Senior Alexandra Kamler is studying the dynamics of power in the Americas, exploring, among other things, how power discrepancies are manifested in health and educational disparities. Among the many courses that have been influential, she cites the interdisciplinary seminar taught by Marie Cruz Soto, “Feminism, Empire and the Americas,” which, she says, “pushed me to engage in the various ways in which feminism is tied to notions about the state and how power is dynamic and changing.” In addition, Marcella Runell Hall’s “Lyrics on Lockdown” course showed her how “inequalities in power manifesting from the nation’s inability to deal with its racist past have created a situation where certain populations are disproportionately represented in Riker’s Island.”
An Americas Scholar at Gallatin, Kamler also received a Gallatin Global Human Rights Fellowship to travel to Guatemala, where she worked with a local public high school outside of Antigua, engaging with the local community to create a sexual-health education program for the students. “I like that Gallatin teachers try to inspire their students,” she says. “I am also grateful that once teachers inspire students to dream up and create ways of working with issues and ideas, there is a system in place to support the students so that those ambitions are realized.”
