RISD Global
I redeveloped the Global Studies website in order to better present international educational opportunities to RISD Students. Here’s the home page:
If you want to learn from the masters, there’s no place like Rome. RISD’s oldest study abroad program invites a select group of juniors and seniors from all RISD departments to live and work in a 16th century palazzo steps away from Rome’s most famous and important historical and artistic sites. Led by a Chief Critic drawn from a rotating cast of RISD faculty, the program is multidisciplinary in nature and designed to appeal to a wide range of concentrations. Each semester, approximately 20 students witness thousands of years of Western art and architecture first hand, drawing from their experiences to develop and produce a final project. EHP is an opportunity to inhabit the life of an artist working independently in Rome — but with all of the support and resources that RISD has to offer…
Maine Magic Mud
I write a weekly newsletter for this Maine-based natural skincare company.
Roads & Kingdoms
I wrote branded content for R&K’s commercial partners. Here’s a sample article about an unconventional Osaka restaurant.
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Khora Athens
I authored a statement of purpose and list of demands for a demonstration protesting lack of accommodation for asylum seekers in Athens:
Over 2,900 asylum seekers have crossed the frontier from Turkey into Northern Greece in the last 30 days, many of them Kurds from Afrin, others fleeing violence in Afghanistan and elsewhere. These people are the direct, material, and human result of the bombs you might have seen on television or the front page of the newspaper for the past month.
This dramatic increase in arrivals has only exacerbated an already existing issue facing asylum-seekers in Athens – a massive accommodation shortage. Not just safe, clean, and readily available housing – any housing at all.
In the weeks and months before asylum-seekers receive their “white card,” official documentation of an asylum claim, essentially the only housing option is a number of self-organized and independently-run squats. Squats prevent thousands from sleeping on the streets and yet many have had their electricity and water shut off; all are habitually overcrowded and under constant threat of eviction. Now, they are stretched to the breaking point. In the past 3 weeks, two squats alone have housed over 350 new arrivals – piling blankets in classrooms and pitching tents in their courtyards in order to do so. Ultimately, though it is against their mission to do so, they have have been forced to say no to a number of people, including families with children.
Tonight, we sleep rough in Syntagma Square in solidarity with those fleeing war and discrimination who have been forced to sleep on the street as they struggle to find protection for themselves and their families. It is ludicrous that it has been left to grassroots organisations such as the squats to solve a housing crisis created by organisations with access to far more resources and power. We demand safe, clean, and accessible housing for all those who seek asylum in Greece.
WHAT WE WANT:
A swifter, more efficient, and more humane registration process
More official accommodation options available to unregistered people – and also to those who are already registered and have the right to housing under Greek law, many of who struggle to access official accommodation
Athena Women’s Centre
I conducted a focus group with a number of regular visitors to the center and produced a quarterly report for the organization’s donors and other supporters. The organization is in the process of revamping its web presence, but you can find the text here.
A.Y.S.
I wrote weekly newsletter-style updates on refugee and migration news across the European continent. Here’s one feature on the intersection of migration and mental health:
There are so many obvious material difficulties associated with being a refugee that it can be easy to forget what a toll the experience takes on one’s mental health. And yet, it is nearly impossible to imagine a set of circumstances more conducive to psychological distress.
First, the trauma of leaving one’s homeland, and the circumstances surrounding that departure. Many refugees have been tortured or seen family members killed. Next, a long, dangerous, uncertain journey toward safety. The devastating disappointment of realizing that “safety” might be another country that treats you like dirt. Months and years in limbo, with no control over your fate. And the possibility — always — that your reasons for undergoing this whole ordeal will be deemed insufficient. That you will be sent back to the place that you fled.
Anxiety. Depression. Schizophrenia. Self harm and attempted suicide. Rampant PTSD. All well documented among asylum seeking populations. And refugee children experience these issues at even higher rates.
Unfortunately, despite this reality, few refugees have access to the mental health care that they deserve…