Undergraduate Profile: Pilar Zapien

Pilar Zapien is a third-year Literature and Spanish Studies Major who received a 2024-2025 THI Undergraduate Research Fellowship, and a 2024-2025 Humanities EXPLORE Fellowship. As part of her THI Fellowship, she created a zine to explore her research interests in gossip and perception. As a Humanities EXPLORE fellow, Zapien worked with Professor Mark Amengual and the Multilingual Hispanic Speech in California (MuHSiC) project. This project is part of the UCSC Bilingualism Research Lab, housing over 200 hours of interviews and conversations for study. We talked with Zapien to learn more about her wide-ranging work during these two fellowships.


Hi Pilar! Thank you for taking the time to talk to us. Let’s get started hearing about your project as a THI Undergraduate Research Fellow and work on creating an academic zine.

Of course! My project focuses on gossip as a gendered cultural mechanism that shapes how women are perceived, judged, and narrated in society. I’ve always been fascinated by gossip—mainly because everyone does it, even if they don’t admit it. At first, I was simply curious about why gossip is so universal and what function it serves in our everyday lives. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized how deeply embedded it is in the way society communicates—especially when it comes to how we talk about women.

Using a feminist lens, I wanted to explore how gossip polices gender roles, reinforces double standards, and operates as both a weapon and a survival strategy. Eventually, my research led me to ask: What kinds of agency live within the backchannel conversations that have long been dismissed?

So interesting! Could you talk more about the motivations to use a zine as the format for this project?

Yes! Choosing a zine format was a really intentional part of this project. Gossip isn’t neat, linear, or traditionally “respectable,” so it felt wrong to present my research in a way that tried to clean it up or fit it into a conventional academic mold. It’s fragmented, whispered, emotional, messy—and I wanted the final product to reflect that.

The zine format gave me room to experiment with voice, design, and tone in a way that mirrors how gossip actually moves through the world. I use layered visuals, bold typography, and handwritten elements to reflect that chaotic, contradictory nature. There’s theory in it, but there are also moments of satire, cultural critique, and visual storytelling.

Illustration taken from the preliminary version of her zine 

I wanted the zine to feel like something you could pass around or even stumble upon—like gossip itself. 

Can you also tell us about your experience as a Humanities EXPLORE Fellow working with Professor Mark Amengual and the Multilingual Hispanic Speech in California (MuHSiC) Project? What inspired you to apply for this opportunity?

Yes! Being a Humanities EXPLORE Fellow and working with Professor Mark Amengual on the MuHSiC Project has been an incredible experience. As a bilingual speaker and a Spanish Studies major, this felt like the perfect opportunity to bridge my academic interests with my personal experiences. The project focuses on documenting and analyzing the speech patterns of Spanish-English bilinguals in California—especially heritage speakers whose voices are often overlooked in mainstream research.

What inspired me to apply was the chance to be part of a project that values linguistic diversity and treats bilingualism as something to be explored and celebrated, not corrected. Growing up moving between languages, I’ve seen firsthand how language shapes identity, and I wanted to contribute to research that affirms that complexity.

That sounds like very important work! Could you share some of the topics discussed within the corpus and what stood out to you?

While I can’t get into too many specifics due to confidentiality, I can say that it’s been incredibly powerful to hear so many bilingual Californians open up about their lived experiences. Through the interviews, participants have shared stories about linguistically motivated racism, their journeys learning English, and the complex, deeply personal relationships they have with their language and culture.

Quote from You Didn’t Hear This From Me by Kelsey McKinney, Illustration done by Zapien.

One question that always stands out to me is: “What does Spanglish mean to you?” The range of responses is so rich. Some people give lighthearted, funny answers, but others offer really heartfelt reflections. They talk about how Spanglish connects them to older generations—like grandparents who speak mostly Spanish—and how it’s helped them navigate and even bridge their identities between home and U.S. culture. It’s a reminder that Spanglish isn’t just a way of speaking—it’s a form of belonging, survival, and expression that captures the fluidity of bilingual life.

What have been your primary tasks with the MuHsiC project? Could you tell us about some of the specific things you’ve been learning and doing? 

My primary task with the MuHSiC project has been editing interview transcripts, specifically making sure that the audio files match the SRT transcript files word for word. This step is really important because it ensures that later in the process, the data can be accurately analyzed. It’s been a very detail-oriented process, and I’ve learned a lot about the importance of precision in research. Even small transcription errors can change the way a sentence is interpreted, especially when you’re dealing with bilingual or code-switched speech. 

Your research and the work of MuHsiC are thought-provoking and will certainly inspire other projects. How do you think you might build on this experience when you pursue future opportunities?

Thank you! These experiences have reshaped how I think about language, identity, and the role of research in understanding culture. Moving forward, my goal is simple: to keep learning and writing. Whether through graduate studies, collaborative research, or public-facing work, I want to continue exploring the intersections of language, culture, and power—and to create work that feels both meaningful and intellectually alive.

Thank you so much! To wrap up, what is one part of living in Santa Cruz and attending UCSC that everyone should experience?

Nature! Get outside as much as possible—never take for granted how lucky we are to live this close to the beach. Some of my favorite spots are It’s Beach (mostly because of the dogs!), Shark Fin Cove, and Natural Bridges, especially for the sea anemones you can find in the tide pools. 


Banner Image: Collage made for preliminary version of the zine

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