Passing the Baton

The Garden recognizes its past student writer, Catherine Taipe, who graduated this past year with a Bachelor of Science in International Relations and a minor in Social and Political History. Ever since she came to Carnegie Mellon University, Catherine has been actively involved in the Tartan community. However, her work in The Garden is unparalleled.

Catherine took on many responsibilities throughout her time at CMU, from starting as a writer for the Tartan her sophomore year to becoming Student Body President in senior year. Even before writing for The Garden, Catherine was writing pieces within The Tartan dedicated to diversity, equity and inclusion and was active in student organizing. Her efforts were particularly motivated by Black and LatinX student experiences within the CMU community during the summer of 2020, when George Floyd passed. That piece not only caught the attention of Ayana Ledford, associate dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, it also encouraged Catherine to work within an undergraduate group for diversity, equity and inclusion at Dietrich.

Being so involved in the Tartan community through advocacy and other roles required time and dedication. Even while being Student Body President, Catherine worked in roles that strengthened the diversity within CMU, bringing voices of all backgrounds out through her writing and communications. Naturally, the work she faced throughout her time at CMU accumulated, but Catherine always rose to the occasion.

Despite the challenges, The Garden became her safe space. Not only did she have a comfortable work environment alongside Ayana, she found a place to write freely and continue to push herself at whatever pace she needed. Of course, when COVID hit, it was difficult to conduct interviews on Zoom in the same way as in-person interviews, and future issues of The Garden also became more difficult to produce. However, Ayana helped Catherine identify different subjects as well as integrated themes to keep the content flowing even during the pandemic.

Of writing The Garden during a time of social isolation, Catherine said, “That’s when I started to think of how community can be expressed in different ways […] and that’s when I [took] The Garden as more creative and found other ways to have narratives or storytelling with interviews. I decided to introduce poetry then."

This addition led to a candid volume connecting poetry from the CMU history archives with modern views associated with the Black Lives Matter movement

While Catherine has graduated from CMU this past year, her pursuit of education and DEI involvement will continue. All of us at The Garden are personally incredibly grateful to have gotten to know Catherine Taipe, and we know she will continue to achieve great things as she pursues a Master of Science in Education at the University of Pennsylvania.

Valentino Rahming Explores Second Language Acquisition and Identity

Ph.D. candidate Valentino Rahming’s journey to the Department of Modern Languages has been personally unique. Rahming (he/him/his) worked under Uju Anya, associate professor of Second Language Acquisition, as part of the Department of Modern Languages, but before coming to Carnegie Mellon University, Rahming served as a Spanish teacher to underrepresented groups in the Bahamas, where he is originally from. From there, he taught at Colorado State University, but it was his work at Penn State University, where he served as a graduate student coordinator of a study abroad project and member of an equity team, that motivated his views on language learning as a non-native teacher. Across previous studies, Rahming recalls having to fight to gain access as a legitimate speaker while learning and teaching Spanish. Despite how much he learned and his position, such illegitimate speaker pressures were major challenges that he overcame as he studied and taught.

When deciding on his thesis topic, Rahming worked with Anya and Elizabeth Smolcic from his first year to determine possible directions. After developing his topic for several years, he chose to use the model of investment (Darvin & Norton, 2015) as a theoretical frame. However, it was during his first year that he saw his own experiences as an Afro-Caribbean language learner reflected within "Racialized Identities in Second Language Learning: Speaking Blackness in Brazil " (Anya, 2017). Upon reading the work by Anya, he recognized how constructs such as race, language learner ideology, social capital, systemic patterns of control and unequal relations of power, play major roles in how someone chooses to identify with a given language. This held especially true for him as an underrepresented minority.

After deciding on his thesis topic, Rahming received advice from both faculty and peers about how to narrow his research. He has been grateful for these experiences, especially the chance to participate in presentations during graduate research seminars and at the Duolingo English Test reception at the American Association for Applied Linguistics conference. The faculty and student influence helped him draft his dissertation proposal, which was received welcomingly and supportively and has been awarded a research grant from the Graduate Student Assembly (GSA) and Office of the Provost. Here at Carnegie Mellon, Rahming serves as an instructor of Spanish and as the graduate student representative on the College Council for the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences. This affords him the opportunity to serve as a voice for graduate students and vote on matters pertinent to the creation of courses and policy within the college.

Rahming continues to advocate for students from underrepresented groups like himself, and he wants to develop more equitable programs to help students to become proficient in other languages. He currently serves as the leader for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) for the Graduate Student Council of the American Association for Applied Linguistics and a committee member for the Fund for the Future of Applied Linguistics. Additionally, he believes that language learning opportunities such as study abroad programs should be designed in a manner that attracts students specifically from historically underrepresented groups. Similarly, he has been working with other professors to incorporate community engagement for building such institutions. In fact, with the support of professors like Jason Mizell at the University of Miami, Rahming has worked within the Pittsburgh area to help educate high school students on issues surrounding DEI and how applied linguistics can fit into their educational pursuits. According to Rahming, students should be learning about issues related to DEI earlier than college, saying that with the help of a strong community or support system, anyone can be regarded as a legitimate user of language, even in the face of prejudice. “Language learning is doable and available,” Rahming says. “Students should know that this is a viable option for them.”

Real Talk: Arko Dasgupta on the Indian Freedom Movement

Arko Dasgupta (he/him/his), a Ph.D .candidate in the History Department, has followed a common theme through his multiple master's and Ph.D. focused on anticolonial thought in the Indian Freedom Movement. Dasgupta’s intellectual relationship with colonialism and all his studies have come together in his focus at Carnegie Mellon University.

Starting in the 16th century, India was occupied by numerous European powers, most notably the British. Centuries later, Indian political elites began critiquing colonialism and elements imported along with it, including modernity and nationalism. One facet of this critique that Dasgupta found to be understudied in relation to others was race.

“A wide swathe of Indian political activists and organizations in the late colonial period, despite their differences, often coalesced in critiquing race,” says Dasgupta. “Most of these actors were of the view that freedom from racial oppression ought to be secured across the world.”

When first joining Carnegie Mellon in August 2019, Dasgupta was confident in what his dissertation would focus on. However, research has led him to also focus on other figures and organizations from the Indian Freedom Movement. While the main themes of his work have remained relatively consistent, he has begun exploring the thought of figures and groups he previously had not considered, like Rammanohar Lohia, Hucheshwar Mudgal and the Ghadar Party.

As he works on the scope of his research, Dasgupta credits his advisor, Nico Slate, head of the History Department, for helping him navigate the challenges that come with the process.

“[Slate] is an accommodating supervisor who gives me intellectual autonomy, which I value more than anything else,” he says. “I appreciate his hands-off approach to my work in addition to his enriching feedback.”

Dasgupta and Slate teamed up to organize Dietrich College’s virtual event, “Real Talk: Racism and Colorism in South Asia and Among South Asian Americans,” which Dasgupta moderated. The conversation, which took place in late March, discussed South Asia, South Asian Americans, and their place in the global conversation on race. Scholars from Carnegie Mellon University, the University of California Los Angeles, and the University of Colorado Boulder discussed racism, colorism, and the role South Asia can have in informing antiracist initiatives globally.

“I see events like ‘Real Talk’ as integral to and not distinct from my Ph.D. work, which looks at, thematically speaking, race,” Dasgupta adds. “Nico and I thought we could arrange a discussion bringing together my interests — in terms of both theme and area — and something that we at Carnegie Mellon could benefit from.”

In the future, Dasgupta hopes to organize events for the college on Taraknath Das, Agnes Smedley and the Ghadar Party. What these figures and organizations have in common, Dasgupta says, is their commitment to anti-racism and anti-imperialism. Dasgupta also recently moderated a discussion on the subject of caste with Ketaki Jaywant, assistant professor of History at Washington & Jefferson College.

“My interest in colonialism comes from my identity as someone who was born and raised in a former colony,” Dasgupta explains. “Interestingly, debates that still inform public discourse to this day in India were first articulated in the colonial period by native political actors.”

Dasgupta is now working on his dissertation and, alongside, thinking of the implications of his work.

“We are, at this moment, having a global conversation on race. One thing we have realized is that a lot of these racial categorizations of people happened during the colonial period against a backdrop of catastrophe and oppression,” says Dasgupta. “Something that draws me most to these ideas of anti-colonialism, anti-racism and decolonization is the hope that we will, one day, gain freedom from the supposed singularity of an imposed worldview.”

Sydney Barlow on Racial Microaggressions, Communal Coping and Health

Sydney Barlow (she/her/hers), a graduating senior studying both psychology and biology, has completed a thesis project focused on the effects of racial centrality, where an individual normatively emphasizes racial group membership, and communal coping on the experience of daily racism. Her work analyzes how communal coping with a partner against racial microaggressions relates to health outcomes.

Barlow’s work at Professor of Psychology Vicki Helgeson’s lab did not start with her thesis project, however. She first joined the lab as a video coder on the Adult Couples with Type 2 Diabetes study. Outside of the classroom, Barlow continued conducting psychology research, and this year, she was able to focus on her honors thesis.

It was through this work that she was able to study the communal coping framework alongside other stressors like diabetes and natural disasters. Using the Psychology Department's research portal, Barlow was able to survey a significant portion of CMU students to address the communal coping framework. She discovered significant links between the need for interventions, shared appraisal and better mental and physical health. Particularly, having a close psychological relationship with a partner significantly improved reactions against vicarious discrimination. Whether online, read or in-person, vicarious discrimination, an experience in which one person encounters racism against other people, related to notably poor mental and physical health across the board. Barlow’s work supports the idea that communal coping against racism is related to better health outcomes. “The project itself represents the work that I've put in throughout the year,” Barlow explained, “and interventions and communal coping can help tremendously.”

Barlow’s thesis project has had an additional benefit: allowing her to see what psychology research looks like outside the classroom. She was also able to grow and develop connections with other students in the lab through hands-on research. According to Barlow, these experiences have blended well with her work and college life in general.

For future studies, Barlow hopes to further analyze the effect of the communal coping framework on vicarious discrimination within diverse pools of participants. Recognizing diversity has become a major focus for her future research, and through this project, Barlow has been able to identify ways she can improve upon recognizing diversity within analyzing communal coping frameworks.

Upon graduation, she plans to use her psychology and biology dual degree to attend medical school and become a physician. She hopes to be a role model for young black girls who want to enter healthcare.

Faculty Profile: Stephanie Larson

Stephanie Larson (she/her/hers), an assistant professor and former chair of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) committee in the English Department, finished her Ph.D. program in 2018 and came to Carnegie Mellon University immediately after graduating from the University of Wisconsin and, before that, the University of Illinois. Her interests in gender equity across disciplines made her pursue work on feminist issues, and she has found a home within Dietrich College alongside professors such as Lisa Tetrault, who specializes in the history of gender, race and American democracy. Larson’s projects within the department have become especially relevant in today’s times and her collaboration with professors across the department has been outstanding. 

Larson is currently studying identity and has been able to question key historical views that still challenge DEI work today. She is at work on her second book, which discusses sexual violence in higher education contexts. Her most recent chapter focuses on faculty labor in relation to Title IX, a civil rights law prohibiting discrimination based on sex at any educational institution receiving federal funding. In June 2022, she began conducting further archival research on Title IX and has been able to analyze how laws constructed by litigation efforts can unwillingly stall our capacity to interrogate key issues. “CMU has made space for this work,” Larson says. “We should be talking about sexual violence from intellectual and advocacy perspectives.” Larson’s collaborations, especially as chair of DEI in the English department, have helped bridge significant gaps in the ways staff, students and faculty contribute to DEI work within Dietrich College. She gives significant credit to Rich Purcell, associate professor of English and director of the Arts Greenhouse, who also co-chairs the DEI committee in English. Both Larson and Purcell have been able to maintain and solidify the presence of DEI efforts within Dietrich College, and they have been able to understand power dynamics and how critiques can be adjusted. After all, DEI work is challenging, with its own institutional contexts, and so there’s a need for defining strategic advocates to stand with in order to shape how efforts are implemented.

Studying identity across gendered perspectives has been key to Professor Larson’s scholarship. As a cis-white woman, Larson states the roles she’s played as an educator have shaped her views on how power and belonging operate within education. Compared to historical and cultural examples of doors closing on women, and the way these barriers connect to  performance and identity, her personal journey has involved constantly questioning where people fit within power structures and how the context of collective bargaining influences who really belongs in hierarchical structures. “Even as chair of DEI, I am always skeptical of DEI,” says Larson, who believes that questioning our inherent beliefs and the assumptions that we often take for granted is key to progress and inclusion for people that are fighting against broken systems.

Professor Larson notes that staff and faculty work in DEI is not the only goal, however: student populations are what drive DEI work in her eyes. "My opinion in DEI matters, but less so than [yours],” she says. Students need to feel empowered enough to make change around negative societal issues that they face, and in turn, faculty cannot face these issues alone. As Larson points out, “Students have much more capacity to demand things when it comes to change compared to staff [and] faculty.”