2019-20 Report

KEAC Funded Travel

• Misake Funada and Katheryn Biedermann, Padua Italy, Conference Presentation. (CANCELLED)
• Hannah Reck, SPSP Conference Presentation (Voting Maps) New Orleans
• Dayeon Cheong, Urbana Anam, Stephanie Wu, Ciliate Molecular Conference Presentation, Lisbon Portugal.
• Alisha Blades, Renee Varga, Tessa Lavan, American Academy of Eastern Religion Conference, Presentation.
• Genevieve Cohen and Professor Sarah Walsh, Puppet Installation in New York City.
• Sabina Pike, Society for American Archeology Conference Presentation, Texas.
• Joyce Lee, Isabel Royer, Julia Opatrny, Sara Jidbabaie, Jane Taylor, Eliza Jones, JBS recording session, New York City.
• Kimberly Lifton, Research Parker Library, Cambridge University, UK.
• Katheryn Biedermann, Research Medical Museums, Italy.
• Lea Barros, American Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students, presentation.
• Anna Gould, Princeton University Model UN presentation.
• Jada Langston, American Geological Conference Presentation, San Francisco.
• Ajla Karabegoic and Elaine Yip, Ciliate Molecular Bio Conference, Lisbon, Portugal.
• Charlotte Gutterman, Geological Indigenous Artwork exhibition, Arizona.
• Maria Medina, research women of color in film Industry, Texas.
• Zixin Zhu, Social Innovation Conference Presentation.

KEAC Funded Speakers

• Professors Stina Soderling and Prya Chandrasekaran, “Environmental Futures and Feminist Queer Utopias” conference.
• Elif Batuman talk, (Corrine Russel)
• Nalgona talk, Women of Color Banquet Speaker (Hana Lindsay)
• Janet Haley talk, (Professor Nancy Rabinowitz)
• Jacqualine Stewart talk, (F.I.L.M. Scott MacDonald)
• F.I.L.M. series (Scott MacDonald)                            
• Rhodessa Jones talk, (Nancy Rabinowitz)

Funded KEAC SUMMER ASSOCIATES  

Student: Samantha (Sami) Brown 
Adviser: Megan Marshall Smith
Proposal: Researching the impact of the mentorship of women faculty in STEM fields based on interviews and statistical analysis.

Student: Diamond  Jackson
Adviser: Meredith Madden
Proposal: Researching the experience of low-income, Women of Color athletes in elite Institutions, including Hamilton, based on online interviews, surveys and survey analysis with a thorough literature review.

Student: Urbana Anam
Adviser: Katherine Kuharic
Proposal: Create a series of oil paintings inspired by people, places and interactions of Prakhurst (Bronx) community at time of COVID-19.  Prepared to work at home in backyard (for ventilation) and send work online to adviser. Will display at Hamilton when we return.

Funded KIRKLAND SUMMER RESEARCH GRANTS  

Student: Amy Harff      
Adviser: Priya Chandrasekaran
Proposal: Interview and research about 40 women environmental leaders on line or by phone and examine social media platforms to see how they have shaped environmental policy and organization.  Publish summaries, photos and analysis.  

Student: Juasline Plasencia
Adviser: Max Majireck
Proposal: Buy supplies and teach art to isolated, underserved communities (primarily high school students) on-line.  This is a redesigned funding proposal from winter.  Collect art by “Students in isolation” into exhibit to be share online or at Hamilton when possible.

Student: Myranda Tristant
Adviser: Naomi Gutman
Proposal: Based on work done as Emerson last summer, and work with faculty adviser, will research impact of narratives of mental illness and trauma and create own graphic novel on topic. Self-publish and share graphic novel and analysis on campus when possible.

Student: Ndanu Mutisya
Adviser: Jeanne Wilcoxon
Proposal: Write a play based on interviews of students thinking about the concept of love and connection in the time of COVID-19. (to be performed when able at Hamilton)

Student: Abby Henkel
Adviser: Cheryl Morgan
Project: Study influence of Japanese art on French material culture, such as fashion and furniture, while considering its gendered and political/economic contexts.  Examination of “the intersection of Franco-Japanese political and material culture from the French perspective, will give insight into modern constructions of gendered and racialized identity, and how they can be altered politically and economically.

Samuel Babbitt Graduate Fellowship

Kimberly Lifton received the Samuel Babbitt Fellowship to fund a M.Phil. in Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. Through the Kirkland Fund, Kimberly began her first independent research project on representations of gender in the medieval Perceforest manuscripts. Kim reflected in her letter of application that this was “also the moment I determined that I wanted to pursue a graduate degree in medieval studies to research representations of gender in medieval texts.”

Interdisciplinary Essay Prize

Kenadeed Gilmore
The Exploitation and Commodification of the Black Male Athlete

Abstract:

In “College Sports Exploits Unpaid Black Athletes. But They Could Force a Change,” Donald H. Yee details how the NCAA and Division 1 Universities regularly exploit the amateur black athlete for profit. Yee examines how the African-American basketball and football player works and sacrifices tirelessly, yet generates enormous profits exclusively for white coaches, administrators, and the NCAA (listed ironically as a “non-profit” organization). While a majority of the NCAA’s earnings stem from the talent and hard work of young black men, this same demographic makes up only 5% of the collegiate population (Yee, 2016, 7).  

To thoroughly understand this often neglected paradox, I complete a complex intersectional analysis, focusing on socio-economic class, gender, race, and sexuality viz-a-vi the reproduction of a structure of power and profit. Drawing on disparate theorists and theoretical frameworks, ranging from those of Karl Marx and Gregory Mantsios to bell hooks and Vivyan Adair — as well as drawing from personal experience—in this essay I provide a road map to a deeper and more complex understanding of the commodification of the black male athlete in a contemporary and highly lucrative collegiate sports industry. The diversity of these frameworks both presents and critiques a multifaceted, interdisciplinary and intersectional perspective, viewing the black athlete as a “production” ripe for exploitation (and perhaps resistance) on the micro, macro, and meso level.

Kirkland Scholars

• Urbana Anam
• Yuri Choi
• Diamond Jackson
• Emily Fienco
• Maya Figliuolo