Evany López Receives UISFL Award for Undergraduate Research

APRIL 2025 | Art History student, Evany López was awarded an Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language Research (UISFL) Award to support summer travel to Mexico. This funding opportunity, intended to support undergraduate travel to the field, has been made possible by a Title VI grant from the US/Department of Education administered through the Latin American and Iberian Institute (LAII).

She was also awarded an Excellence in Undergraduate Research Award for her research project on contemporary women artists in Mexico. The work addresses issues such as femicide. López applied and was accepted to the Mellon Mays undergraduate program last spring. As part of the program’s requirements, she has been developing her research over the past year and presenting it at conferences, including the University of Chicago Summer Research Program Symposium.

The Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (MMUF) program is the centerpiece of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s initiatives to increase diversity in the faculty ranks of institutions of higher learning. The fundamental objective of MMUF is to address, over time, the problem of underrepresentation in the academy at the level of college and university faculties. This goal can be achieved by increasing the number of students from underrepresented minority groups who pursue Ph.D.s and by supporting the pursuit of Ph.D.s by students who may not come from traditional minority groups but have otherwise demonstrated a commitment to the goals of MMUF.

López will now be able to go to Mexico City and Culiacán to interview artists, visit feminist art spaces, and consult archives. Her goal is to pursue graduate study in Art History. UNM’s Art History graduate program allows students to deepen their knowledge of art history through a chronological range of courses, and the introduction of essential art historical methodology and theories. The degree also requires the successful presentation of a research paper, proficiency in one language other than English, and a thesis paper written under the supervision of one of our faculty members. After that, López will continue her research on contemporary women artists in Latin America whose work addresses issues affecting women in places like Mexico.