Hi, my name is Brandon and I'm a '25 from just outside of Chicago. I study Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies, and am involved with multimedia journalism and videography on campus. I am passionate about documentary filmmaking and using film as a tool to present lived human experiences in subjective visual, aesthetic, and sonic terms. In my free time, I love to spend time with my cat, follow the Chicago Bulls, and study Arabic. 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!
I love to make and watch documentaries, so taking ethnographic film was a great way to look at filmmaking in academic, anthropological terms. We watched and analyzed many documentary films throughout the course, considering factors like documentary ethics, filmmaking style, and multi-media approaches. We also did a lot of critical media analysis, looking at how the medium of a piece of work impacts the message it is trying to convey. Additionally, we were able to work on and submit our own short documentary films as final projects for the course.
This week, I started my junior fall at Dartmouth! I can't believe how quickly my Dartmouth experience is going by. In this post, I want to share the classes I'm taking this term; since I declared my anthropology major relatively recently (last spring), it's important that I take many classes that give me major credit so that I can have enough credits by the time I graduate!
The first class that I'm taking this semester is Human Functional Anatomy. I'm taking it for multiple reasons. In terms of graduation requirements, the course fulfills one of my two science requirements while also giving me a lab requirement since we will work with the human cadaver lab at Dartmouth's medical school. In addition, the anthropology major requires that I take at least one course in scientific anthropology, which the course also satisfies. While I haven't taken a science course so far at Dartmouth, I'm definitely enjoying it! During this first week, it has been fun to switch it up and take a deep dive into topics like bone and muscle structures, things I haven't studied much before. I also think it's generally great to learn more about the human body and how it works!
Another class I'm taking is Research Methods in Cultural Anthropology. This course interested me because of its unique structure; rather than having the setup of a traditional class, students choose their own ethnographic research project to conduct over the course of the term. Ethnography consists of participant observation, interviews, and other methods in order to better understand how people experience the world qualitatively. Since I have total control over what sort of research I'll be doing, lots of responsibility falls on me to make sure that I keep myself on track throughout the term. I'm still unsure about what my focus of research will be, but maybe I'll write a blog post on it once the term is over!
My last class is another anthropology course titled Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective. The course is made up of lectures, readings, and discussions focused on how gender and sexuality operate as a framework in different parts of the world. I hope that the class will be a great opportunity to learn more about thinking from a critical perspective and look at how power runs through gender and sexuality.
At Dartmouth, the 10-week length of terms definitely means that you have to hit the ground running. However, the fact that I like all my classes definitely makes this easier—I can't wait to share more about this fall term with you all in future posts!
My first time in Chicago at the Society of Women Engineers Conference in Chicago, Illinois! Fully funded by Dartmouth, I had a great time meeting amazing companies and getting to know fellow women engineers.
From orientation week to your classes, you can easily find community at Dartmouth! Read on to know how I met my Dartmouth family and where you might also find yours.
