Featured Graduate Student Research

Nate Blum

Nate Blum, Geography and Atmospheric Science graduate student and GTA, received a Tinker Field Research Grant to fund his project, “Food Sharing in Kaqchikel Communities.” Many of the Kaqchikel Maya continue to rely on subsistence agriculture to feed their families. Nate traveled to Guatemala to answer the question: What obstacles are faced in creating healthy nutritious meals for themselves and loved ones? Nate was able to study the intersections of care relationships and their contribution to placemaking. 

Emily Tummons

Emily Tummons is a Ph.D. student in Curriculum & Instruction. After receiving a Tinker Field Research Grant, she traveled to the Kaqchikel Maya highlands in Guatemala for two weeks to conduct a non-dissertation pilot study, “Understanding Bilingual Kaqchikel Maya Teachers.” Emily has studied the Kaqchikel language for 22 years!

Cap McLiney

Cap McLiney's Tinker Field Research Grant project is titled, “The Mennonites of Masisea, Peru: A Tinker field project on land-use in the Peruvian Amazon". In Masisea, Cap did participatory field work with a remote group of “horse-and-buggy” Mennonites who began farming in the Amazon rainforest in 2017. Cap is pursuing an MA in Geography at KU. 

Kiera Eckhardt

Kiera is a Ph.D. student and Graduate Research Assistant in the Anthropology department. With the assistance of a Tinker Field Research Grant, Kiera returned to Ecuador after her Peace Corps service to interview refugee service providers about their perspectives on universal citizenship and migration in the country. Her project is titled, “Refugee Rights & Perspectives of Refugee Service Providers in Ecuador.”