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!
Next week marks the end of the fall term and the start of winter break! In this post, I want to share some reflections on my 3rd (!) fall at Dartmouth and share some of my plans for the upcoming 6-week break.
This fall has been incredibly hectic but simultaneously rewarding. It was an opportunity to take a deep dive into anthropology, my second declared major, with all three classes in the anthropology department! A class that I surprisingly enjoyed was Human Anatomy, which I had taken to fulfill a science and lab graduation requirement. Learning about the human body was a deeply rewarding experience, especially through our review sessions looking at muscles and osteology in the cadaver lab at the Geisel School of Medicine. My other two classes, centered around research methods and comparative gender studies, gave me tools to gather, analyze, and critically think about qualitative data. My courses struck a perfect balance between intensity and manageability this term.
I've also had many opportunities to get work experience this summer, especially improving my video production skills. I wrote about this in my previous article, so I recommend giving it a look! The winter break will allow me to continue to be creative and work on my video skills, which I'm really excited about.
The fall has also just been lots of fun! Homecoming festivities were especially a highlight, as the whole campus was able to come together to celebrate events like the bonfire and homecoming parade. In addition, being able to experience the beautiful fall foliage with my friends is always a highlight of the fall season at Dartmouth.
Looking towards the winterim (winter interim), I'm excited to have a long, 6-week break after a busy fall term. I'm on in the winter, so I want to prioritize resting and spending time with family before classes start again. Dartmouth terms can take a lot of energy out of me, due to all the coursework, work experience, research, and fun memories I can make in short, 10-week long bursts. However, whenever I reflect on a Dartmouth term, I'm amazed at how much I grew and accomplished in such a short span of time. While the 10-week terms can certainly be intense, I think it is this intensity that helps me develop as an individual and grow closer to my goals every day!
With a solar eclipse sweeping across North America for the first time in nearly seven years on April 8th came a road-trip with hundreds of other Dartmouth students to a zone of totality near campus: St. Johnsbury, Vermont!
After returning from an enriching study abroad program, I'm diving into a bustling spring semester here at Dartmouth. Here are my four courses I'm taking this term!
Dartmouth's liberal arts curriculum pushes students to explore new departments and draw connections between seemingly disparate disciplines. Come explore my Economics, Physics, and Asian, Societies, Cultures, and Languages classes!
