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2016 Summer Fellows Research Journal

Aydin Anwar is a rising sophomore from Fairfax, Virginia, interested in studying Neuroscience and Documentary Studies.  This summer, she will be traveling to Istanbul and Kayseri, Turkey to delve into the past and present stories of the Uyghur diaspora population by interviewing Uyghur refugees and creating a documentary film. Through the film, she hopes to not only shed light on the stories of an unknown, oppressed population, but also influence the viewers’ framing of their ethical viewpoints.

Evan Nicole Bell is a rising junior from Columbia, Maryland, pursuing a Program II degree entitled “Documenting Justice: The Role of Photographic Narratives in Activism.” Evan will spend the summer facilitating a non-profit initiative that she founded to subsidize the cost of travel for children in the Baltimore-Washington corridor to visit their incarcerated parents. Additionally, she will partner with a national non-profit to advocate for improving the quality and efficacy of parent-child visits. She will share the stories of families affected by incarceration in an ethical, meaningful way by culminating her work in the creation of a documentary photography portfolio and exhibition.

Amanda Gavcovich is a rising junior from Miami, Florida, majoring in Public Policy and Women’s Studies. She spent her last summer interning for a Florida State Attorney’s office, curious about the ethics that guide all involved in criminal justice. The project will consist of conducting interviews of prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges as well as taking a deeper look into jury selection to uncover racial, gender, and socioeconomic biases employed in criminal proceedings. The main focus will be on the changing attitude on the death penalty in Florida and language used in sexual battery cases.

Rajiv Golla is a rising senior from Daytona Beach, Florida, studying Political Science, History, and Visual Media Studies. While in South Sudan in July 2015, he met a number of Indian commodity traders based in Juba that had amassed fortunes supplying basic goods to the war stricken nation. Their presence is a common sight in the continent’s most fraught areas; this summer, Rajiv will be traveling to Kampala, Uganda, and Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, to study these Indian entrepreneurs and their relations to the wars in neighboring countries. He will investigate the networks and justifications they employ in profiteering from devastating conflict and the threads they hold in the fragile institutions that govern these nations.