Amanda Rivera

Amanda Rivera is a graduate student in the Department of American Studies. Having received her B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Rutgers University in 2018, as well as having been a 2020-2021 graduate fellow at the Yale Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity and Transnational Migration, she seeks to combine ethnographic methods with historical analysis to examine the intersections of ethnic studies, racial formations, and Puerto Rican diaspora in the state of Connecticut. By examining projects of education reform in which Puerto Ricans participated, from the 1970s through today, she’s specifically interested in analyzing the notion of inclusion in academic institutions, and how educational belonging (or lack thereof) informs notions of political and racialized belonging for Puerto Ricans in Connecticut high schools and universities.