Congratulations Eastern Washington University student Gloria D. Bravo! Gloria has been selected as an EWU McNair Scholar and awarded a summer research internship. McNair Scholars must have a GPA of 3.0 or higher and are first generation college students and low-income and/or underrepresented students. They are selected for their promise as scholars and commitment towards attaining a PhD.
Originally from Brewster, WA, Gloria obtained her Associates of Arts and Sciences from Wenatchee Valley Community College before transferring to EWU. She is majoring in International Affairs with a socio-economic concentration, while also minoring in Chicano Studies and Spanish. Gloria’s research is centered on the United States' hegemonic role within the Western Hemisphere, particularly how US foreign policy impacts Latin American and Caribbean nations as well as the region. Primarily utilizing a constructivist approach, she analyzes US diplomatic, economic and military tactics used to advance the region’s peace and security, or lack thereof. By her junior year, Gloria completed two research projects: Understanding the Venezuelan Crisis within the Broader Context of US Intervention in Latin America and Reframing the Immigration Debate in the Era of Trump: Migrant Caravans from Central American Nations. As of Spring 2020, she is working on an ongoing third project: United States Economic Sanctions Reproduce State Sponsored Repression, Human Rights Violations and Violence: A Case Study of Venezuela.
Other research interests include: Pan-American migration crises, the deterioration of US asylum\refugee laws, the implications experienced in Latin\ Caribbean nations due to US neoliberal trade and economic policies, the US regime of sanctions directed toward non-compliant nation-states and other forms of coercive statecraft, the capturing of human rights movements by the neoliberal humanitarian industry, the threat of US militarism and its historical interventionist tendencies towards its southern neighbors, traditionally regarded as the US’s “backyard,” the increasingly military-grade securitization of the Southern US border and other forms of state inflicted violence on vulnerable populations, as well as transnational environmental policies that promote national self-determination centered on sustainable research and development. As an EWU McNair Scholar, in the summer of 2020 Gloria will work under the mentorship of Dr. Majid Sharifi to continue her research.
Gloria has received the honor of presenting her work at the Pacific Northwest Political Science Association Conference (November 2019), The Student Research and Creative Works Symposium at Eastern Washington University (May 2019), and the Venezuelan Crisis Panel: Coup d'état or Libertad, as a Student Panelist at EWU (May 2019). Her work has earned her a Certificate of Excellence in Research, Leadership & Creativity from the Political Science Department and International Affairs Program at EWU. She also was the Director of Elections for EWU’s student government in 2019-20.
We're so excited to have Gloria join us as a McNair Scholar!