UC Merced signed an Agreement of Academic Cooperation with the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH) in January. As a first step in this cooperation, UC Merced sent a delegation of 4 graduate students (Maria Mora, Rodolfo Rodriguez, Danielle Bermudez, and Alejandro Zermeño) to the III National Sociology Conference in Honduras (August 2-August 6). The US embassy in Honduras awarded the students a grant for airfare. Other costs were covered from the UCM Graduate Division, the Sociology Graduate Program, the Interdisciplinary Humanities Graduate Program, and the UNAH.
In Honduras, the UCM students participated in an academic exchange with Honduran graduate students in the new UNAH MA program in sociology (see photo at top of page). The UCM students also had a featured session during the Sociology Conference entitled, "Immigration, Social Movements, and Culture." Each UCM graduate student presented research on the panel from their own MA projects (see photo above). The Honduran exchange was a success. UC Merced students were warmly welcomed and their research presentations brought new awareness of sociology in the United States while Honduran faculty and students shared experiences of academic life in Central America and some of the most pressing research questions and social problems in the region.
