CHA Graduate Fellows 2023-2024

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Sharmin Afroz

Incoming JEDI Fellow
Religious Studies
Sharmin Afroz is a graduate student in Religious Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. Since childhood, she has been fascinated by the various religions, including their traditions, customs, festivals, and beliefs, which inspired her to study in the Department of World Religions and Culture at the University of Dhaka. She grew up in a small city in Bangladesh with a strong desire to improve the lives of underprivileged women...
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Scarlett Engle

Dissertation Fellow
Anthropology
Scarlett’s dissertation, “The Power of Placemaking: Collaborating with Tribal Communities to Reimagine the Museum at Mesa Verde National Park,” centers on the collaborative museum redesign process between Mesa Verde National Park, the 26 Pueblos and Tribes associated with the Park, and the University of Colorado Boulder. Her work looks at how a new dialogical approach serves decolonial goals to center Indigenous ways of knowing and return land to Native peoples...
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Denise Fernandes

Dissertation Fellow
Environmental Studies
Denise is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Environmental Studies (ENVS) at the University of Colorado-Boulder. Her research focuses on energy landscapes and transitions, climate and environmental justice, the reproduction of inequalities and power hierarchies, and its impact on vulnerable and historically marginalized communities in the Global South. For her dissertation, she is studying the financialization of utility-scale solar power plants in Morocco and India, and the ways imperialism...
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Ashlyn King Barnett

JEDI Completion Fellow
Theatre & Dance
Ashlyn is a PhD Candidate in Theatre and Performance Studies, with a focus on Native and Indigenous theatre and performance. Ashlyn received her M.A. from CU Boulder, completing a thesis titled “Long-Distance Walking: An Indigenous Methodology for Resistance and Resurgence.” Her dissertation, “Re-weaving the Narrative: Indigenous Adaptations of the Western Canon,” explores how Native playwrights appropriate Western canonical works of drama to grapple with the lasting effects of settler colonialism...

Past CHA Graduate Student Fellows