campos ’24 awarded watson fellowship

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The Thomas J. Watson fellowship is a one-year grant for purposeful, independent exploration outside the United States, awarded to graduating seniors nominated by one of 41 colleges, including Wesleyan University. The Watson Fellowship allows fellows to engage with their deepest interest on a global scale. Fellows create and develop original projects and embark on the journey for a year. Fellows decide where to go, who to meet, and when to change course. The program aims to produce a year of personal insight, perspective, and confidence that shapes the arc of fellows’ lives. Each year Wesleyan may nominate four candidates. History and environmental studies major Dylan Campos ’24 is one of this year’s Watson fellowship awardees.

Hi, Dylan! Can you tell me a bit about yourself ––what you’re studying, where you’re from, and how you became interested in environmental studies?
Hi! My name is Dylan Campos, I use he/they pronouns, and I’m a senior studying history and environmental studies with a minor in global engagement. I’m from Branford, Connecticut, so not terribly far, maybe 40 minutes, and I’m actually a transfer student. I was originally at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. As a class of ’24 person––a high school class of 2020 person–– COVID did so many things matriculating into college, and so I ended up here my sophomore year. I always knew I was interested in the environment, I just didn’t know exactly how or what. In high school I was really into water and coastal work, living in a shoreline town, and actually it wasn’t until I was at Hampshire that my interests pivoted towards agriculture. And then here at Wesleyan it’s narrowed towards food and food politics, food security, and that’s where I am now. 

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senior spotlight: meera nemali ’24

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What are your majors?
I am an environmental studies and anthropology major.

Tell us about your capstone project!
I did my capstone paper last semester through an anthropology class called From Metropolis to Megalopolis (ANTH249). I wrote my capstone about how urban planning and city infrastructure can worsen environmental disasters and the ways in which we can sustainably plan our cities in the future. I don’t really know if there’s a way to prevent these disasters, but there are ways to prevent further damage in cities.  

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a musical conversation with harry wu

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What lessons can we learn from the writings of a doctor/activist from the Japanese colonial era in Taiwan as we seek to build a world to safeguard the health and wellness of every living being on this planet? Harry Wu and his ensemble members, Taugether, have used music to transform the literary works of Lai Ho (1894-1943), a doctor and activist widely regarded as the father of Taiwan New Literature. Harry performed several songs at Wes earlier this week, including one with associate professor of history Ying Jia Tan.

senior spotlight: sloane dzhitenov ’24

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Hi, Sloane! What are your majors and where are you from?
I’m a triple major, which is crazy. I’m a film and environmental studies major and also an economic major. And I’m from Massachusetts.

Outside of academics, what else are you involved in on campus?
Film takes up most of my free time. I try to make as many movies as I can. I also run Intercut, which is the film and TV magazine on campus. Those are honestly my main extracurriculars at the end of the day

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snyder ’23 engages in green planning

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Would you share a bit about yourself, and some of the highlights of your time at Wesleyan?
Hi! I’m Phoebe Snyder, and I am a class of 2023 graduate. I’m originally from New York, but I have relocated to Denver, Colorado, since graduation. There were a lot of highlights of my Wesleyan experience. During my time at Wes I was on the swim team, also part of a co-ed fraternity on campus! I was a double major in environmental studies and government.

Were you involved with research on campus?
Yes, I worked on research with Helen Poulos, who was fantastic and very supportive. I completed a thesis on the effects of thinning on forests to see how it would affect post fire hydrology, with Professor Poulos as my advisor. I researched whether or not this was beneficial for immediate regrowth and health of forests. I didn’t collect the data in the field myself, but reviewed Helen’s data utilizing GIS analysis. I spent a lot of time sorting through the excel spreadsheets to look at evapotranspiration rates, and examined how water was cycling through the ecosystem. The evapotranspiration rates of plants were indicators of how healthy they were.

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rooted solidarity: a ct food justice gathering

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Rooted Solidarity: A CT Food Justice Gathering, a place for intergenerational knowledge exchange amongst community members engaged in food justice work and people who’d like to learn more! Register here!

Date: April 20th, 2024, 9:30 am – 4 pm
Location: Meriden Public Library (a 5-minute walk from the Meriden Railroad Station)

Hosted by: The Bailey College of the Environment at Wesleyan University, The Conservation Law Foundation, The Foodshed Network, and The CT Food System Alliance

This event is free and open to the public.

¡Te invitamos a Solidaridad enraizada: Un encuentro por la justicia alimentaria de CT, un lugar para el intercambio intergeneracional de conocimientos entre miembros de la comunidad que trabajan en justicia alimentaria y a las personas que quieran aprender más! ¡Regístrate aquí!

Fecha: 20 de abril de 2024, 9:30 am – 4 pm
Lugar: Biblioteca Pública de Meriden (a 5 minutos a pie de la estación de tren de Meriden)

Organizado por: The Bailey College of the Environment at Wesleyan University, The Conservation Law Foundation, The Foodshed Network, y The CT Food System Alliance

Este encuentro es gratuito y está abierto al público.

senior spotlight: serena levingston ’24

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Hi, Serena! What are your majors here at Wes?
My majors are environmental studies and feminist, gender, and sexuality studies.

What sort of intersection have you found between those two majors?
I think there’s the ecofeminism aspect, looking at how the ways people treat earth seem to mirror the ways people treat women and marginalized people. I’ve taken a lot of classes that focus on the effects of colonialism and western imperial thought on the earth and people.

What are you doing for your senior project?
I wrote a capstone essay last semester in the FGSS Department that was focused on endocrine disruptors, which are a class of chemical compounds that includes things like BPA and parabens. I wrote about how such things are talked about in mainstream media narratives, what that shows about cultural fears, and how that can be applied to broader rhetoric around environmental effects. So, for example, there’s a lot of panic around the effects of endocrine disruptors on reproduction. So I looked at things like who is panicking and who does it actually affect? And I found that the people who are panicking are not necessarily the ones who are affected by it.

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