What's up! My name is Brandon and I'm a '25 from a small town outside of Chicago. I am passionate about Middle Eastern culture, politics, history, and languages; I'm particularly interested in studying gender/sexuality, politics of exhibition, and counterculture in the Arab Gulf. My current hobbies are reading, playing the mandolin, audio design, eating spicy foods, and streetwear. Please enjoy these snapshots of my life in Hanover!
This was definitely my favorite class of fall term—the readings were heavy, but they all felt incredibly relevant to the coursework. For each class, we read both Jewish and Arab perspectives throughout history. Moreover, Professor Avishai has a vast network of connections with important members of Israeli government, and even figures who we read about in the history books (including former prime ministers!). Overall, that class was a lot of work but very effective in helping me understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Professor Smolin's lectures were always something for me to look forward to. In this intro class, a wide variety of subjects regarding the Arab world were covered. Topics such as culture, Islam, literature, poetry, politics, and history were covered from the pre-Islamic period to the more recent Arab Spring. The readings were fascinating, and the professor also incorporated a wide variety of video resources to accompany the readings. I loved this class!
I found myself regularly engrossed in Professor Fishere's lectures in Arab Political Thought. Tracking the development of political ideologies from the 1800s until today was fascinating, the discussion-based classes helped me get to know tons of my peers.
While in Morocco this summer, I had the chance to take intensive Arabic 21 and Arabic 22. Working with a local teacher, Ilham, I had the chance to study both standard Arabic and Moroccan Arabic .My favorite part of the class was the opportunity to engage with the language in cafes and shops.
Ancient Greek & Roman Philosophy was definitely a class that took me out of my comfort zone. Having never taken a class on philosophy, I had lots of fun studying readings of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Furthermore, I liked that the class focused heavily on group-work, with weekly group meetings and write-ups being a critical component of the class.
This class made me think critically about how we use different media, and how different media use us. I always considered media and technology as tools we use to navigate life, but never thought about the ways that media influence us and perceptions of the self. Taking this course inspired me to be involved more with digital humanities in order to think critically about how different media can alter the meaning of a message.
I had a great spring term living in Kuwait while interning at the American University of Kuwait! Working as an intern with the Oral History Project and International Relations departments, I met many amazing friends and gained experience with oral history and digital humanities. As someone who wants to continue doing research on the Arab Gulf, this experience was incredibly valuable.
Filmmaking & Visual Culture was about the intersection of filmmaking and anthropology, and I really enjoyed the course. The course looked at film through a post-colonial lens, thinking about how it can be used as a tool to tell stories, empower communities, and challenge structural violence. As a final project, we were required to make our own films with the broad requirement that they had to tell some kind of story or narrative. Having this sort of creative freedom was lots of fun: I did a short film project about a farmer in the Upper Valley.
This was the first science course that I had ever taken at Dartmouth, and I actually really enjoyed it. The course was focused on being able to identity the names and functions of the bones and muscles in the human body: we covered a lot of ground in a short 10-week term. In addition to studying human anatomy, we also studied the anatomy of monkeys and chimps, comparing their evolutionary trends to those of humans. We also had the chance to visit the Geisel School of Medicine cadaver lab on multiple occasions to review for exams, which was definitely a unique experience. Overall, I'm glad I took the opportunity to go outside of my comfort zone a little bit with this class!
On campus, I've invested a lot of time and energy into videography and video production. I believe in video as a powerful, accessible storytelling tool, and I have worked hard to improve my video production skills on campus. In this post, I want to write about the video opportunities I've been able to explore; hopefully, this will be helpful to prospective students interested in studying film and video production at Dartmouth!
One essential outlet for my filmmaking has been through The Dartmouth (Dartmouth's student newspaper). Since I'm interested in nonfiction visual storytelling and documentary filmmaking, video journalism has been an incredibly rewarding way to share my messages with a broad audience. At the school newspaper, The Dartmouth, I re-launched the video section that had been inactive since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This project has been really rewarding, as I've been able to produce news stories about campus events to share with broad audiences, especially through Instagram Reels. In addition, I've been able to hire a team of students interested in video and/or editing, and being able to meet and work with them has allowed me to make even better videos. Hopefully, this will lay the groundwork for the video section to thrive for years to come!
I've also been able to work on my video production skills by working for the Hopkins Center for the Arts, an artistic hub for students on campus. In particular, I've been involved with the Hop Fellows program as a video fellow: read more about my experience with the program here! The main projects I've been working on are marketing videos for the Hopkins Center's social media accounts, as well as a documentary about the Hop Fellows program. Overall, doing work with the Hop has allowed me to work on a wide range of professional skills that will help me as I continue working on video production. I'm also a videographer for the Admissions Office, focusing primarily on promotional social media content. Working for Admissions in both a blogging and video capacity has been a great way to work on my storytelling skills!
Even if you're not interested in video, these experiences show that Dartmouth provides a number of opportunities and resources for professional development and enrichment. No matter what your interests are, there are definitely outlets available at Dartmouth for practicing them (and oftentimes getting paid for it!). However, it's usually important that students direct time and energy toward asking and seeking out positions. For example, when I started doing videography for Admissions, there was no formal job application process—I asked my supervisor if I could get involved with video production, and they were happy to give me the opportunity! Therefore, while opportunities for professional development at Dartmouth are plentiful, it's important to ask for them and take opportunities as they come. Like any university, Dartmouth is what you make out of it!
On Monday, April 8, 2024, a phenomenal total solar eclipse occurred — and we happened to be within the path of totality. As a result, Dartmouth hosted a variety of eclipse-related events on- and off-campus. Find out how I spent the eclipse!
