Grad Student’s Chance Discovery Leads to an International Award
UVA doctoral candidate Elizabeth Mirabal won the Latin American Studies Association’s 2026 Best Article Award for her research on Puerto Rican writer Dolores Rodríguez de Tió’s poetic herbarium. Discovered during archival research in San Germán, the dried-plant collection reveals how exile, memory and nostalgia intertwine, offering fresh insight into ecocriticism and displaced writers’ connections to home.