Carmen Lopez Villamil

Carmen (she/her) is studying the history of Latin American and Caribbean social movements. Her family is smattered across the
Atlantic, in Puerto Rico and Gran Canarias. She grew up in Brooklyn, NY. She has worked in youth organizing and classroom
teaching with migrant youth in New York City.

She is interested in how youth social movements can transition into sustainable self-governing autonomies. She spent the summer of 2023 studying autonomies in Chiapas, Mexico. She worked with the Centro de Derechos Humanos FRAYBA as a civil observer in Acteal, a refugee camp under paramilitary threat. She researched how Zapatista education incorporates youth governance, indigenous sovereignty, and the legacies and threats of violence in San Cristóbal de Las Casas. In the spring of 2023, she studied Latin American histories at the University of Barcelona. She researched interregional migration policy with Dr. Andrea Bianculli at the Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals. She will continue studying Atlanticidad, the processes that create sovereignty and autonomies, and youth governance. She works at the Yale Sustainable Food Program and Dwight Hall, Yale’s Center for Public Service and Social Justice. She walks around for fun.

Areas of research and geographical interest:

Youth Autonomies; Zapatista Governance and Education; Caribbean Migration. Chiapas; Puerto Rico; New York City.