Armanthia Duncan
860.952.2137 (preferred)
860.297.5116 (in-office phone)
aduncan@hartfordyouthscholars.org
Chief Program Officer Armanthia Duncan has been a part of the HYS family for more than ten years. Since 2019 she has served as Academy Dean. Ms. Duncan is a proud native of Mississippi. She began her collegiate trajectory at Jackson State University, the historically black university in the state’s capital, studying political science under the tutelage of some of the state’s most ardent and influential civil rights activists. She was trained early on to view her educational pathway as a vital tool to elevate the causes of racial uplift and liberation. She attended the University of Memphis where she earned two Masters of Arts degrees in History and Sociology. During that time, she also earned a Graduate Certificate in Women and Gender Studies. Upon graduating from University of Memphis, she was accepted into the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Department of Sociology doctoral program, where she is currently ABD.
During her time at UMASS, she worked on NSF-grant-funded research on job insecurity among New Haven’s black residents; worked for the Graduate Student Union and Senate; and taught several courses including Social Inequality, Criminology, Gender and Crime, and Sociology of Law. Her research interests include educational equity, racial inequality, Afropessimism, environmental justice, criminology, comparative historical sociology, sociology of health, and mixed methods research.
Santiago Vidales
860.952.2137 (preferred)
860.297.5116 (in-office phone)
svidales@hartfordyouthscholars.org
Santiago Vidales was born in Bogotá, Colombia and has lived and in the Mid-Atlantic region and New England for most of his life. Santiago holds a PhD in Chicanx, Latinx, and Latin American Studies from the University of Massachusetts with a specialization in literary histories. For the past ten years he has worked as an instructor for the Spanish and Portuguese Program and held several positions as organizer for the Graduate Employee Organization. Dr. Vidales’ passion for education is rooted in his work as researcher, writer, teacher, and translator. His aim at HYS is to empower scholars through education and community.
As an instructor, Vidales taught all levels of Spanish acquisition as well as world literature courses. His teaching philosophy is to create classrooms that are participatory, inclusive, and student-driven. Empowering students to take charge of their own education is fundamental in creating communities grounded in mutual respect and mutual support. As a literary historian he has focused on recovering the life and work of Chicano poet and revolutionary Raúl Salinas. His dissertation presents a poetic biography of Salinas with an emphasis on his years as a political prisoner. Currently, he is working on turning his dissertation into academic articles and a book-length literary biography.
Dr. Vidales is passionate about literature, arts, politics, and sports. He is always eager to engage in complex conversations, talk about music, and plan bike rides and climbing trips.