2024 SIAH Cohort

Major: American Indian Studies

Claire is a graduating senior who is thrilled to be spending her final quarter in SIAH. Throughout her academic career at UW she has explored Indigenous perspectives on climate justice, and is excited to incorporate her knowledge gained in SIAH involving more-than-human worlds and human-animal relations into these conversations. Being born and raised just outside of Detroit, Michigan, she has focused on an independent study examining policies relating to the inclusion of Indigenous-centered K-12 public school curricula in Michigan and Washington throughout her senior year. This examination of policy and other academic experiences have led her to pursue the goal of continuing her education in law school in the upcoming years, where she hopes to remain in academia and explore how legal policies impact human and more-than-human worlds and their relationship to climate injustice. Throughout SIAH, Claire is excited to break out of her comfort zone and explore how both English and Southern Lushootseed terms for animals and animal products relate to human-animal relations in communities speaking these languages.

Majors: Informatics; English

Aileen is a rising junior at the University of Washington with majors in Informatics and English. She is passionate about storytelling and its potential to disrupt dominant narratives and imagine a liberated future for all. In the past, she has interned at nonprofits All Girl Everything Ultimate Program and Powerful Voices, where she facilitates social justice workshops for and mentors youth in the Seattle area. After graduation, she intends to pursue a Ph.D. in English. In her free time, Aileen enjoys cooking, attending concerts, running, and visiting antique and thrift shops.

Majors: History; Comparative History of Ideas
Minor: Labor Studies

Al is a senior, graduating at the end of SIAH with majors in History and CHID and a minor in labor studies. Al is interested in studying systems of race, power and empire, with particular focuses on 20th-century histories of civil rights, organized labor, Anti-war and anti-imperialism movements, and other geopolitical tensions of the Cold War era. Other interests include oral history, collective memory, Jewish studies, queer studies and film phenomenology (intellectual way of saying they watch stupid movies and try to produce thoughts about them). During SIAH, Al hopes to look at storytelling as a tool for building multispecies solidarity. After graduation, Al is interested in pursuing a master’s degree in Library and Information Science, with hopes of continuing their work in libraries and trying to combat archival violence.

Major: Psychology

Arshia Batra is a rising junior studying psychology at the University of Washington. She is a photographer, writer, and aspiring-scholar who explores identity, relationships, and bodies in both her creative work and research-oriented work at UW’s Social Identity Lab. Arshia is inspired by the forests, lakes and wildlife of her hometown, Issaquah, and by the people, art, and music of her new home, Seattle. She has published her poetry in literary journals like October Hill Magazine and The Avenue, is working on a novel (the first one she’ll finish, fingers-crossed), and is trying to get into fashion photography. At SIAH, she’s turned her focus from human portraiture to that of captive animals, examining the politics of how they’re portrayed, new methods of portrayal, and challenging whether we should view animals through photographic media at all.

Majors: Political Science; Comparative History of Ideas

Minor: Leadership

Ailani is a rising senior at the University of Washington double majoring in Political Science and Comparative History of Ideas with a special interest in Oceania and Pasifika Studies. As a Pasifika diaspora student, Ailani is particularly passionate about ethnographic research and archiving missing Indigenous narratives in the Northern Mariana Islands. One of Ailani’s interests includes conducting future research on the history of migration in the Northern Marianas from 1950 to 1970, with focus on U.S. militarization and Indigenous land displacement for my future SIAH, and senior thesis project. Ailani looks forward to working with such an amazing 2024 SIAH teaching team, and collaborating with such passionate, academically driven students!

Major: Informatics

Hannah Phanitchob, a rising sophomore at the University of Washington, is interested in all things creative. She thrives on delving deep into topics that fascinate her, bringing her research findings to life through various forms of artistic expression. As a student at UW, Hannah works towards combining her technological endeavors, artistic pursuits, and passion for research. Within SIAH 2024, Hannah will be diving into online social spheres to examine how misinformation is spread about cloning, more-than-human worlds, and humans themselves. Through these examinations, she asks how we can expand the concept of “personhood” to fit cloned life, both human and more-than-human.

Major: Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies

Rachel is a rising senior from Issaquah, Washington. She is pursuing a degree in Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies. This summer at SIAH she has a deep interest in visual art and local Seattle history. With a passion for creative expression and cultural understanding, Rachel hopes to engage with questions of how the natural world is represented within colonial visual culture. In her leisure time, she enjoys the calming practices of reading, playing club volleyball, and practicing yoga. Looking to the future, Rachel aspires to attend law school and build a career as an attorney. She is extremely grateful for this program, the support of the teaching team, her fellow cohort members, and her university. GO DAWGS!

Major: Computer Science

Minor: Digital Arts & Experimental Media

Ian is a rising senior at the University of Washington, majoring in Computer Science and minoring in Digital Art and Experimental Media. As a software developer and sound designer, he aspires to merge these two areas of interest in his work. Currently, Ian is the lead developer and software engineer for Clync, a startup in the greater Seattle area focused on easing the move-in process for apartment residents and owners. He primarily engages in full-stack development for the company, and he and the cofounders plan to release the beta version of their app in the coming months. His academic pursuits are centered on computer programming and audio production, utilizing various languages and technologies to create and inspire. His work has been featured in various DXARTS galleries and exhibits, and he hopes to display more projects in the future. Ian’s other interests include reading and writing poetry, competing in various sports, and exploring the world of fashion. Through SIAH, he hopes to investigate the relationship between AI and more-than-human worlds through soundscape composition, machine learning and audio analysis of endangered species.

Major: Economics (BA)

Aditi is a rising sophomore at the University of Washington. She is pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Economics. She was born and raised in Renton, Washington. Her academic journey is driven by a passion for public policy and the impact of policy on marginalized groups. SIAH is Aditi’s first research endeavor at the UW and she aims to apply the themes of the Institute outside of the classroom as well. In her research, Aditi will be studying local Indigenous relationships with Mt. Rainier/Tahoma and explore Indigenous frameworks of “making kin” with other-than-human lifeworlds.

Major: Political Science

Minors: Law, Societies & Justice; Human Rights; Data Science

Being a differently abled first-generation Vietnamese American, Emily is breaking new ground as the first in her family to pursue legal and social science studies at the UW Honors College. As a Jackson Munro Public Service Fellow, she is deeply committed to serving marginalized communities, including more than human life, and hopes to examine the law and how it serves or undermines the welfare and rights of such groups. Previously, Emily has assisted in legal research under the mentorship of UW professors, focusing on topics such as political violence, human rights, and immigration.   Graciously funded by the Mary Gates Scholar Endowment, Emily is conducting research on the legal distinctions between animals closer in proximity to humans, such as domestic pets, versus industrialized animals during her time at SIAH. Her work examines the broader implications of these laws on more-than-human life and human relationships with these species and spaces.   This fall, Emily will teach a course for incoming UW students, aiming to bridge the gap for those unsure how to participate in undergraduate research opportunities. Passionate about continuing her journey in community-centered public service, advocacy and leadership, Emily aspires to continue her education and work in law school and beyond.

Major: English

Minor: Textual Studies and Digital Humanities

Jules is a rising senior studying English and Textual Studies & Digital Humanities, and previously transferred to the UW from Cascadia College. She works in the UW library system, so you may see her shelving books or staffing the desk at the smaller libraries on campus, like the Music or Engineering libraries. Her lifelong love of libraries will see her pursue an MLIS postgrad and eventual career in librarianship with a focus in Archives. She steadfastly believes in the mission of libraries: providing accessibility of information and the preservation of stories and history, while recognizing the need for the field to understand its current systemic biases and blindspots. She is an avid reader, hockey enjoyer, and lifelong Taylor Swift enthusiast. Jules has a passion for storytelling in all forms, not just the written word. This informed her decision to participate in SIAH. The institute’s theme centering more-than-human worlds evoked connections to not only the imaginary in science fiction fantasy but in the way we interact with and recognize them in our normal everyday. She hopes to carry the institute’s emphasis on compassionate interdisciplinary thought forward into her future studies at the UW and beyond.

Majors: Global Literary Studies; Computer Science

Jake is a rising sophomore studying Global Literary Studies and Computer Science. He is a life-long resident of the Georgetown neighborhood in South Seattle. He is passionate about advocating for environmental justice and currently serves as a lead on the Port of Seattle’s Community Action Team. In this role, he holds the Port of Seattle to their commitments to the Duwamish Valley. In his research in the Summer Institute he plans to study the impact of industrialization and heavy pollution on the more-than-human world. This topic will tie into his deep love for his home and allow him to further push for healthy environmental remediation in his community, to remedy a century of pollution.

Major: Intended Business

For this year’s SIAH, Paula aims to shift away from solely looking at the human perception of time, and instead imagining what unique experiences of temporality are like in the more-than-human world. She hopes to explore her curiosity for storytelling through an animation. In her free time Paula enjoys munching on blueberries and taking naps.

Major: English

Adam is a rising senior at the University of Washington. As an English major, he is passionate about the way that language, both our use and knowledge of it, can change the way we think and thus change the world around us. He began his undergrad journey at the age of thirty by way of Shoreline Community College before transferring to UW and is applying for MFA programs in creative writing. Through SIAH, he is researching how more-than-human life is affected by cobalt mining in DRC as world demand grows heavily for this mineral in order to power the EVs which will allow us to end the use of fossil fuels. By following the supply chain of Li-ion batteries to its beginning, Adam is exercising his passion of understanding the workers, the labor that makes things possible, both human and more-than-human, and hopes that this research will be just the beginning of a larger work.

Major: History

Minor: Spanish

India is a rising senior at the University of Washington majoring in history with a minor in Spanish. Concentrating on the history of race, gender, and power, she is especially interested in conceptions of gender, religion, and nature in the ancient world, themes she hopes to explore through her research project. Born and raised in Seattle, India has found through SIAH a new appreciation of the more-than-human beings and natural landscapes in and around her home. In her free time, India loves to swim, read, and travel; she studied abroad at the UW Rome Center and will spend a quarter in Germany and Spain this coming year. She is incredibly grateful for the opportunity to participate in SIAH, the endless support and dedication of the teaching team, and the ability to work alongside such driven and passionate peers.

Majors: Environmental Science & Research Management; Comparative History of Ideas

Jillian is a rising junior in Environmental Science and Comparative History of Ideas, always trying to understand the people and the world around her in different ways. Jillian loves learning about the lived experiences and perspectives of everyone she meets, while keeping another ear attuned to what is happening more quietly: the wind, the fungi, the leaves decaying beneath the trees. At the end of the day, all we really have is each other, so why not try to listen a little closer?

Majors: Drama; Comparative History of Ideas

Colleen is a nationally recognized, award-winning actor and arts producer. A graduating senior, Colleen is double majoring in Comparative History of Ideas and Drama. She plans to apply her research toward devising theater that challenges audiences to critically examine Western canons of dramatic literature as well as futurities in theater, and their role in shaping our understanding of our humanity. Combining insights from her professional career with contemporary scholarship has inspired Colleen to focus her praxis on environmental and social justice issues. While at UW, Colleen has pursued honors coursework in American ethnic studies and borderlands cultural policy, studied atmospheric climate science and global migrations, and honed her professional skills in graduate-level studio acting work. After graduation, Colleen plans to return to pandemic-interrupted creative projects that deconstruct and recontextualize early modern dramatic texts, as well as furthering her academic studies in theater and performance theory in graduate school. Colleen is grateful to the Mary Gates Scholar Endowment for supporting her research in the SIAH program this summer. This gracious funding has enabled her to situate critical animal studies, multispecies ethnography, and theater scholarship in conversation, offering insight into how theater praxis can evolve beyond human-centered ideologies to embrace more-than-human dramaturgy.