Achievement

Environmental historian trainee Mary E. Mendoza expanded her interdisciplinary toolbox by learning GIS in an internship at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. She contributed to the museum's collaboration with the National Park Service to research fruit tree varieties grown in the region during the 19th century, and assisted with outreach programs for K-12 educators.

Mendoza spent the 2012-2013 academic year as a Smithsonian Institution Latino Studies Predoctoral Fellow at the National Museum of American History, with additional support from the Huntington Library and Clements Center for Southwest Studies. Her dissertation research on the environmental history of the US-Mexico border fence has led to insights on the role of cattle pests and diseases in shaping attitudes about Mexican immigration. Fences were initially set up to prevent diseased cattle from crossing into the US; ideas of 'dirtiness' were then transferred to human immigrants. Mendoza is a 2013-14 Ford Foundation Fellow.