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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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Winter in Hawaiʻi: Linguistics DSP 2022 Highlights!

At the time of my writing this post, I'm sitting in my new room on campus after spending my entire junior winter term in Hawai'i, on the islands of O'ahu and Big Island, as a member of the Linguistics DSP. While I sometimes missed campus when doing linguistics homework by the beach, now I miss Hawai'i tremendously and can't stop thinking about some of my favorite memories of my term there. We had the opportunity to talk to so many amazing scholars, teachers, artists, and activists all doing incredible things for the local community while staying grounded in Native Hawaiian culture and worldview. I wouldn't have passed this opportunity up for the world. Here's just a little bit about what we did!

  1. No. 1

    Harvesting kalo at Hoʻokuaʻāīna!

    Image of Hoʻokuaʻāina, a loʻi in Oʻahu where the local Hawaiian community comes together to plant kalo.

    Our first excursion was to a loʻi in eastern Oʻahu known as Hoʻokuaʻāina. Here, kalo (known as taro), is planted in the wetland style, submerged under water. As a nonprofit organization, Hoʻokuaʻāina employs local residents and teaches the local community about Hawaiian culture. Headed by Native Hawaiians, we learned about Hawaiian culture, heard stores that explained kalo's significance to the Hawaiian people, and even got involved in harvesting the kalo. We all ended up waist-deep in the muddy water of the loʻi, but got to harvest and weed alongside some incredible people. Couldn't have had a better introductory excursion for our DSP!

  2. No. 2

    Traveling around Hawaiʻi!

    Image of a few Linguistics students during the Linguistics DSP to Hawaiʻi from January to March 2022. At Laupahoehoe.

    When we weren't learning Hawaiian or documenting Micronesian languages, we tried to spend as much time as possible exploring the island on our own. Coastline drives along scenic routes meant plenty of possible time spent finding the best views. This picture was taken at Laupāhoehoe on Big Island. The water was so clear, you could see fish swimming around at your feet. Additionally, it was a great time to bond with some of the other students, most of whom I'd never had a longer conversation with. I really enjoyed being able to meet my classmates and explore with them - amazing people who I'm glad aren't just friendly faces anymore!

  3. No. 3

    Touring ʻIolani Palace in downtown Waikīkī!

    Image of Gabriel Gilbert, Sheen Kim, and Aaní Perkins in front of ʻIolani Palace.

    One of our excursions was a guided tour of ʻIolani Palace, where we learned about some of the ruling chiefs and monarchs in Hawaiʻi. Because the palace was the residence of the monarchs Kalākaua and Liliʻuokalani, walking around their living quarters and learning about the different events and ceremonies that had transpired there was pretty surreal. Experiences like these where we get to see the places and people we've read about in person really empowered our learning experiences. For most of my life, I'd read about the palace and its residents in Hawaiian history, and yet to walk around a building that had electricity before the White House? Just incredible.

  4. No. 4

    Planting Indigenous flora!

    Image of Alessa Lewis, Gabriel Gilbert, and Sheen Kim around a kukui nut tree that they planted at Paʻaiau fishpond in ʻAiea, HI.

    During our time in Hawaiʻi, we got to learn a lot about the impacts of globalization on Hawaiian biodiversity. As part of our programming, we planted Indigenous plants that had been devastated by invasive species. In the picture above, we are planting a kukui nut tree, which has a lot of cultural significance to Native Hawaiians and is a plant native to the islands. Numerous times, we had the opportunity to learn from leading experts who helped us understand the ramifications of lax legislation when it comes to environmental protections. Being able to work on the land alongside those experts was just another example of the unparalleled experiential learning we got to enjoy while on the DSP. 

Posted 04/4/2022 at 9:00 AMAll List Posts

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