Sofía Vega-Zanca | Quechua FLTA Fulbright Scholar 2022-2023| Originally from a small village located in Ayacucho, Peru. She got her bachelor’s degree in Psychology (focusing on Educational Psychology) at Peru’s Universidad Cayetano Heredia, in Lima. Vega-Zanca studied Methodology of English as a Foreign Language Teacher at ICPNA (Peruvian North American Cultural Institute).
While in college, Vega-Zanca has been a member her school’s Andean music group and to Voces del Sol Peruvian choir by Claudia Rheineck, where she was granted a scholarship in choral singing and corporal expression for two years. During that time, she studied an Andean repertoire from a deep look at Peruvian culture, performing at the Peru’s National Theatre, among other venues. She has also obtained a Fulbright FLTA scholarship at the University of Pennsylvania.
Vega-Zanca has worked as an English assistant teacher to Quechua-speaking students in her home district, and as an interpreter tour-guide on Inca and pre-Columbian culture. Additionally, she has volunteered as an English-Quechua-Spanish interpreter in social projects with foreign volunteers in multiple NGOs.
William Andahua-Arellan | Quechua FLTA Fulbright Scholar 2021-2022| Originally from a village located in the district of Yanama, in Ancash, Peru. He got his bachelor’s degree in Education, at Peru’s Universidad Nacional Santiago Antúnez de Mayolo (UNASAM), graduating at the top his class and specializing in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TESOL).
Andahua-Arellán has been recognized by the British Council of Peru as one of the Champion Teachers in merit of the Action Research he developed in his classroom. Peru’s Congress recognized him for initiatives to celebrate cultural heritage among students. Likewise, Mr. Andahua-Arellán obtained a scholarship from Peru’s national scholarships office PRONABEC to study Approaches in Teaching Foreign Languages at the Arizona State University. He also obtained a Fulbright FLTA scholarship at the University of Pennsylvania.
Andahua-Arellán has worked as a teacher at Ancash’s Colegio de Alto Rendimiento (COAR), a public boarding school for high-perfomance students that offers the International Baccalaureate program. Additionally, he has volunteered by teaching English to children from rural villages in the Andes, and by serving as a Quechua translator and interpreter to Foreign Volunteers in Ancash, Peru.
Nico Suárez-Guerrero | Quechua FLTA Fulbright Scholar 2019-2020 | Originally from the community of Mollebamba in Apurímac, Perú. He got his bachelor’s degree in Tourism at Cusco’s Universidad Andina and holds certificates in Ecological and Cultural Tourism, Management of Community Relations and Design of Social Projects. Previously, he was selected for a Diversity Internship Program for Afro-Descendants and Indigenous Peoples by the Inter-American Development Bank at Georgetown University. Suarez-Guerrero obtained a Fulbright FLTA scholarship at the University of Pennsylvania. He also has worked as a cultural consultant at the Apurímac/Cusco offices of Peru’s Ministry of Culture, and other local institutions in his home region where he has developed opportunities for rural and agrarian tourism.
Erica Villanueva-Bautista |
Quechua FLTA Fulbright Scholar, Fall 2020 | Originally from Huanta in Ayacucho, Perú. A native Quechua speaker, Erica Villanueva-Bautista got her bachelor’s degree in Biology and did graduate studies in Environmental Project Management at Ayacucho’s San Cristóbal of Huamanga University (UNSCH), graduating as the top student of her Biology class. At UNSCH, she also worked as an Adjunct Faculty and Research Assistant. Villanueva-Bautista got a scholarship from Peru’s scholarship programs office PRONABEC to study English at ICPNA (North American-Peruvian Cultural Institute). She has taught English and Biology to high-school students, and has taught Quechua at the UNSCH Language Institute. Additionally, Villanueva-Bautista worked as a Biodiversity Project Assistant at Ayacucho’s Regional Government. Recently, she was part of the COVID-19 front-line support team of the Ayacucho Regional Health Office.
Américo Mendoza–Mori | Founding Program Coordinator | Complete bio
Quechua Visiting Scholars/Speakers
We promote academic/cultural exchange of inspiring people who work about the recognition of Quechua, Indigenous Peoples, and Culture in the Andes:
Pablo Landeo Muñoz (2019), Kuyayky (2019/2017), Agustín Panizo (2018), Liberato Kani (2018), Yuly Tacas (2018), Mirian Masaquiza (2018), Silvia Rivera-Cusicanqui (2018), Cecilia Méndez (2017), Rocío Quispe-Agnoli (2017), Inkarayku (2017), Elva Ambía (2016), Rodolfo Cerrón-Palomino (2015)
The Quechua program at Penn works along with these undergrad and graduate student organizations to plan different activities: conference, cultural nights and gatherings. Quechua Penn is a Graduate Student organization that aims to promote an interdisciplinary network of scholars working in the growing field of Andean Studies.
Marlen Rosas is a PhD student in History at the University of Pennsylvania. She studies twentieth-century indigenous peoples’ resistance movements in Latin America, with particular interest in the role of education in mobilizing indigenous communities for land and labor rights in Ecuador. Her broader interests in Latin American history include the intersections of race, class, and nationalism as they have constructed and been constructed by the conditions of traditionally marginalized peoples.
| mrosas@sas.upenn.edu
Diego Arispe–Bazán (Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania). His research involves North-South migration and internal migration in South America, historical consciousness, and linguistic anthropology/semiotics, as well as political utopia & fantasy, circulating affect, and new media & discourse networks.
Frances Kvietok-Dueñas (Ph.D. in Educational Linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania). Her research interests include Indigenous bilingualism, bilingual education and language policies in Perú. In collaboration with the Penn Cultural Heritage Center, she also participates in an ongoing community-based Maya language revitalization initiative in Quintana Roo, Mexico, as a teacher educator.
The Andean Representation is an undergraduate student group. For more info, visit their site: http://andeanrep.wordpress.com/
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