'20 Fellows

Class of 2020 Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program Fellows

Ruby Bantariza Ruby Bantariza is a senior from Scottsdale, Arizona majoring in Peace and Conflict Studies and double minoring in Education and Film and Media Studies. Her research interests include archives, zones of conflict, and Sub-Saharan Africa. In the summer of 2019, Ruby conducted research on the role of family archives-for example photos, videos, or documents saved by the family-during and following the Rwandan genocide. This year she will be developing her research further through examining how archives influence the documentation of conflict, the significance of family archivists, and the relationship between family archives and post-genocide reconciliation efforts. After graduating from Swarthmore, Ruby plans to further explore her research interests in a PhD program.

Jessica Hernandez Jessica Hernandez is a senior from Boston, MA. Majoring in Peace and Conflict Studies, her academic interests include community-based agriculture, anthropology, and film. Over the summer, Jessica spent her time working on a thirty-acre farm with high schoolers while conducting research on urban agricultural models. Her Mellon Mays study focuses on women and farming, examining their motivations for joining community gardens and growing food. Drawing on scholarship relating to culture, nature, and the gaps created by white-supremacist capitalism, Jessica hopes to gain an understanding of how farming might begin to repair the rift and reclaim culture. This year Jessica is a Student Academic Mentor at Swarthmore and hopes to get more involved with WSRN, Swarthmore’s radio station. After graduating, she plans to matriculate into a PhD program with a concentration in Geography.

Leslie Moreaux Leslie Moreaux (Shey/They) is a senior from the (South) Bronx, NY majoring in Black Studies. As a Black Studies Major, Leslie focuses on Afro-Dominican religious manifestations, the significance of botanicas in the Dominican Republic and the Dominican diaspora, and race formation in the Dominican Republic. Last semester, Leslie studied abroad in Santiago, Dominican Republic, where they attended several Afro-Dominican religious manifestations as well as interviewed employees of botanicas. This year, Leslie is an intern at the Intercultural Center and will be working on the IC Art House, a monthly open mic.

Emma Morgan-Bennett Emma Morgan-Bennett is a senior from New York City completing an Honors Major in Medical Anthropology and a Black Studies minor. Her research focuses primarily on reproduction, racial marginalization, and culturally congruent healthcare. This past summer Emma collected written and visual data for her thesis project on Radical Doula care as contextualized by the Black Maternal Health Crisis in Austin, Texas. Outside of the classroom, Emma volunteers her time as a full-spectrum doula, plays volleyball, sings in the band Funk the Patriarchy, and is the co-director of Eat At The Table Theatre Company. Upon graduating from Swarthmore, she looks forward to pursuing a PhD in Anthropology and further exploring visual mediums as cultural tools for increasing equity as related to race, gender, and health.

Ariba Naqvi Ariba Naqvi is a senior double honors major in History and Peace and Conflict Studies from Arlington, Texas. Her research interests include the relationship between colonization and gender/sexuality, comparative studies between modern histories of South Asia and the Middle East, and anticolonial nationalist movements of the 20th century. She spent this past summer as a research fellow with the Mellon Mays Writing and Research Training Program at UCLA studying the impact of British colonization on gender and sexuality-based norms in Muslim communities in South Asia after the 1860 penal code for her senior thesis. This year, she will conduct further research on how anticolonial nationalist movements in South Asia incorporated colonial frameworks and used mechanisms of the modern nation-state to regulate and police forms of sexuality that were deemed regressive and unproductive to national development. Upon graduating from Swarthmore, Ariba hopes to pursue a PhD in History.

Elyse O'Bannon Elyse O’Bannon is a senior Honors Religion Major and Black Studies minor from Dallas, TX. Her research interests include funeral rituals and grieving behaviors, the industrialization of funeral practices, and social media as a tool for mourning. During the summer of 2019, Elyse participated in the MURAP program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Under the guidance of Dr. Michelle Robinson, she researched how social media sites inform grieving practices online by studying how Facebook’s company policy informs expressions of grief on the platform. Upon graduating from Swarthmore, she intends to pursue a PhD in Religious Studies to expand upon her current research interests in cultural practices of death and dying.

Hamzah Qureshi Hamzah Qureshi is a senior double majoring in Religion and Peace and Conflict Studies from Carteret, New Jersey. His specific research interests include Islam, Sufism, and comparative religion in South Asia. In the summer of 2019, he conducted thesis research on sectarian conflicts between Muslim groups in Pakistan and India. Throughout his senior year, Hamzah will continue this research alongside studying Arabic in hopes of pursuing a PhD in Islamic Studies after graduating from Swarthmore.