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!
I can't believe that it is almost the end of my last term of junior year! In this post, I want to give some insight into what my finals period is looking like, and reflect on some of the things I've learned throughout my junior year.
Since I'm only taking a 2-course term, my final week is less intensive this term than others, but still definitely a lot of work. In my course "Sexual Violence in Southeast Europe" with former President of Kosovo Atifete Jahjaga, we are assigned to write a 12-page paper on absolutely any topic covered in or related to the class. I really enjoy these types of assignments that give me full creative and academic freedom, because it allows me to dive into the topics that I find most interesting. For my topic, I am considering writing a paper on the role of Serbian media manipulation during the Bosnian war, specifically in relation to concealing, covering, and erasing sexual crimes from public consciousness. My other course, "Ethnographic Film", has a unique final project because I am working on finishing a documentary as my final project for the course. A friend and I have been filming a documentary about a quarry miner in the Upper Valley since last summer, and filming on the project has been ongoing—since we're in the class together, we are going to finish the documentary this term and submit it as our final project, along with a write-up about how our cinematographic methods connect to the ideas we covered in the course. I'm really excited to have this opportunity to complete this film and also relate it to the context of this course!
After being on campus consecutively for the summer, fall, and winter, I'm looking forward to the extended break back home to relax, work on film projects, and take advantage of some professional development. Junior year is an important time to carefully consider what you want to pursue after graduation, and while many aspects of this process were stressful, taking advantage of resources at Dartmouth like advisors, the Center for Professional Development, office hours, and campus work-study opportunities has been immensely helpful in navigating ideas of what I'd like to pursue post-grad. I'm excited to come back during senior year refreshed and ready to complete my last year at Dartmouth, as I know it'll be very important to make the most out of it!
What kind of classes do you take in a subject-based Foreign Study Program? Here's a rundown of my classes in the Music FSP in London to give you an idea of what academic life is like in the program!
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!
