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Gabriel Gilbert

Class of 2023
Image of Gabriel Gilbert '23; he is wearing a black aloha shirt with a red leaf pattern that runs from his shoulder down the left half of his shirt.

Bio 

Aloha to the page of a wanderlusting writer juggling college life and several other hobbies into an eternally-short 24-hour day. I hope to shed light on the Dartmouth experience as I explore the brave new world of Hanover, NH and everything going to college here has to offer. In my free time, you can find me trying to learn a new language or building the perfect Spotify playlist (alternative/indie, anyone?). I hope you enjoy!

Academic Program 

Linguistics

Favorite Thing Right Now 

Fantasy novels and homemade poke!

Hometown 

Stafford, Virginia

Pronouns 

he/him/his

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Gabriel's D-Plan

What's a D-Plan?

    • FallHanover, NH

      Favorite Class: Indigistory

      Taught by Gordon Henry, an Anishinaabe poet and author, this class taught me to explore Indigenous storytelling within digital contexts. I took this class with only seven other classmates, allowing us to really engage with films, comic books, and television shows in Indigenous languages or produced by Indigenous artists.

    • WinterHanover, NH

      Favorite Class: Historical Linguistics

      Taught by Timothy Pulju, this class taught me how to identify and understand how languages evolve over time and why. I analyzed and reconstructed fictional languages of imaginary nations in order to understand the link between language and culture, and ended up having such an appreciation for the complexity and beauty of language's place in history!

    • SpringMyrtle Beach, SC

      Favorite Class: The End of the World

      Taught by Lindsay Whaley, this class let me discover a newfound love for ancient apocalyptic literature. We analyzed ancient texts and compared them to modern apocalypses, looking at the zombie apocalypse phenomenon and other apocalypses in pop culture and comparing them to the ancient tradition of writing apocalypses. Additionally, I learned the Greek alphabet and now I can even stumble through ancient Greek passages.

    • FallNew Orleans, LA

      Favorite Class: Native American Literature and the Law

      Taught and organized by David Peterson, this class let me get into the shoes of a real linguist as we did fieldwork (virtually!!) with the Zophei language. I learned how to describe a never-before-learned language's phonology (sound system), how to characterize its grammar and words, and ultimately got to present my research to experts in the language family around the world in a workshop at the end of the term!

    • WinterHanover, NH

      Favorite Class: Native American Literature and the Law

      Taught by N. Bruce Duthu, this class taught me how Native literature can provide lens by which to evaluate, critique, and ultimately revise Federal Indian Law. During this class, I read works by Native authors like Tommy Orange and Louise Erdrich '76 alongside the opinions of definitive case opinions in American law and explained how literature can be a catalyst for Indigenous sovereignty.

    • SpringMyrtle Beach, SC

      Favorite Class: Undergraduate Research

      Supervised by N. Bruce Duthu, I spent this off-term performing research after being awarded a Sophomore Research Scholarship to study contemporary Hawaiian cultural and linguistic revitalization. I studied 19th-century newspapers and contemporary Hawaiian texts in order to understand how Hawaiian language revitalization both past and present has advanced and continues to enable a contemporary bodied Hawaiian politic of sovereignty.

    • SummerHanover, NH

      Favorite Class: Morphology

      Taught by Laura McPherson, this class taught me about how languages create meaning through words. During this class, I learned how to analyze different languages' morphological processes and compare different approaches within the field as to morphological structures.

    • FallHanover, NH

      Favorite Class: Indian Country Today

      Taught by N. Bruce Duthu, this class offered me a glimpse into the lived realities of Native people in Indian Country Today. I learned about the economic, social, cultural, and historical roots for the struggles of Indigenous people today within the United States, and was able to write about the contemporary battle for Native Hawaiian visibility and Hawaiian sovereignty.

    • WinterHilo, HI

      Favorite Class: Language Documentation

      Taught by Laura McPherson, this class taught me how to engage in language documentation and how, as a linguist, we can put our skills to use to help communities seeking to document and revitalize their languages. I worked on the Satawalese language, spoken on the island of Satawal in the Federated States of Micronesia. Ultimately, my team created two dictionaries - one in English, one in Hawaiian, a website, and several materials that focused on the Satawalese tradition of wayfinding and non-instrumental ocean navigation.

    • SpringHanover, NH

      Favorite Class: Sound Relations

      Taught by Charles Eastman fellow Sunaina Kale, this class taught me about the role of sound in delineating, conceiving, and comprehending relations between people and the land in Indigenous musical traditions. Over the course of the class, we discussed Indigenous musicians, listened to music from Native peoples around the world, heard from masterful Indigenous musicians, and ultimately presented a project that creatively analyzed a song of our choice. My project focused on the song "Ask Yourself" by Foster the People, and I wrote a poem that integrated aspects of Indigenous languages and worldviews to answer questions posed by the song.

    • SummerHanover, NH

      Favorite Class: Honors Thesis Research

      This term, I formally began the research process for my upcoming honors thesis in the Linguistics department on Hawaiian semantics! While living in Hanover, I also began working as a Senior Fellow with the Admissions department—a position I will be holding for the entirety of my last year at Dartmouth.

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Five Things I Miss About Hanover

As I write this post, about to start Week 4 of my first spring as a Dartmouth student, I found myself scrolling through my camera roll during a study break between a class on the apocalypse and some Linguistics data analysis. That subsequent nostalgia-packed roller coaster inspired me to write about just a few of the things I miss most about living in Hanover - being on-campus with my favorite people, KAF drink in one hand while the other highlights a reading I procrastinated until the night before a big class discussion. 

  1. No. 1

    The Connecticut River (and the outdoors in general...)

    Gabe canoeing

    A lot of my friends live in the first-year dorms French and Judge, both of which are located just a few steps from the Connecticut River. 

    I miss the river because that's where my friends and I would go sometimes just to relax when it wasn’t beyond freezing. There is nothing as stress-relieving as a vibe session on the shoreline. This picture is actually from something I described in one of my earliest posts, where my friends Pete, Azariah, and I all went canoeing and fishing at a pond almost an hour off-campus. If we were on campus, we would probably be kayaking or canoeing right now.

  2. No. 2

    King Arthur Flour

    Aani and Az at KAF

    Right before we left campus, my friends and I made a trip across the river to the full-size King Arthur Flour store (big KAF, as opposed to regular KAF which is in the library and where my friends and I get our caffeine fix for long grind sessions). 

    We loved it so much and had planned on going all the time this term…so yeah, you could say I miss my double shot + chocolate milk with light ice. And my iced cider. And the occasional drink-of-the-month. And brie and apple sandwiches that always seem to be out of stock when I want them for lunch.

    KAF, I miss you.

  3. No. 3

    Dartmouth Idol and The Hop

    Caitlin Wanic wins Dartmouth Idol

    One of the highlights of my winter term was seeing my friend Caitlin Wanic (whom I actually met after she won right before I left campus) win Dartmouth Idol, Dartmouth’s annual singing competition. The talent was incredible across the board, and the Sesame Street theme was a flavor of childhood nostalgia I haven’t tasted in a while. 

    And yes - I did sing along.

  4. No. 4

    Jewel of India

    Jewel of India

    The first place I went to when I came back to campus was Jewel of India. The chicken tikka masala is actually made in heaven and sent down for Dartmouth students for special occasions, which is why I also went there for my birthday. 

    All of us miss Hanover’s restaurants, but I miss this one most of all. Even more than Tuk-Tuk — and that’s saying something.

  5. No. 5

    My Freshman Floor

    Humanities LLC!

    Here’s a picture one of my floormates uploaded to Instagram hidden within a 20W collage. This is my first picture with my floormates in the Humanities LLC, and we took this picture right before shaking Phil Hanlon’s hand for matriculation.

    I miss walking back into my dorm at midnight seeing my friends working in the study room, just vibing in the hallway, and tickets to Hop performances for free because the Humanities LLC kills the game.

    Back in fall term, I played board games a couple times with my friends, but I never made it during winter term. Good thing my UGA is actually hosting game nights over Zoom now, so I might just have to pop in when the schedule works out. 

    Thank you all for sticking with me down this little memorial to the parts of my school I’m missing the most. I know that when you’re either back on campus or walking it for the first time, you’ll fall in love with the little things. 

Posted 05/3/2020 at 11:45 AMAll List Posts

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