“Becoming Human: Neanderthal-Modern Human Interactions and Interconnectedness”
Daniel Adler is and Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology with over 30 years experience investigating ancient human behaviors, cultures, and lifeways in Western Europe, the Middle East, and the south Caucasus. Since 1995 he has directed over 10 interdisciplinary archaeological projects in the republics of Georgia and Armenia spanning the last 2,000,000 to 20,000 years, with a primary focus on understanding Neanderthal-Modern Human interactions and what it means to be human. This work seeks to bridge the perceived behavioral and cognitive gaps between Neanderthals and ourselves, challenge traditional beliefs in our own uniqueness and question the validity of our sapiens-centric worldview, develop a deeper appreciation of Neanderthal resiliency and agency, and contribute to the ongoing restoration of Neanderthal humanity. These efforts, conducted in collaboration with scholars from over 25 countries, have resulted in numerous book chapters, edited volumes, grants, professional and public lectures, and peer-reviewed articles in journals such as Science, Journal of Human Evolution, Current Anthropology, and Nature. Through UConn’s Experiential Global Learning Dr Adler has directed seven sessions of UConn’s Archaeological Field School in Armenian Prehistory with support from UConn’s Norian Armenian Programs Committee. Dr Adler earned his BA at the University of Connecticut and his MA and PhD at Harvard University.

“Bright Futures: How Antonia Pantoja’s Vision of Community Organizing Sparked Movements for Latina and Puerto Rican Rights”
Emma Amador is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Connecticut. Her work focuses on Puerto Ricans, Latinas in the United States, and histories of women and gender. Dr. Amador’s first book, The Politics of Care Work: Puerto Rican Women Organizing for Social Justice (Duke University Press, 2025), received an Honorable Mention for the Sharon Harris Book Award from UCHI. As a Justice, Equity, and Repair fellow at UCHI, Dr. Amador will work on her second book, “Bright Futures: How Antonia Pantoja’s Vision of Community Organizing Sparked Movements for Latina and Puerto Rican Rights,” a biography of trailblazing Afro-Puerto Rican civil rights activist Dr. Antonia Pantoja who became the first Puerto Rican woman to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996. She is also currently working on a long-term book project, Community Work: Puerto Rican Women and Feminist Politics, that examines the history of Puerto Rican feminist activists in the United States. Dr. Amador was previously a Research Fellow at the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at CUNY, Hunter College (2024-2025), a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow at Brown University, a SITPA Mellon Fellow at Duke University, and a Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellow. She is currently co-editing a special issue of CENTRO Journal: Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies on “New Histories of Health, Care Work, and Healthcare Activism.” Her work has been published or is forthcoming in LABOR: Studies in Working-Class History, ILWCH: International Labor and Working-Class History, Journal of American Ethnic History, and Modern American History.

“History for the Future: Twenty-First Century African Historical Fiction”
Eleni Coundouriotis is Professor of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Connecticut. Her research focuses on the narration and documentation of war, humanitarianism, statelessness, and the history of anticolonial struggle. She is the author of Claiming History: Colonialism, Ethnography and the Novel (1999), The People’s Right to the Novel: War Fiction in the Postcolony (2014) and Narrating Human Rights in Africa (2021).

“Territory as Freedom: Building a Black and Indigenous Future in Nicaragua”
Joshua Mayer is an assistant professor of Anthropology and Native American and Indigenous Studies (Department of Social and Critical Inquiry) at the University of Connecticut, where he is also affiliated with the Africana Studies Institute. He is a political anthropologist examining the relationships between settler capitalism, imperialism, territorial governance, and Black and Indigenous freedom. Since 2014, Mayer has conducted community-collaborative, ethnographic research with the Indigenous Rama and Black Kriol peoples of southeastern Nicaragua, including with research funding from the National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, and the Fulbright Program. He also serves as a fellow at the Oakland Institute, a board member of the Association for the Anthropology of Policy, and an expert witness in U.S. and U.K. immigration courts. As a UCHI faculty fellow, he will be working on his book manuscript, “Territory as Freedom: Building a Black and Indigenous Future in Nicaragua,” which examines joint Rama and Kriol territory-building efforts amid settler colonial extraction, dispossession, and authoritarianism.

“Participation and the Politics of Knowledge: A Collection of Multimodal Participatory Action Research Projects in Colombia and the United States”
Camilo Ruiz is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Connecticut whose research bridges medical anthropology, public health, and participatory action research to address health inequities, migration, labor, armed conflict, and environmental justice across the United States and Colombia. His scholarship combines long-term ethnographic research with visual, artistic, and participatory methodologies, advancing community-engaged approaches that generate both academic knowledge and tangible public impact. He has published in leading interdisciplinary journals, including Medical Anthropology, Journal of Migration and Health, Etnográfica, and Maguaré. His current research includes projects examining heroin use and methadone treatment in Colombia, collective healing through community arts, immigrant labor and wage theft in the United States, and participatory environmental research with Indigenous communities in the Colombian Amazon. As founder and director of the People’s Ethnography Lab at UConn, Ruiz collaborates with grassroots organizations to co-produce research, public exhibitions, documentaries, and multimedia projects that connect scholarship with community action. His work has been supported by competitive grants from the University of Connecticut, the Inter-American Foundation, Fulbright, and the University of Pittsburgh, and has received international recognition, including the 2024 Ammodo Architecture Award for Social Engagement for The Forest of Memory, a community-designed memorial park created with survivors of the Colombian armed conflict.

“The Savage Screen: Indigeneity in the Modern American Horror Film”
Dr. Kali Simmons is an assistant professor of English and Social and Critical Inquiry at the University of Connecticut where she serves on the executive committee for Native American and Indigenous Studies. Prior to joining UConn, Dr. Simmons was an assistant professor of Indigenous Nations Studies at Portland State University. As a 2026–2027 fellow at UCHI she will complete a manuscript for her forthcoming book project “The Savage Screen: Indigeneity in the Modern American Horror Film.” The Savage Screen documents, analyzes, and historicizes how Indigenous Peoples have been represented in contemporary American cinema. By re-contextualizing horror cinema as existing within a still unfolding settler-colonial project, the book exposes how popular culture participates in the (re)production of anti-Indigenous worldviews and power structures while also, to varying degrees of depth and effectiveness, critiquing settler colonialism, racism, class politics, and patriarchy in the United States. Dr. Simmons has published work in American Indian Quarterly, the Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, and on Vulture.com.