long tradition of bringing together multidisciplinary and multi-country experts, forming lasting communities of research and practice across the region. 

Visiting Scholars & Fellows News

The Business of Belonging: Fraud and Markets in Bolivia
2024-25 Associate Scholar Susan Ellison's ethnographic research in Bolivia challenges conventional understandings of fraud, revealing how multilevel marketing companies speak to broader questions of trust, race, and economic opportunity. When...
DXN Cart.

Meet the 2026–2027 DRCLAS Visiting Scholars and Fellows
Each year, the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies brings leading scholars and practitioners from across the Americas to Harvard to pursue independent research, collaborate with faculty and students, and contribute to our intellectual...
DRCLAS VISITING SCHOLARS & FELLOWS 2026-202DRCLAS VISITING SCHOLARS & FELLOWS 2026-2027

Authoritarianism Fears Her 
Honoring Dora María Téllez, Nicaraguan dissident and Fall 2024 DRCLAS Visiting Fellow, for her unyielding fight for democracy. On June 2, 2025, during the 70th anniversary of the Institut des Hautes Études de l’Amérique Latine (IHEAL) in Paris, La...
Dora María Téllez

From Disaster to Resilience

In October 2008, torrential rains from Hurricane Norbert overwhelmed the town of Álamos, Sonora. Though the winds were modest, flooding and landslides left the community isolated—and deeply scarred. Among those affected was Juan Carlos Álvarez Yépiz, then...
Juan Carlos photo