Here’s a look at how the 2018 HAND Fellows spend their summers:

May Li ’20 used her HAND grant to study Mexican muralism and urban art in Mexico City. She explored how urban art’s rise in the city has impacted the local communities and the city’s development as a cultural hotspot. She met with urban artists from different backgrounds to see their works and learn what inspires them and spoke with the Director of MasterPeace Mexico, a nonprofit organization that uses murals and other art initiatives to promote peace. She also visited historic locations, such as the Secretariat of Public Education, to view and discuss murals from the Mexican Revolution by famous Mexican muralists such as Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros. May’s experience culminated in the creation of her own mural in the streets of Mexico City. She says, “By examining the deep-rooted connections between Mexico’s history, its cultural identity, and the existence and appearance of modern-day urban art within Mexico City, I was able to gain a deeper awareness of how my own experiences and sense of self can inform my art.” 

A HAND grant enabled Walter Li ’19 to spend four weeks in Israel-Palestine examining how grassroots organizations and activists are working to ease tensions between Israelis and Palestinians and how this work can be applied in larger political and cultural situations. Walter worked at an English day camp at the Hand-in-Hand School for Israeli and Palestinian children and traveled throughout Israel and the West Bank to gain a sense of the everyday tensions and dynamics that exist in this multifaceted region. He also met with many peace organizations and activists working to unite and create dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians to learn more about their efforts and impact. Walter says the experience taught him “not to take things at face-value and to examine the nuances inherent in how people interact in different parts of the world. I began to question things around me and learned to navigate an unfamiliar region, make contacts with different kinds of people, and, most importantly, learn for the sake of learning and curiosity.”   

Also a HAND fellow, Kayla Zamanian ’19 traveled to Morocco to study how French colonization developed values of multilingualism and multiculturalism in the country. She investigated how the presence of both Arabic and French cultures has played out in the identities of post-colonial generations of Moroccans. Kayla says, “The most valuable part of my experience was being surrounded by the unparalleled kindness and generosity of the faculty I worked with who shared their knowledge and guided me in decoding the complex pleats of the rich Moroccan identity. Through my immersion in and interactions with a culture that so deeply values multilingualism and multiculturalism, I was able to see first-hand just how strong the correlation is between such values and the undeniable tolerance, humility, and empathy of the Moroccan people. Their unconditional acceptance of one another, and foreigners like myself, showed me that human kindness and compassion have no borders—neither geographic, ethnic, religious, nor linguistic.”