Education:
PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago;
MA, Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago;
IntM, South European Studies, Department of Social Sciences, University of Glasgow
BA, Anthropology and Modern Greek Studies, Departments of Anthropology and Classics, Columbia University in the City of New York.
Dissertation title:
Wind Resistance: Contesting Post-Carbon Futures in Post-Crisis Greece
Publications:
Mendez, Alyssa. 2025. “Saving Agrafa: A Rooted Defense of Wildness in the Age of Climate Change”. Degrowth 3.
Conferences:
-Mendez, Alyssa, “‘No to the New Uprooting’: Vernacular Environmental History and ‘Green’ Industrial Development in Agrafa, Greece,” American Simone Weil Society, Online, 2026.
-Mendez, Alyssa, “‘Όχι στον νέο ξεριζωμό’:φωτοβολταϊκά και λαϊκή ιστοριογραφία στη Λίμνη Κρεμαστών” [‘No to the new uprooting’: Solar Panels and Vernacular Historiography at Lake Kremasta], Panhellenic Post-Graduate Intensive Seminar-Conference, University of Crete, Rethymno, Greece, 2025.
-Mendez, Alyssa, “Confronting Green Growth in an Urbanizing ‘Rural’ Landscape: the case of Agrafa, Greece,” ISEE & International Degrowth Conference, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway, 2025.
-Mendez, Alyssa, “‘No to the New Uprooting’: Simone Weil and Eco-Historical Poetics of Place in Agrafa, Greece,” Hellenic Observatory PhD Symposium, London School of Economics, London, England, 2025.
-Mendez, Alyssa, “Saving Agrafa: An Ecological Defense of Life and Freedom in an Age of Climate Change,” Association of Social Anthropologists of Greece, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece, 2024.
-Mendez, Alyssa, “Saving Agrafa: An Ecological Defense of Life and Freedom in an Age of Climate Change,” The Mediterranean Seminar Spring Workshop, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri, 2024.
Grants/ Fellowships/ Awards:
-Roy D. Albert Prize for the best MA thesis in Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago, 2026.
-Human Rights Doctoral Research Grant, Pozen Center for Human Rights, University of Chicago, 2026.
-Dr. Andrea Louise Jenkins Dissertation Fellowship, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago, 2026.
-Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellows Travel and Research Grant, Institute for Citizens & Scholars, 2025.
-Rodgers Field Grant, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago, 2025.
-Redekop Family Environmental Research Grant, Committee on Environment, Geography and Urbanization, University of Chicago, 2025.
-Agnes and Nathan Janco Travel Award, Division of the Social Sciences, University of Chicago, 2025.
-Shapiro Initiative of Environment and Society Travel Grant, Department of History, University of Chicago, 2024.
-Graduate Studies Enhancement Grant, SSRC-Mellon Mays Graduate Initiatives Program, 2024.
-Redekop Family Environmental Research Grant, Committee on Environment, Geography and Urbanization, University of Chicago, 2023.
-Lloyd and Susanne Rudolph Field Research Award, Center for International Social Science Research, University of Chicago, 2023.
-First Year Scholars Summer Research Grant, Division of the Social Sciences, University of Chicago, 2022.
-Erasmus Mundus Scholarship, European Commission, EACEA, 2019.
-Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, 2016.
Teaching Experience:
-Teaching Assistant to Ryan Jobson, “Marxism, Anarchism, and the Black Radical Tradition,” Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago, Winter Quarter 2025.
-Teaching Assistant to François Richard, “Colonizations III: Decolonization: Perspectives, Challenges, Possibilities,” Undergraduate Core Curriculum, University of Chicago, Winter Quarter 2024.
