ABOUT US/researcher bios
G. Maris Jones is a William Fontaine Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania pursuing a joint Ph.D. in Anthropology and Africana Studies. She graduated magna cum laude from Brown University with a B.A. in Anthropology and Portuguese & Brazilian Studies. As a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow, Maris investigated the relationship between Black identity, cultural production, and access to citizenship rights in Brazil. Her current research interests include environmental and climate justice, diaspora migrations, citizenship and U.S. government policy, traditional ecological knowledge, and narratives of Black resistance and resilience. Maris is the recipient of the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship and a participant in the Minority SURGE Capacity in Disasters program. At Penn, she intends to explore climate change vulnerability and adaptation in coastal communities and small island states across the African diaspora, specifically post-Katrina New Orleans and post-Maria Puerto Rico.
Daniel Morales-Armstrong is a William Fontaine Fellow of Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He earned his B.A. in Psychology at SUNY Albany, an Ed.M. in Prevention Science and Practice at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and an M.A. in African-American Studies at Columbia University. As a life-long student and adolescent educator, Daniel has designed and facilitated international research expeditions—focused on AfroLatino identities, traditions and communities in Cuba, Peru and Puerto Rico—for high school students of color. Central to this work is disrupting hegemonic narratives that dominate pathways for Afrodiasporic communities to learn about our own histories. His research interests include the contemporary Black DiaspoRican experience, roots/routes of homecoming for Black Puerto Ricans in the mainland United States, and Afrodiasporic community and educational sites of resistance.