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!
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
When I first arrived at Dartmouth and started to learn about all of the different departments and programs available, I was overwhelmed. In the best way possible. It was just that, compared to my high school, it felt like I could study anything. Subjects and topics that were really narrow and taught in just one lesson at high school suddenly had whole classes and even departments devoted to them. Disciplines like sociology and linguistics which were these arcane branches to me suddenly became accessible. When I received advice during my Orientation Week to try something new, that was all I needed to try the classes that ended up majorly influencing my academic direction.
I'd always liked languages, but in my freshman fall, I couldn't choose one single language to take a class on. I ended up choosing linguistics because my high school teacher said that it was a field she thought I'd like. When I learned that I could take linguistics classes to get a QDS distributive requirement (distributives, or "distribs," are Dartmouth's general education requirements) in lieu of a math class, I was sold. When browsing classes, I also found a class called Indigistory in the Department of Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS). I saw that it only had seven students in it, and thought, 'Hey, now's my chance to be in a class with the smallest student-to-teacher ratio I've ever seen!' Those two classes were super impactful, and even though they weren't a part of the grand plan I'd pondered in the summer between high school and Dartmouth, I was happily swept up in their whirlwind and frankly, I never looked back.
So the two classes that ended up starting me on my majors were Indigistory, or NAIS 30.19, and Introduction to Linguistics (LING 1). The former class was taught by visiting professor Gordon Henry (Ojibwe) and the latter was taught by David Peterson. Both of these classes independently really interested me, and I was taken by both of their individual lessons as the course progressed. The first class was all about digital storytelling in Native and Indigenous communities, and the latter was all about the discipline of linguistics. Because storytelling is all about language, and because you can't talk about American languages without mentioning the hundreds of Native American languages from the Americas, I constantly found myself drawing on both classes! Ultimately, taking both of them at the same time showed me the link between language and identity that ended up making them both my majors. It was a happy accident. Because a term is only ten weeks long, the classes you take in companionship inevitably rub off on each other. In taking lessons from one class and bringing it to the other, I felt like I departed with unique understandings. Thinking about your terms as collective wholes where each of the classes you choose will play off of each other can be a really great way to wade into the water of interdisciplinary work, and I couldn't recommend it more to those of you thinking about how to combine two or more of your academic interests.
I didn't know for sure that I wanted to major in both linguistics and NAIS until I repeated the process in succeeding terms. I am of the mind that your major and minor(s) should sneak up on you. You should take classes that grab your interest, and if the time comes when it's time to pick a major and you notice you're like three classes away from finishing a major with seven terms left, it's the best! In taking more LING and NAIS classes gradually, choosing ones that aligned with my academic interests as they changed and developed with every class, I developed relationships with different faculty and have now performed research with faculty from both departments. On another hand, as an almost senior at the time of my writing this, I'm thinking about the nature of my honors thesis. Having such longstanding relationships with both departments allows me to think about faculty from both as possible advisors, and even just being able to shoot them an email and get feedback and advice has been so, so crucial in my writing process.
For me, finding my major was a byproduct of taking a chance and choosing classes that caught my interest. Deviating from the plans you had pre-college isn't bad, and I'd argue a majority of Dartmouth students do just that. Don't confine yourself to your previous ideas about what you should do and take the time to scope out the College's offerings across the board. Whether you're looking at colleges, trying to choose between them, or already know where you're going, take the time to explore not just what you think you'll study, but also explore what you could study. Aloha a hui hou!
At Dartmouth, there is an undergraduate requirement for language; after all, it is the liberal arts! Fulfilling this requirement looks different for various people and I will focus on my experience.
Traditionally, Dartmouth students take three courses during a term, but I decided to take four courses this term! Learn about course load and the academic system at Dartmouth.
As I approach the halfway mark of my Dartmouth journey this spring, I find myself reflecting on the significance of distributive and world culture requirements in shaping my academic experience.
This is my final term before senior year, which is both exciting and terrifying at the same time. One thing I am excited about is the classes I am taking this term, so let me tell you more!
