The Department of History congratulates four of our outstanding majors and members of the Class of 2027: Isabella Brammer, Anthony J. Martinez, Jorge Palomo, and Martín D. Salazar Sánchez! These students participated in the summer 2026 cohort of OURMA’s Mellon Research Scholars program, which allowed them to pursue original research in the humanities with their History faculty mentors. Isabella Brammer, working with Dr. N. L. A. Gharala, studied the use of Mesoamerican medicine in seventeenth-century Mexico. Anthony J. Martinez focused on belief systems in the medieval city-states of the Swahili Coast, studying with Dr. Kairn Klieman. Jorge Palomo pursued his interest in the Spirit of Houston marching band, focusing on its impact on university school spirit as it approaches its 100th anniversary. Dr. Debbie Harwell supervised this project and has mentored Jorge’s other research projects, which have gained national recognition. Martín D. Salazar Sánchez, also supervised by Dr. Gharala, used his knowledge of Portuguese to read Inquisition cases about African, Indigenous, and European belief systems in eighteenth-century Brazil.
For Anthony J. Martinez, majoring in History is a step toward learning interdisciplinary research methods that include archaeology. “I realized in my second semester that I actually loved doing genuine historical research, constructing narratives out of it, and putting my arguments to paper.”
Jorge Palomo, who is interested in law and public policy, describes history as “a subject that will never end and will never stop producing interesting stories for us to study.”
Congratulations to the students and faculty mentors on these research projects!