Acknowledgements

It took a team to make this project happen.

I thank Craig Gibson and Thompson Library for providing me the space, both metaphorically and physically, to think through this project and develop as a researcher.

I thank Maria Scheid, Lee-Arng Chang, Ash Faulkner, and Hilary Bussell for sharing their special expertise and allowing me to ask as many questions as I needed.

I thank the staff at the Special Collections Reading Room for dealing with my arbitrary practice requests as I prepared to travel to the Belizean Archives.

I thank Karen A. Holbrook and the staff at the Office of Undergraduate Research & Creative Inquiry (especially Amanda Jovanovich, Kayla Daniel and Dr. Lorraine Wallace) for funding my travel abroad and aiding me in figuring out the trip’s logistics.

I thank Joel Wainwright for being an exceptional Thesis Advisor and for teaching me the tools to think critically about economic development, political economy, and Belize.

Finally, I thank Pamela Espinosa de los Monteros for being an accessible, friendly, and flexible Fellowship Advisor. She deserves as much credit for bringing this project to fruition as I.  She is a shining example of an outstanding fellowship mentor and I was privileged to be able to work under her guidance.