Community and Multicultural Development (CaMD) Scholars:
Chloe Rhee ’24
“Knowledge Without Goodness? Phillips Academy, Abolition, and Anti-Slavery 1830-1860”
Advisor: Dr. Paige Roberts, Director of Archives and Special Collections
“It’s important for us to understand the legacy of [Phillips Academy], and I’ve done so much work regarding challenging histories here. It’s something that I feel isn’t spotlighted enough [as well as] the archives in general… I hope that by looking into our past, and specifically understanding our ties to enslavement, I hope that students will be able to more deeply consider the legacies that this campus has and what role we play being students that interact with this institution.”
Gui Lima ’24
“Pedagogy of the Brazilian Favela: Fighting a Century of Oppression Inside the Classroom”
Advisor: Dr. Miriam Villanueva, Instructor in History and Social Science
“I want to do some field research because I’m going to go back to Brazil for a good part of [the] summer. I want to go back to my old school and talk to teachers because even though they’re obviously not teaching in favelas, they’re already in the educational world and they’re closer to that area… There are so many great people in my old school and so many resources that I just have not tapped into there. I just want to see where that leads me. I don’t really have a set plan for that. Of course, I’m going to be doing my research in reading lots of texts and abstract theories, but I also want to see where talking to people in my city goes.”
Sarah Pan ’24
“Now Approaching Dystopia: What the Hazy Promise of AI Alignment Means for Us”
Advisor: Thomas Armstrong, Instructor in Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science
“I want to raise AI consciousness [in the student body]… I want more people to understand what’s going on in the field right now, and for [AI] to be more than just like a ‘hype’ term. Hopefully, people understand [AI] to be more than just, ‘Oh, ChatGPT knows everything.’ Hopefully, people can start to pick apart what’s going on, figure out what needs to improve, and just move away from the ‘hype.’ And I think that extends beyond Andover… with all the layoffs that have been happening at big tech companies.”
Tam Gavenas ’25
“A History of Trade-offs: The Black Scholar-Athlete in U.S. Colleges from 1968-2022”
Advisor: Patrick Rielly, Instructor in English
“I am extremely connected to my topic. My project is about the history of Black student-athletes in U.S. colleges. This is their story and about the experiences they go through when combating stereotypes and lowered expectations, as a Black and athletically gifted student. This is the story about the countless forced tradeoffs Black scholars had to go through between choosing athletics or academics.”
Brace Finalists:
Max Berkenblit ’24
“An Introduction to Women’s Gender, and Sexuality Studies: A Series of Teach-Ins”
Advisor: Brigitte Leschhorn, Instructor in English
“I was sitting in Starbucks one day and looking through a bunch of departments at different colleges and noticed that pretty much every college I was looking at had a department dedicated to Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies. Of course, Andover has the Brace Center, but it doesn’t really work academically with teachers or actual departments, and any classes related to the topic are split up and often 500-level [courses that are] really hard to get to.”
Nadia Choophungart ’24
“Reshaping Religion: Examining the Evolution of Theravada Buddhism by Women in Thailand”
Advisor: Amanda Foushee, Instructor in English
“I’m from Bangkok, Thailand, and I’m Buddhist. Theravada Buddhism is like the main branch, but isn’t in Thailand. But one thing I’ve noticed… just in my personal life is that Buddhism, like a few other major religions, is very patriarchal. For example, if I went to a temple in Thailand, I wouldn’t be able to wear short shorts, even though anyone who is male identified would be able to… I really want to do different kinds of research [in Thailand]. If I can actually go in and do interviews or fieldwork, that I think I’d be really excited for, it would be really cool. I would really want to touch base with other scholars in Thailand as well.”
Anna Du ’24
“It Was a Pleasure to Burn: The Development of Queer Censorship in the United States”
Advisor: Comfort Halsey, Instructor in Spanish
“I’m hoping to look into how different forms of censorship have developed over the years. Specifically, I think, maybe looking into different ways to share news and spread media things, like with the advent of technology with film, and eventually the internet. How things that originally took place, such as book bannings, might take place like online and the Internet and even social media.”
Lillianna Villanueva ’25
“Following Modern Girls Through the Justice System: Increase in Incarceration, No Change in Gender Based Systems of Oppression”
Advisor: Garrett Richie, Instructor in English
“Originally, I was doing preliminary research for a CaMD presentation on POC kids in the justice system. I grew up in an area that had a lot of incarceration for kids. And so it was something that was very personal to me. But as I did more research, I started coming across new research that was being presented and created about the unfair way that girls were being incarcerated, or girls were being put in front of judges, disproportionately to men in certain areas.”
