Welcome, new members!
- Natalie Baur
Natalie Baur joined the University of Miami Libraries as the Archivist for the Cuban Heritage Collection in 2012. In her role as archivist, Natalie processes the manuscript collections held at the Cuban Heritage Collection. She also maintains physical and intellectual control over the collections, providing access to students, researchers and visitors. Natalie has an undergraduate degree in History from Wilkes University, a graduate degree in History and Museum Studies from the University of Delaware, and a Master of Library Science with a concentration in Archives, Records, and Information Management from the University of Maryland. Her interests include description and preservation of cultural heritage materials; cataloging of archival and rare materials; and issues in digital preservation and the Digital Humanities. Before becoming a librarian, Natalie previously taught English as a Foreign Language to university students in Quito, Ecuador and enjoys traveling there frequently to visit her Ecuadorian friends and family.
Giso Broman is a second year Master’s student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS). Before starting his program at SLIS in the fall of 2011, Giso received his B.A. from the UW with a double major in Portuguese and Geography. Although his library school research interests and future career aspirations are mainly focused on metadata, cataloging, and other aspects of library technical services, he incorporates a Brazilianist perspective whenever possible, and has not ruled out a career as a subject specialist librarian. Currently, Giso is working with Paloma Celis Carbajal to catalog, digitize, and publicize the UW’s growing collection of approximately 700 cartonera books by dozens of publishers from all around Latin America.
- Antonio Sotomayor
Antonio Sotomayor received his Ph.D. in History of Latin America and the Caribbean at the University of Chicago in June 2012 with a dissertation entitled “Playing the Nation in a Colonial Island: Sport, Culture, and Politics in Puerto Rico.” He has a book chapter on Olympic sport and Cold War politics in the Spanish Caribbean currently under submission; an article manuscript on sport and Pro-American populism in Puerto Rico also under submission; and is working on a book manuscript on Puerto Rican Olympism and national identity. He has taught Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the University of Chicago, and at Knox College. As of December 2012, he will be the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Librarian and Assistant Professor of Library Administration at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
- Michelle Elneil
Michelle Elneil was born in Medellín, Colombia and raised in the U.S. She earned her B.A. in Economics at Rutgers University and her M.A. in Education at the University of Florida. Michelle has ten years of experience in New York City working on significant assignments at Wall Street investments houses. She also served for seven years as chair of diversity committees at both Credit Suisse First Boston and Merrill Lynch, where she co-developed Human Resources recruitment and retention programs for Latinos, and worked to increase cultural awareness within these corporations through heritage event planning. Her research on graphic novels of Latin America has yielded an outreach program, as well as papers and annotated bibliographies containing both published and unpublished works centering on revolution and politics. She is also working to develop an online repository about The Disappeared, including declassified documents from sources such as the National Security Archives. Michelle is currently enrolled in the M.L.S. and Archives Management program at Simmons College, and she works at the University of Florida Libraries as manager of its Gifts & Exchange Program. She is also joining the SALALM Finance Committee.
Christine L. Hernandez received her A.B. in Spanish and Anthropology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she was Phi Beta Kappa. She earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in Anthropology from Tulane in 2000. As an independent scholar and Mesoamerican archaeologist, Christine has published widely on the prehistory of the El Bajío, Lerma River Valley, and northeastern Michoacán. She has also studied the pre-Columbian painted manuscripts (“codices”) from the Maya area and highland Mexico which involves calendrical study, cultural astronomy, iconographic study, and epigraphy in both centers of Mesoamerican civilization. She recently completed a book manuscript co-authored with Dr. Gabrielle Vail on creation mythology in the Maya codices due to come out in the Spring of 2013, and is co-developer of an online database for the four extant Maya codices.
- Emma Marschall
Emma Marschall comes to the Latin American Library at Tulane University from Gettysburg College where she was a cataloger in the Musselman Library. Prior to that position, she was an Academic Library Fellow at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and the Digital Archives Intern at the Missouri History Museum Library and Archives. From 2006 through 2008, she was Lecturer in Spanish at Washington University in St. Louis. Emma earned her M.L.S. at the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2010. She has an M.A. in Spanish from Middlebury College (2006) and a B.A. in Latin American and Iberian Studies from Bard College (2001). In addition, Emma has earned the Certificate in French Language from the Sorbonne (2005). As Research and Instruction Librarian at The Latin American Library, Emma provides reference and instruction and contributes to collection development.
