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.
If you asked me if I saw myself spending my sophomore fall anywhere but Hanover a year ago, I would have definitely have said no. If you asked me if I saw myself in New Orleans…never, in a long, long time, but within just the start of this term, this city has already reached a very high rank on my list of cities.
Like many colleges, Dartmouth is a place where you can make some of the best friends of your life. And yet, because of its community and the way that the D-Plan works, I think that your friendships are fast-tracked; some of my first friends at Dartmouth are now my housemates after just two terms together — Dartmouth Difference, anyone?
Just to show you some of the adventures that make for the best study breaks, I want to tell you all about what we did between Zoom calls and computer science because honestly, it's too beautiful not to share.
Massive indie movie vibes...
Currently, I'm staying with three of my friends, but to celebrate the end of Week 2, my friend Pete came down to visit us from Oklahoma. After an eight-hour drive, we decided to celebrate the next day with a little socially-distanced and masked excursion into the French Quarter — beignets, coffee, and beautiful buildings to spare at every turn.
The beignets kind of reminded us of overrated, French-named funnel cake without the funnel, but we weren't about to be picky (especially after standing in line in Louisiana humidity). As a coffee critic, there was definitely room for improvement but anything but Keurig, right?
The next day, we went out for Sunday dinner on Bourbon Street at a Louisiana restaurant for some authentic Cajun food. Because of mood lighting, I didn't snap a blog-worthy picture but the shrimp po' boy was an absolute gamechanger. We actually were on a Zoom call during the entire dinner, which probably serves as the best metaphor for these times.
We took this before we realized we remembered what angles were, but it turned out pretty good, yeah?
We finished the night taking pictures on Bourbon Street and enjoying all of the vibes that come with a New Orleans sunrise. It might be the beginning of fall, but even without New England foliage (which we miss so much), we're finding some photoworthy memories.
Dartmouth people are the best people, hands down, and if you're thinking about coming here, just know that my friends and I couldn't imagine it any other way. We don't even need a campus!
I have written about being a student worker plenty of times in the past, but I have yet to talk about one of my favorite jobs ever: ticket selling at the Hopkins Center for the Arts.
It's not every day that my Intro to Chinese Culture and Understanding the Universe classes were both canceled, but the cosmos had other plans. Welcome to a rare weekday in my life with no classes!
