Directory

As an undergraduate at Rutgers I discovered my intellectual passions at the nexus of Classical languages and cultural history. Through my work on a newly-discovered papal archive in Rome (the Archivio Boncompagni Ludovisi at the Villa Aurora), I began to engage with the complex social, cultural and political histories of the Classical tradition and its legacies. At Cambridge, I will integrate these focuses by studying Roman historiography and Classical reception. My central concern involves historical consciousness and the sociology of memory. I am fascinated with how the category of the Classics is under negotiation and frames the way cultures interact with the past and their own histories. Ultimately, I intend to take a comparative approach to the Classical tradition and concentrate on its legacy in the nineteenth century United States. I am particularly interested in history education, especially in underserved communities, and in continuing my work at the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History in New York City. I am inexpressibly honored to join the Gates Cambridge community. I recognize that this distinction challenges me to ensure that my studies and energies benefit others.

Previous Education

Rutgers University

Having grown up in India and the UK, and living in different parts of the world to seek knowledge in subjects from the theoretical and practical sciences, with teachers in the Western and Islamic scholarly traditions, my current doctoral research project is concerned with exploring the constitution of 'ilm and an 'aalim, focusing particularly on bodies and language.

As the trilingual daughter of a traditional West African healer, my identity embodies the complexity of diaspora, migration, and collective memory. My research interests are in African identity formation, the social, political, and historical processes which inform various African experiences across and through diaspora. Through a historical lens, I have investigated the practice of female circumcision and how to apply this analysis to aid contemporary efforts to address the practice. My past research explored British colonial narratives on female circumcision in Kenya and received the highest honour thesis award in the History Department at Spelman College. In 2012, I collaborated with the Vice President of the Gambia to organize the first national conference on women’s health to mutually create strategies to address women’s health disparities. I am committed to contributing to knowledge production that engages with communities and their material realities. At Cambridge I continue to excavate how historical forces inform contemporary moments in African Studies, by examining how colonial legacies of women’s advocacy around female circumcision endure in the present.

Previous Education

University of Cambridge
Spelman College

Throughout my undergraduate education, my research has focused mainly on experimental 20th-century poetry of the American and Russian traditions. Recently I have examined Language Poetry and Russian Formalism, Ezra Pound and structuralism, and Vladimir Mayakovsky's Bolshevik Futurism. In the American MPhil program I will explore how two modernist American writers' formal innovations were influenced by the British and European cultures they immigrated to, while focusing on their contrary but related approaches to poetic language. This study will compare Ezra Pound's vorticism and "The Cantos" with Gertrude Stein's attention to the autonomous value of the word in "Tender Buttons." My career goals are to enter academia and continue to work to support cross-cultural academic dialogue.

I am broadly interested in using ecological and mathematical approaches to answer questions in infectious disease epidemiology. I did my masters and PhD in Dr. Caroline Trotter’s group in the Disease Dynamics Unit at Cambridge, where I applied mathematical modelling techniques and traditional epidemiological analysis to better understand and reduce the burden of meningitis in the African meningitis belt. In 2019 I joined the Vaccine Epidemiology Research Group led by Professor Nick Grassly at Imperial College, where I study the epidemiology of vaccine-derived polioviruses.

Previous Education

Princeton University

Links

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/l.cooper
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lvcooper

I grew up in San Juan, Puerto Rico, spending my weekends camping on mountaintops and coastlines, with my amazing parents, little brother, and friends, staring up at the starry night next to a warm fire. I always yearned to learn more about the night sky, a path that eventually led me to my undergraduate study of Astrophysics at Harvard University. I have researched several aspects of observational cosmology, the study and measurement of the earliest signals from the universe, and what they tell us about how the universe began, and its eventual fate. I have often partnered with several organizations to create outreach programs in which we teach young students, both in Boston and Puerto Rico, about the cosmic and human past, hoping to instill intellectual curiosity and empower them to pursue their passions. At the same time, I strove to understand humanity’s more immediate past by completing a secondary field in Archaeology, inspired by the questions I held concerning who had previously stared at the stars from those same coastlines in Puerto Rico. Embarking on an MPhil in Archeology of the Americas, with a focus on Archeoastronomy, I hope to illuminate the deep astronomical traditions of Ancient American peoples, and how these help inform our own conception of the universe, our history, and ourselves.

Previous Education

Harvard University Bachelor of Arts (A.B.) Astrophysics - Physics 2019

I am fascinated by the potential of emerging biomedical tools to treat new diseases. A native of Massachusetts, I graduated from Harvard University, where I studied neuroscience in several contexts, including retinal disease in premature infants, nontraditional symptoms in Alzheimer's disease patients, and synaptic patterning in the developing brain. More recently, I conducted thesis research into how young neurons decide to assemble specific circuits in the outer retina. While teaching children throughout the US and Southeast Asia, I have also witnessed the personal challenges of healthcare access around the world. These experiences have guided my belief that biomedical research must combine technical progress with new modes of development and distribution. At Cambridge I will pursue an MPhil in Bioscience Enterprise, which will prepare me to address these questions through a career in medicine. Outside my studies I hope to continue my other interests in jazz music, youth coaching, and woodworking.

Previous Education

Harvard University

I grew up in Newtown, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Indian immigrants to the United States and a student in the local public school system. As an undergraduate at Harvard, I studied the intersections between Arabic, French, and English literary traditions and have spent much of my time focused on cross-cultural dialogue and education through my work at the Pluralism Project, the Philips Brooks House Association, and CONTACT peer counseling. Through the Arts, Creativity, Education, and Culture (ACEC) track of the MPhil in Education at Cambridge, I am excited to explore how the arts and creative thinking can teach students to engage across differences. After Cambridge, I plan to return to the United States and work towards becoming a secondary school English teacher through the Boston Teacher Residency program. Ultimately, I hope to translate my experiences as a student and teacher into a career in education policy, focusing on how educators can engage with cultural diversity.

My passion for technology began as a junior at Christian Academy of Louisville. All 10 of us in the AP Computer Science class could take a unique path to the solution and still l not have exhausted all the options. This limitless world of possibilities inspired a young boy who wanted to make some binary contributions. Looking to pursue this drive while also continuing my family’s nine generations of contiguous military service, I looked towards the US Naval Academy for my undergraduate foundation. On major selection day, I rallied to the calling, and I joined the first ever group of Cyber Operations majors. This interdisciplinary degree offers a technical foundation in traditional computer science courses, while appreciating the importance of additional considerations within the domain by including policy and human factors classes. I plan to further develop my holistic exploration into this emerging cyber domain by studying for an MPhil in Technology Policy in the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge. This education will provide the critical international aperture and public-private sector knowledge necessary to best fulfill my naval career as an Information Warfare Officer actuating US cyber directives. I am humbled to join the Gates Scholarship community and work with globally focused, deeply passionate scholars in a united passion to elevate the state of humanity across all domains and disciplines.

Previous Education

United States Naval Academy

Originally from Monterey, CA I completed my BS in Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley after transferring from Monterey Peninsula College. Throughout my educational career, I developed my passion for research in synthetic biology, mentorship, and outreach. At Cambridge, I hope to overcome contemporary uropathogenic Escherichia coli antibiotic resistance and other bacterial resistance towards UTIs through the discovery of novel alternatives to traditional beta-lactam antibiotics. After my PhD, I hope to continue research projects that will advance global health as well as increase diversity in STEM education.

Previous Education

University of California, Berkeley Chemical Engineering 2023
Monterey Peninsula College Chemical Engineering 2021

I studied music at McGill University (BMus 2010, concentration piano performance) and Cambridge University (MPhil 2011; PhD 2018). I then supervised undergraduates for one year at the Cambridge Music Faculty, teaching postcolonial studies, ethnomusicology, and sound studies. My PhD thesis focused on the fundamental role of craftsmanship in the formation of gendered institutions in antiquity. My career now bridges the practical and academic. I work alongside the craftsmen and women at the Estonia Piano Factory who preserve endangered traditional skills of hand-crafting the highest quality musical instruments. I also plan to continue part-time academic research and teaching.

Previous Education

University of Cambridge MPhil Ethnomus 2011
McGill University B.Mus (Hons.) 2010

As a first generation born American, I have always been between two cultures. Music is a large part of my cultural identity and I have always been proud of being a Caribbean man, however, music in the mainstream will often make people like me feel less American which can create a shameful attitude towards our own culture. My passion for choral music is greater than simply singing in an ensemble because when we explore music from other cultures and sing their songs after learning about the song's history, we can get a glimpse into a culture that is not our own. When we have performances highlighting Traditional Folk music from various countries and Classical music on the same stage we begin to bridge the chasm of the hidden curriculum perpetuated by many of our music educators. Each voice in a chorus has an important role and each person's identity and experiences add to the importance of music making. I want to help acknowledge composers, musicians, and lyricists who might not have had their work circulated through the mainstream as often and use those voices to break down those walls of prejudice in music education. I am humbled to join the Gates Scholar community and I look forward to collaborating with my colleagues.

Previous Education

Teachers College, Columbia University M.A in Music and Music Education 2018
City University of New York B.F.A Music/Concentration Classical Voice (Summa Cum Laude) 2016
Seminole State College of Florida Associate of Arts 2010

I strongly believe in the power of modern diplomacy to prevent and resolve conflict and address challenges. But diplomacy must evolve to meet the changing needs of a globalized world and adapt to new realities that are characterized by the emergence of non-traditional non-state actors, the increase of IT and social media, interdependent economies, and environmental and global health concerns. Another key issue to be addressed is the gross underrepresentation of women in leadership and their lacking participation in diplomatic efforts, into which issue I gained extensive insight during my internship at UN-Women. Progress can be achieved by making diplomatic practice more transparent, inclusive, and accessible, allowing for innovative and creative collaboration among relevant diplomatic levels and actors in efforts to tackle complex new challenges. As a Palestinian-German woman and aspiring peace mediator, I wish to contribute to the evolution of diplomacy to better uphold human rights and respond to humanitarian and societal concerns. Having grown up in Palestine under conflict, I experienced firsthand its detrimental, multi-faceted impact on people's lives. For my research, I will analyze arguments that link conflict to ethnic identity while examining the role of leadership.

Previous Education

Connecticut College International Relations 2019
Connecticut College Architectural Studies 2019

I was born and raised in the Santa Monica Mountains, just north of Los Angeles, California. Growing up there, the chaparral and oak forests offered an impeccable education in the processes of the natural world. Above all, it left me deeply interested in the relationships between human beings and ecosystems—an interest that led me to archaeology. Unfortunately, American archaeology has a long tradition of perpetuating Manifest Destiny in the creation and control of Native American history and identity—leaving a legacy of intergenerational trauma tied to the field. Coming from a Native family, these issues aren’t simply theoretical but lived experiences. At the same time, I’ve seen the potential of archaeological research guided by Native communities in strengthening and rebuilding ancestral knowledge and validating tribal history. During my time at the University of California, Berkeley, I worked on collaborative projects with Native communities and came to understand the potential for archaeology as a decolonizing practice capable of empowering Indigenous self-determination. I see great promise in the meeting of scientific and Native worldviews that they can be mutually informative and co-creative in developing meaningful answers for the problems we are facing today. While at Cambridge I will work towards understanding my own ancestors while pursuing a decolonizing archaeology that can meaningfully support, empower, inform Indigenous communities. I am very excited to be part of the Gates Cambridge community and look forward being part of a diverse group of international scholars collectively working to improve the lives of others.

Previous Education

University of California, Berkeley

I am a young researcher in history of music trained in France (Paris Conservatoire, ENS de Paris, EHESS). My research interests are in contemporary history and include music festivals, cultural transfers between France and England and women musicians.My PhD at Cambridge is untitled « Music festivals in post-war France: International competition, decentralisation and cultural regionalism (1945-1975) ». I will investigate how classical music festivals acted as shelters for stage music in the context of a collapse of the traditional opera system and how a “local” focus was used to promote the idea that some towns had been protected from change in the aftermath of the Second World War, through several case studies (Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Mai musical de Bordeaux, Festival de Royan, Théâtre des Nations).

Previous Education

Ecole Normale Supérieure Musique 2023
Conservatoire de Paris CNSMDP Histoire de la musique 2022
EHESS Musique 2020

I was born and raised in the small city of Puyang in central China. I believe that an understanding of the past is essential to interpret what we observe today; as a student of biology, the idea naturally transforms into a fascination with evolutionary history. I am going to pursue a PhD in Genetics under the supervision of Dr. Aylwyn Scally to study the evolution of great apes and other primates. We aim to use whole-genome sequence data to reconstruct demographic and phylogenetic histories. Not only interesting on its own, such knowledge also sets the background for detecting signatures of natural selection in the genome, thus shedding light on human evolution. The methods we develop might be applied to analyze other study systems, addressing various questions in epidemiology, agriculture, cancer progression and so on.Beyond my own research, I also wish to be connected to more people's lives, and to help them realize their courage within. I am constantly seeking ways to integrate my scientific enthusiasm with social responsibility. Hopefully I can explore further along this path with the prestigious community at Gates Cambridge.Interests: hiking, museums of history, science fiction, traditional markets, rural education, peer counseling, people watching.

Previous Education

Chinese Univ Of Hong Kong
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen

Jennifer Ifft is the Flinchbaugh Agricultural Policy Chair, Associate Professor, and Extension Specialist in Agricultural Policy at Kansas State University. She has an integrated research and extension program that covers policy and regulatory issues that affect the viability of U.S. and Kansas agriculture. Her current projects are in the areas of nontraditional finance, crop insurance, farmland markets and farm labor. She has published on how farm programs and regulations are capitalized into farmland values, farmland value determinants and measurement, farm labor and management, and crop insurance and farm debt. She also regularly publishes in the farm press and works with farm sector policymakers and stakeholders. Before coming to Kansas State University, she was an assistant professor at the Cornell University Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management and worked in the Farm Economy Branch of the USDA Economic Research Service. She has a PhD from the University of California - Berkeley, an MPhil from the University of Cambridge and a BS from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She grew up on her family’s farm in central Illinois.

Previous Education

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign B.S. International Resource and Consumer Econom. 2002

Links

https://www.ageconomics.k-state.edu/directory/faculty_directory/ifft/index.html
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferifft

Tala Jarjour is a scholar of music, religion and anthropology who studies the Middle East and the Arab world. She has a background in Ethnomusicology, Historical Musicology and violin Performance. She is particularly interested in intersections between politics, culture and religious musics in and from the region – especially Levantine traditions such as Christian and Sufi musics. Her research interests include arts and humanities higher education in the Middle East.

As a Gates Scholar and recipient of the Overseas Research Studentship Award Scheme, Tala wrote her PhD on Syriac chant in the Syrian city of Aleppo. Her past and current research examines emotion, aesthetics, modality, identity, minority and ethno-religiosity, society and performance, survival, cultural heritage, nation and power, peace and war studies, as well as migration and integration.

Dr Jarjour held Assistant Professor positions in music and anthropology at New York University Abu Dhabi and the University of Notre Dame where she was also Faculty Fellow of the Kroc Institute of the Medieval Institute, the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, and the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. Previous visiting faculty positions include Yale University’s Music Department and the University of Salzburg. Research positions include Yale University and the Excellence Initiative at the University of Tübingen. She is currently Associate Fellow of Pierson College at Yale and Visiting Research Fellow at King’s College London.

Dr Jarjour has worked with and consulted for a number of academic, nonprofit, as well as private and public sector entities in Europe, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Middle East. Those include L’Arche, The Clerk’s, Al-Fanar, the Manchester International Festival, the University of Salzburg, and the Vienna Phonogrammarchiv of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. She has appeared on national and international media such as the BBC Radio 3 and CNN International, and has published articles in cultural media in the Arab world, such as Annahar and Assafir weeklies.

Her book Sense and Sadness, Syriac Chant in Aleppo was recently published with Oxford University Press. For a sample of Dr Jarjour’s academic writings, and contact information, see http://talajarjour.academia.edu/