Student Fellows
We are pleased to announce our 2025-2026 cohort of CAH Student Fellows.
Chloe Bryant
I Can’t Move On is an ongoing novel I am posting on WebNovel, currently at 63 of 65 planned chapters, with over 140,000 words and 71,000 reads. During the fellowship, I plan to complete the remaining chapters, revise the manuscript, and prepare it for publication. Blending crime fiction and romance, the story follows Ryder Callahan, a 21-year-old dropout navigating systemic failure, identity, and vulnerability, whose life becomes entangled with a powerful mafia figure, Dominic Caruso, and the novel challenges stereotypes about young people of color and explores trauma, power, and connection, hoping to center marginalized voices with depth and complexity.
Raychel Hatch
"Every Cell: the Intersection of Mental Health, Culture, and the Soma. Faculty Supervisor" My project aims to investigate how somatic movement contributes to resilience in our mental health, through the lens of multicultural dance forms. In a 10-15 minute documentary, I will highlight various dance forms practiced within the Bay Area dance community –particularly dancehall, reggaeton, and contemporary fusion, as all three of which were created in the context of expansion and resistance. My exploration builds upon existing initiatives of holistic therapy –how can we consider every cell of the body in healing?
Tristen Lujan
For my project I will design and make four glass-on-glass mosaic portraits of trickster deities in different mythologies: Eris (Greek mythology), Loki (Norse mythology), Inari (Japanese mythology), and Set (Egyptian mythology). My objective is to visually capture portraits of characters that embody mischief, chaos, and an existence lived both in and out of the box. It’s a universal archetype that serves the unlikely purpose of maintaining balance and perspective in a world that would otherwise be all black and white.
Ambika Ramadurai
“Swarams & Solfège: Arranging Carnatic Music for Western Choir” brings together two rich musical traditions to create what is believed to be the first choral arrangement of Vātāpi Gaṇapatim, one of the most celebrated compositions in the South Indian classical tradition. Drawing on 15+ years of rigorous Carnatic training, Ambika will transcribe and arrange this piece, passed down entirely through oral tradition, into Western staff notation, while situating the work within ethnomusicological and South Asian diaspora scholarship. The resulting score will be made available to choral ensembles beyond SCU, contributing to a growing conversation about honoring musical heritage and bridging bicultural experiences.
Eddie Standifer
Eddie’s work will place James Baldwin’s corpus of texts (primarily Giovanni’s Room, Go Tell it On the Mountain, If Beale Street Could Talk and some selected essays) into conversation with broader feminist and queer theory (Judith Butler and bell hooks), with a specific focus on gender performance and gender binarism in the context of American socioeconomic and racial history. Using hooks' and Baldwin's extensive work on love as an optimistic, anti-authoritarian force for change, he aims to look for ways in which these authors sought to combat the oppressive forces they described, and what a contemporary audience may glean from these analyses in the context of present-day issues.
Past Student Fellows
2025 Fellows
2025-2026 Student Fellows
Sophie Copple '26 (English, French and Francophone Studies) "Critical Conversations with Virginia Woolf and Non-Canonized Minority Modernist Authors" (Advised by Danielle Morgan, English)
Morgan Drake '26 (Studio Art) “Flying into the Future” (Advised by Ryan Carrington, Art and Art History)
Ayden Eways '27 (Honors Political Science, Music) “Exiled Voices: A Musical Portrait of Palestinian Displacement” (Advised by Scot Hana Weir, Music)
Elise Fendon '26 (Studio Art) “Colors of Mourning” (Advised by Ryan Carrington, Art and Art History)
Ava Garcia '28 (Biology) “The Role of Music Therapy in Pediatric Care: Enhancing Emotional Well-being in Children with Medical Conditions, with a Focus on Pediatric Cardiology” (Advised by Teresa McCollough, Music; Dawn Hart, Biology)
Anthony Ventura '28 (English) “Storytelling Leader for Ohlone AR” (Advised by Amy Lueck, English)
2024 Fellows
2024-2025 Student Fellows
Isabella Perlman '25 (Psychology; Italian, Spanish, and Retail Studies Minors) “Scrivere il Gusto: Cooking with Cura Personalis and Hand-Crafting Your Culinary Narrative in a World of Prefabricated Palates” (Advised by Marie Bertola, Italian; Tim Urdan, Psychology; Melissa Donegan, English; Qiuwen Li, Graphic Design)
Kaitlin Webster '25 (Neuroscience and Women’s and Gender Studies) “A Black Feminist Investigation of Fashion” (Advised by Melissa Brown, Communications)
Katherine Ioffe '26 (Communication and Computer Science) “Beyond the Interface: An Ongoing Exploration of Design and Interaction” (Advised by Heather Turner)
Lauren Grover '25 (Studio Art and Marketing) “Hidden Treasures in Silicon Valley” (Advised by Ryan Carrington, Art and Art History)
Nate Hirschtick '25 (English & computer science) “Practice” (Advised by Daniel B. Summerhill, English)
Samuel Cao '25 (History, English, and Religious Studies) “California's Bracero Program: Racializing and Legalizing Mexican Transportation.” (Advised by Mateo Carrillo & Meg Gudgeirsson, History)
2023 Fellows
2023-2024 Student Fellows
Natalia Cantu '24, DH student fellow (English, Biology) "Digital Finding Tools for the Tenacious Box Set of Zines" (Advised by Kirstyn Leuner, English)
Miriam Chen Lin '26 (Psychology, Studio Art) “The Familiar Yet Esoteric Mind: The Psychological Reasoning of Identity and Mental Health in Undergraduate Students” (Advised by Jennifer Frihauf, Psychology; Jessica Eastburn, Studio Arts; Leandro Glory Damasco Jr., Dance; and Oliver Bochettaz, English)
Charlie DiNapoli '24 (Studio Art) “Shrines” (Advised by Pancho Jiménez, Studio Art)
Simon Lanzoni '24 (Studio Art, Music, Italian Studies) “Seeing in Tongues” (Advised by Ryan Carrington, Studio Art)
Natasha Moorjani '24 (Music, Political Science) “Choral Music and Justice” (Advised by Scot Hanna-Weir, Music)
Madysen Moreno '24 (Music, Philosophy) “Heard Her: A Concert Series” (Advised by Teresa McCollough, Music)
2022 Fellows
2022-2023 Student Fellows
Maddie Moran '24, (English, Spanish, Philosophy) "Digital Finding Tools for the Tenacious Box Set of Zines" (Advised by Prof. Kirstyn Leuner, English)
Alexandria Perez '23, (Public Health, Political Science, Women's and Gender Studies) "Traveling Tookor (Woman): A Journey of Self-Reflection and Decolonial Knowledge Production Healing through Indigenous Lands" (Advised by Prof. Sharmila Lodhia, Women's and Gender Studies & Prof. Jesica Fernandez, Ethnic Studies)
Bianca Romero '23, (History, French, Asian Studies) "Colonial Urban Planning in French Indochina" (Advised by Prof. Naomi Andrews, History)
Emma Rutter '23, (Neuroscience, Theatre and Dance)"Dance: A Stimulus for Memory?" (Advised by Prof. Patti Simone, Neuroscience and Prof. David Popalisky, Theatre, and Dance)
2021 Fellows
2021-2022 Student Fellows
Frances Bertotti-Metoyer ’22 (Music, History, and Ethnic Studies) and Sophia Flores ’22 (Music, Physics, and Ethnic Studies) for “Songs of Conservation” (advised by Bruno Ruviaro, Music)
Teresa Contino ’24 (English and Psychology), DH student fellow, for “Composing Collaborative Feminist Recovery Projects with Scalar” (advised by Amy Lueck, English)
Natalie Henriquez ’22 (History and Philosophy) for “Frankenstein and Artificial Intelligence Technology Today” (advised by Naomi Andrews, History)
Emma Kuli ’22 (English) for “Cultivating Creative Storytelling” (advised by Kirk Glaser, English/Creative Writing)
Sophie Wink ’22 (History) for “Women and Eugenics at the Maine School for the Feeble Minded” (advised by Amy Randall, History)
2018 Fellow
2018 Frank Sinatra Student Fellow
Julia Joyce '19, Political Science and English
Working with Danielle Morgan, Julia’s duties include aiding with final research tasks related to her book, Just Kidding: African American Satire, Selfhood, and the 21st Century and assisting with tasks related to research that W. Kamau Bell may undertake during his residency at Santa Clara. She hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in English and has a particular interest in African American Comedy. In addition to her love of English, Julia pursues her love of theater on the Mock Trial Team.