Congratulations to our Student Fellows! These amazing students participated in a three day workshop conducted by Josefina Báez as part of our Teach-In. They have continued that work and will be performing alongside Josefina on Saturday May 11 as the culminating event for our Community Gathering, see the schedule for full details
Zeynep Bayirtepe is an international student from Turkey, studying English and Comparative Literature to spend her time immersed in stories, theories, and experiences. She is interested in the workings of words, people, and the hand of culture that moves and molds communities. She spends most of her time reading, writing, and directing for a theater troupe on campus. Yet, her favorite thing is being a friend, collecting stories with care, and indulging in a foolish endeavor for (the meaning of) truth and trust.
Ora Cullen is a senior from Paris, France. Ze is a double major in Physics and Gender Studies modified with Geography. In addition to zey thesis on quantum entanglements of gravity, ze is currently working on a performance project at the intersections of Black Feminist and Queer of Colour Critique, Indigenous storytelling, and Performance studies. This independent study explores avenues for healing through stories of 2S, queer, and genderqueer Indigenous and BIPOC death, processing intimate conversations through poetry to generate individual and community healing through a final performance. Ze is passionate about kinetic knowledge creation and transmission and loves to explore these connections between poetry, storytelling, and performance. As a healer and an artist, Ora is so excited to take part in the Promiscuous Care and Performance teach-ins.
Caileigh Dowell (she/her) is a senior from Austin, TX, double majoring in Theater and Government. She is passionate about both acting and stage management, but always says her true love is storytelling. She is currently working on her thesis exploring the intersection of stage management and intimacy coordination in theatrical spaces. She would like to express her deep gratitude towards the Humanities Institute and Josefina Báez for this opportunity, and towards her loved ones, for everything.
Hayden/Hadi Elrafei is a queer and performance studies scholar and BA candidate in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Hadi’s current thesis project, Plots of Absolute Disorder: Locating a Queer of Color Coming of Age, investigates queer of color performance and decolonial critiques in coming-of-age plots from the US to occupied historic Palestine through the lenses of Asian American and performance studies, queer of color critique, and literary theory. Hadi is a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow, a James O. Freedman Presidential Scholar, and the inaugural Stonewall Fellow in the Program in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. You can read Hadi’s work in Embodied: The Stanford Undergraduate Journal of Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Spare Rib Intersectional Feminist Zine, and in the next issue of Memento: Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal in the Critical Humanities.
Maria Hebling, a Comparative Literature and Psychology student from the Class of 27, is dedicated to empowering youth by helping them find their voices through education and art. As an advocate for mental health awareness, she uses her writing to spread awareness and foster dialogue on mental well-being.
Antônio Jorge Medeiros Batista Silva (he/they) is a rising senior at Dartmouth, double majoring in Spanish and Linguistics modified with Native American & Indigenous Studies. Coming from Brazil and having been raised in a multicultural household, his interests encompass the fields of language revitalisation, global and diasporic indigeneity, as well as Hispanic literatures and performances.
Melissa MacDonald is an experimental theatre artist and emerging transdisciplinary scholar completing a master’s in Cultural Studies at Dartmouth. Her research considers the cultural politics of transition towards well-being economies, and how to worship the Unknown.
Erin Kelly is a first years MALS student with a cultural concentration. Within her studies at Dartmouth she aims to dive deeper into place and space theory, as well as garden studies to further her anthropology and herbalism background. She is a part-time wedding photographer and full-time employee at the Hopkins Center of the arts. She lives to create, connect, observe and learn.
Alice Inácio Oliveira is a double major in Theatre and Latin American Studies from Goiânia, Brazil. She is a multimedia, multidisciplinary artist. Her passion for social change is the driving force behind her art, including theatre, dance, and installation. Alice is interested in studying the Latinx Americas as a stage for social transformation, inspired by the works of Boal, Gómez-Peña, and other rebellious artists.
Abraham Quastler Cumming is a first-year undergraduate, with an intended major in English. He is drawn to performance art, especially through the medium of theater, which unites storytelling and empathy in a magical way. Abraham seeks to reflect on his multi-faith identity through his art and writing. He is also passionate about education justice and the power that filmmaking and other forms of art can have in social change. Abraham likes reading, writing, running, biking and climbing, in his spare time.
Dulce Silva (She/Her) Class of ‘25, is a first generation student from Los Angeles, CA. Double majoring in English with a concentration in Creative Writing and Theater. She is a Student Representative for the Theater Department and a student worker at the Costume Shop. Her current project is the winter Cabaret as an assistant producer and cast member, and is currently working on her novel. She is passionate about writing and storytelling of any form, and hopes that her creativity and work can further impact others. She is beyond grateful and excited to join the Humanities Institute.
As a MALS graduate student, Andrée Sole is pursuing a thesis in playwriting while also publishing poetry, articles and short stories. She graduated from the University of Queensland (Australia) with a Bachelor of Speech Therapy then did an MBA at the Melbourne Business School (University of Melbourne). She is currently a Hopkins Center for the Arts Special Projects Fellow, teaching writing, and involved in Dartmouth initiatives ranging from the Healthcare Foundation to Social Entrepreneurship at The Magnuson Center.
Greyson Xiao is a ‘25 majoring in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies modified with Cognitive Science and minoring in Theater. He is currently crafting a research project, Redoing Family, that investigates the performance strategies queer and trans adult children elect to maintain, relinquish, and/or forge origin families of their own. Grey is broadly obsessed with the aesthetics of the human form—in movement, in character, in costume—and hopes to ground their creative inquiry in performance studies, queer and trans studies, post-colonial critique, affect theory, and abolitionist politics. Just a perpetually confused and indecisive guy seeking a home somewhere in academia, theater, and community organizing.