Yesenia Barragan is a third-year doctoral student in Latin American History with a focus on political and environmental history, and slavery and abolition in Colombia and the Americas. Her dissertation examines the gradual abolition of slavery (1821-1852) in Chocó, Colombia, located on the Pacific Coast, in addition to the historical memory of slavery in the region.

At Columbia, she has received various awards and fellowships including the Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship (2011-2014), the George E. Haynes Fellowship (2010-2011), and the Richard Hofstadter Fellowship (2009-2010). She is also the co-founder of the Workshop on Critical Approaches to Race and Ethnicity, a program of the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race, and is currently the 2011-2012 Coordinator of the Columbia/Barnard Latin American History Workshop. She received her B.A. with Honors, Magna Cum Laude, in Political Philosophy and Latin American History, from Brown University, where she was a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow and Beinecke Scholar.

In addition to working on initiatives to increase racial and social diversity in higher education, Yesenia also serves as a staff member for AfroColombia NY, an NYC-based organization that organizes events on AfroColombian history, culture, and social issues.