- Spanish/Women's Studies
Get Started!
• What is research?
• Why do research?
• How do I get involved?
• Nuts and Bolts
Participate!
• Discover research opportunities
• Present at forums
• Present in journals
• Explore resources
• Find funding
Undergraduate
Research Office
• About the office
• Research kudos
• Donate to the Office
• Summer Institute
• Contact us
Fourth-year student Katie Clonan-Roy combines her two majors – Spanish and women’s studies – in her research on indigenous women in the Zapatista National Liberation Army.
How did you become involved in research?
When I came to college I started out as a biology and Spanish major in the prehealth sciences program. I hated it. I did well in my science classes but never felt passionate about or extremely interested in a topic we were discussing. So I stuck with Spanish, but changed my second major to psychology because I took introductory psychology and really felt that it integrated my interests in the sciences and the humanities. My focus became psychobiology and behavioral neuroscience. In the spring of 2007 I took a class on the psychobiology of aggression. When we studied gender and aggression, I came across an article which discussed aggression of indigenous women in southern Mexico. At the same time I was completing a term paper in a Latin American cultures class on indigenous women in the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), located in the same region of southern Mexico. I was so excited to have found a topic which integrated both of my interests. My Spanish professor at the time, Dr. Ana Del Sarto (who became my thesis advisor), really helped me to develop and broaden my ideas and inspired me to begin research on the indigenous women of the EZLN for a senior thesis. All along I have been interested in women’s studies and took a class with Dr. Bystydzienski on feminist movements and globalization. The effects of NAFTA and globalization directly affect the women of the EZLN and in this class I began to study how indigenous women in the EZLN and in other indigenous networks have really begun to form connections to the feminist movement on national and transnational scales. Now Dr. Bystydzienski has become my secondary thesis advisor. Dr. Del Sarto and Dr. Bystydzienski have inspired me, have influenced my topic of study, and have really enhanced my undergraduate experience
How do you actually conduct your research?
I am conducting my senior honors thesis on the socio-political activism of indigenous women in Chiapas, Mexico. Half of the indigenous women I am studying are part of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) and the other half are members of women’s social activist organization in urban centers in Chiapas. The EZLN emerged in 1994 due to long term social, political, and economic exploitation of the indigenous people of Chiapas, which was exacerbated by neoliberal policy and the implementation of NAFTA. The women have organized within the EZLN to vie for women’s economic, political, and social rights and have developed bilingual schools for indigenous children, have become involved in women’s weaving cooperatives, and have developed curriculums which teach indigenous women about their reproductive rights. The indigenous women who are not part of the EZLN have formed artisan cooperatives, organizations that work to provide women’s health services and literacy classes, and social activist networks which encourage women’s participation in politics and the arts. These women have also networked with national feminist organizations and have recently made connections with transnational feminist networks in order to achieve their democratic goals.
I mostly utilize American and Mexican literature and documentaries as the main component of my research. I also keep up with the EZLN’s and indigenous women’s activist organization’s websites to make sure I am aware of what is going on currently in their communities. Furthermore, I have made a lot of contacts with academics and activists in the U.S. and in Mexico who study or work with the EZLN, indigenous women, and transnational feminism and have conducted multiple interviews via email. However, last summer I also conducted fieldwork in Chiapas, Mexico. For the first week I observed gender relations and interviewed Zapatista leaders about women’s roles and progress in Zapatista communities. For the second week of my fieldwork I interviewed visiting scholars, Mexican academics, and leaders of women’s social activist organizations. I returned to Ohio State with new insight into and a deeper analysis of my research and now my thesis will include an original perspective on indigenous women’s issues in Chiapas, Mexico.
What have been the benefits of participating in research?
One of the greatest benefits of being involved with research was going to Chiapas to conduct original research and to hear these indigenous women’s stories first-hand. Furthermore, being involved with research has brought me closer to my advisor who offers countless pieces of academic advice and has helped me find internships that fit my interests. I also have been able to network with other faculty members who are experts in some area of my thesis. I have become involved with Ohio State’s Undergraduate Research Office peer research contact and have networked with many other students who are conducting research in Hispanic cultural or women’s studies and together we are discovering improved methodologies and pathways for research. These connections have defined my career path, which I know now is in academia.
How are you using this experience for your next research project?
Through studying women’s activism in the EZLN, I will gain insight to international women’s issues, methods of formulating human rights policy, and possible post-graduate options which integrate these interdisciplinary themes. More immediately however, I will learn about the methodology and processes in academic research which I will employ in my post-graduate career, and will be able to hone scholarly presentation skills at forums such as the Denman and other venues that are open to undergraduate research. After I graduate I plan to enroll in a doctoral program with an interdisciplinary focus on Hispanic cultural and woman’s issues. Even more importantly, it is my hope that my research will contribute to these women’s objectives. The activism of Zapatista women is very relevant to the recently developing transnational feminist agenda; they are a component of a global struggle to draw the attention of the UN and major world powers to international women’s plight and activism and to achieve the resolution of such gendered oppression. By increasing awareness of the issue at OSU or in the academic community, and by working with a non-government organization next summer and continually in the future, I hope to play a role in resolving the hardships which hinder the activism and affect the lives of women in Chiapas.
Return to top
Copyright, 2006. The Ohio State University.
This page is maintained by: The Undergraduate Research Office.
If you have trouble accessing this page and need to request an alternate format, contact The Undergraduate Research Office at 614-292-8307.