Ellen Green

= Stuff about me =

Bio-like thing
Fall 2009: I've been through five kinds of school--public, private, home, part-time public college, private in Mexico, and full-time private college, in that order. I am Swiss, French, Italian, English, Scottish, and Irish. (We call it a Western European mutt.) My SAT scores are too high, and I kind of miss taking tests. I used to be a Renaissance nerd, and I can still rattle off the To Be or Not To Be without thinking about it. I'm from Massachussetts. I lived in Guanajuato, Mexico in spring of 2009 after graduating from high school early, and lived with my aunt, uncle and cousins, went to normal high school, dated a musician/tae kwon do coach, and learned Spanish. Since then, I've been trying to figure out what the heck I was doing there, and so I've been doing Latin American studies. I also like science and have been dabbling in it--I think I've settled on programming. I've also discovered that activism is fun, and that I'm pretty good at public speaking.

Fall 2010: After spending the summer working on |River River Rock Farm, a small cattle farm in central MA, I decided to work agriculture into my proposed concentration in Latin American Studies. And there's some programming in there just because it's awesome. I'm living in Merrill C again (don't ask me why, I'll gripe), and going out with Mike Dale. If I'm not in Merrill, check the gamer hall. If I'm not there, check FPH. If I'm not there, check the circus mod. If I'm not there, give up because I clearly don't want to be found. I am currently TAing Imagining the Third World with Carollee Bengelsdorf and Kay Johnson, working in the Critical Social Inquiry office and on the farm, acting as signer and webmistress for Latin american/latin@ studies group, and contact juggling for Circus Folk Unite!. Yeah, I do too much. Don't remind me. Also, see my Fly Killing Achievements.

Fall 2011: GAMER HALL FOR THE WINNNNN!!! Also, I droped Latin American/Latin@ studies, and am currently the student coordinator for CSI. I am doing my div II in political ecology and agricultural studies. (Check it out.) I will be opening the abortion speakout and speaking at the plenary at this year's CLPP conference. Also, I'm working with Noah Enelow on his dissertation about fair trade cooperatives in Peru.

Div II Proposal (preliminary)
For my Division II, I will focus on how agriculture functions in Latin America, especially in Mexico and Cuba (because of their historically strong ties to the United States), and perhaps extending to include other countries in Central America. The title for my division II was perhaps the most difficult part to settle on, and I am still unsure if the title will be final. However, it stems from a course description I read while looking for courses that I could include. The course was called Political Ecology, was described as an opportunity to “explore the historical, political, economic, social, and cultural context in which human-environment interactions occur…we will examine the role of gender, race, class, and power in struggles over resources.” (Mt. Holyoke, ENVST-210, Catherine Corson) I find this definition to be an excellent articulation of what I plan to learn about in my division II. However, I would base my studies more firmly in the social sciences with background required in natural sciences, whereas this course is considered part of environmental studies.

I will endeavor to answer two main questions in the coursework for my division II. The first: how do people grow crops and raise animals? This part of my division II will fall mainly into the natural sciences—especially agricultural studies and ecology—and will not be the main focus of my division II, but is important as a technical base for further learning. The second question I will be working to answer in my division II is: how do people make decisions about growing crops? Using what I learn about the science of agriculture as a base, I will continue studying in the social sciences to learn more about agriculture’s place in society. Questions that follow from this are: Who makes decisions about agriculture? What frameworks do they use to make them, and what social, political, and economic factors effect their decisions? How are resources, labor, and capital allocated? This part of my division two will largely fall into Latin American studies and economics.

I intend to use the coursework I have completed in division I and will complete in division II to fulfill the requirements for the Five Colleges Latin America Studies Certificate. These will include a course in Latin American literature, art, or music to meet the humanities requirement—there are a few other outstanding requirements (an interdisciplinary seminar and at least two other courses in Latin American studies) that should be met within the coursework I have described above. I will also continue taking programming classes, especially in web design.

In my third year I plan to study abroad in either Mexico or Cuba and do research of some kind on the history and current situation of agriculture. Besides the academic work I will complete for my division II, I will continue to do community service as a signer for Latin American/Latin@ studies under Margaret Cerullo’s supervision; and I hope to keep working on local farms in the summer.

Some coursework I plan to do in division II and some professors I would like to talk to or work with follow.

At Hampshire: - Professors: Elizabeth Conlisk, Christina Cianfrani, Larry Winship, Ryan Shultz, Noah Enelow, Cecilia Zeledon, Omar Dahi - Introductory Economics - Economic Development or another applied economics course

At Mt. Holyoke: - Course: Political Ecology (envst-210), The Fiction of History (Roberto Marquez) - Professors: Lowell Gudmundson, Catherine Corson

At Smith: - Course: The World Food System (eco-213)

At UMass: - Course: Plants and Society (envirsci-197E) - Professors: John Gerber

Classes I've taken and projects I'm proud of
Fall 2009


 * Tutorial: Imagining Latin America (Carol Bengelsdorf) Short papers on John Mawe and de las Casas, and final paper about news media representations of Mexico during the swine flu scare
 * Physics I (Herb Bernstein)
 * Intermediate Spanish II
 * Food, Pain, Sex, and Death; Bodies and Souls Through History 1300-1800 (Jutta Sperling) Final paper on death and resurrection of shamed women in Shakespeare's comedies.

January 2010


 * Social Movements 100 Years After the Mexican Revolution (Margaret Cerullo, Elisa Benavides, Tom Hansen)

Spring 2010


 * Engineering for Everyone (Paul Voss @ Smith) Final solar-powered house project [[Image:Enghouse.JPG|200x275px|Enghouse.JPG]]
 * Border Matters: Mexico and the United States (Flavio Risech)
 * Coding Images (Paul Dickson) All my work is here--final project is HW18.
 * Task of the Translator (Norm Holland and Mary Russo) Final translation project on different genres of writing about the Mexican-American border--part of it is here

Fall 2010


 * Central America: Reform, Reaction, Revolution (Lowell Gudmundson @ MH)
 * Cuba: The Revolution and its Discontents (Margaret Cerullo and Carol Bengelsdorf)
 * Food and Water (Christina Cianfrani and Larry Winship)
 * Web Design for Poets, Artists, and Scientists (Paul Dickson)
 * Imagining the Third World (Kay Johnson and Carol Bengelsdorf, TA with Xiaolei Gu)

Check out my |stout page.

January 2011


 * Independent Study: Indigenous Activism in the Ecuadorian Amazon, and TAing Insurgent Mexico (Margaret Cerullo, Elisa Benavides, and Tom Hansen)

Spring 2011


 * Environmental History of Latin America (Rick López at Amherst College)
 * Elements of Sustainibility (Fred Wirth)
 * Introduction to Economics (Noah Enelow)

Student Groups

 * CLPP (Abortion Speakout Committee)
 * Circus Folk Unite!
 * La Super Spanish-Speaking Cena
 * El Colectivo Relampago
 * Latin american/latin@ studies group (ex-signer)

Factoids

 * Favorite color: turquoise
 * Music likes: Rodrigo y Gabriela, Coldplay, Cartel de Santa, Mana, RHCP, Alex Cuba, U2
 * Pronoun: she
 * Favorite animal: cat
 * Favorite foods: avocados, mangos, coconuts, seafood, pozole, veal stew
 * Siblings: 2, both younger
 * Favorite hangouts: the Bridge, the Center for Feminisms/CHC, the cultural center, Smith's campus center
 * Languages: Spanish (sort of fluent), Portuguese (understand), French (understand, speak a little), Italian (understand), Tzotzil (have a tiny vocabulary but would like to learn), Quenya and Sindarin (know what there is to know)
 * Programming languages: C, C++, Spin, Matlab, HTML, Unix (some), Javascript (learning)