Honors in the Arts Cohort 2019-20

JOSH ADAMSON | The Gouverneur

BA History

“I’m talking about Gouverneur Morris, of course!” “Yes, but who was that? What state did he Govern?” “He was never a Governor!! That’s simply his first name!”

The Gouverneur is a full-length theatrical comedy about the life of one of America’s least-known, but important Founding Fathers, Gouverneur Morris. Morris was also widely regarded as the funniest and wittiest of the Founding Fathers, making a comedy the perfect medium for the story of his life. The Gouverneur centers around his work as a primary author of the Constitution, his time as the Ambassador to France during the French Revolution and his time back in the United States. The comedy will be narrated by Anne Cary Randolph Morris, who was in the Trial of the 18th Century and eventually married Morris. A staged reading will be held in May.

CHAPMAN CADDELL | Epilogue

BA History

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Project Statement

Chapman was born in Monterey, CA, and raised between there and Houston, TX. He has a sister & two parents. He compulsively reads. His project is "a short story, but with gland trouble." So much gland trouble that it's rapidly gone from short story to novella to the ambitious beginnings of a damn'd thick, square book. Epilogue is the story of Charles Garmin, whose obsession with another damn'd thick, square book ignites a search for conclusive evidence of his favorite fiction's facticity. It covers a lot of territory—baseball! microwaves! ecoterror! strange atmospheric phenomena!—but at its heart, which tries to be big, Epilogue is a love letter to postmodern literature.

LAUREN CLARK | Extraordinary

BA American Studies, Minor in Creative Writing

Project Statement

My screenplay, titled Extraordinary, is a coming of age story/romantic dramedy following the perspective of a young woman. It is a modern take on a love story that grapples with all the grey areas, the intersections, the in betweens, and the uncomfortable complexities of growing up. I sought out to create a screenplay that combats female stereotypes in the romance genre while also parsing out the nuances of femininity in our world today. With a flare that falls somewhere between Lady Bird and When Harry Met Sally, the script asks of us: How do we balance love and connection, two integral components of a meaningful life, with the safety of control in an unsafe, uncertain, and often lonely world? From the perspective of an 18 year old girl on the brink of adulthood this question is new, urgent, and tangible in so many ways.

ZOE CLUTE | Sentio

BA Human Biology, Minor in Education

Project Statement

Zoe is interested in exploring mental health and illness, communication, and sensory experience. Her project, Sentio, explores the ways similes and metaphors allow us to convey emotions, bringing to life the experiences that often only live inside our heads. Through a sort of Exploratorium of feelings, the project explores how we use language to convey abstract concepts, how the experience of emotion varies among different human experiences and life stages, and how we are brought together by the marriage of our thoughts and our physiology.

SAVANNAH MOHACSI | The Body as Canvas

BA Human Biology, Minor in Art Practice

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Project Statement

Despite the ubiquity of the human body, each and every person is shaped by their unique experiences, hardships, illnesses, and contexts, all of which translate into the identities we form. As a premed, I have studied the human body extensively, and the more I understand its functions, the more I realize that there is so much to uncover and appreciate from within.

Through the process of body painting I will simulate the relationship between a doctor and a patient, enhance my knowledge of anatomy, and give life to anatomical structures in an unconventional way. My paintbrush will operate like a scalpel, paradoxically dissecting through the additive means of painting. I will interview models about their lived experiences, and together we will choose a site on their body, transforming it into a temporary canvas. This site will map their physiology and reveal symbolic imagery about their visible and/or invisible identity.

RACHAEL NICOL | In the Shadows of Giants

BA Psychology

Project Statement

AMANDA RIZKALLA | Paperless

BA English, Minor in Digital Humanities

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Project Statement

Paperless is a novella about Sofia Perez, an eleven-year-old who likes Pythagoras and his theorems; about the silver Nissan Pathfinder she lives in with her mom and brother; about their window shopping at the grocery store. By catching Sofia’s moments of triumph, displacement, loss and connection and rendering them true-to-life, Paperless seeks to step away from the sensationalized “rags to riches” story. Instead, it looks at how people hurt and help one another, the lengths people go to feel safe and the interpersonal and material requirements for “shelter.” Drawing on critical race theory, it takes a frank look at how class operates on a day-to-day basis—how people of a lower socioeconomic status encounter wealth and function in relation to it.

CRISTÓBAL SCIUTTO | Foolish

BS Computer Science

Project Statement

We talk about our lives in terms of necessity—I have to, I can’t, I need to. It comes from a place of optimization, maximizing for what must be done. We are told. We see others doing. We accept their choices with words whose implications we don’t understand. Structure is created around us. It directs us. It seems that what we fear is freedom. Nothing is necessary. We are never foolish.

Cristóbal builds environments that prompt fictional worlds composed of their own fictional truths. Foolish is one of these worlds. It is up to the viewer to be convinced by his creations, and to find them bearing on their own real world. His tools are light and code. He is from Brazil, Argentina, or Ohio.

JESSIE SENG | From the Trees of Green Mangoes

BA Science, Technology, and Society

Project Statement

My project, From the Trees of Green Mangoes: Who and What We Bring with Us, is an installation that puts Cambodian creatives in conversation. The installation sensuously explores the culture through art created by Cambodians. Through the use of mixed medias, the installation explores intergenerational narratives and asks the question: who and what do we bring with us as we explore the diaspora?

JUSTIN WILCK | Hindsight

BA English, Minor in German Studies

Project Statement

“This is a shit story: my best friend is going to die, the California forests will burn, the world is quickly ending, and the ocean is indifferent. I had wanted to build something redemptive, a new world that allowed for us to be possible…it just wasn’t the right time for me.

But none of it has happened yet, and for you, it doesn’t have to—for now, you’re just at the beginning, and you’ve hardly begun….There’s this distance between the I and the you. But you don’t have to go anywhere. And you won’t have to, I hope, unless this is in fact exactly what you want.”

Justin Wilck is a senior from Richmond, Virginia. At Stanford he studies English, has existential crises about queer identity, and works on pushing the university towards fossil fuel divestment. He is still wondering what it means to be performative and how to be a good person. In this novel, Hindsight, he is interested in exploring how to self-narrate responsibly when detailing personal and political catastrophes—he would love to be kind to his friends, his readers, and himself in this narration. And importantly, he would like to thank his friends for indulging his need to expose us.

Team Projects

SHIRIEL KING ABRAMSON and GRACE WALLIS | Earthsong

Shiriel King Abramson: BA American Studies, Minor in Spanish

Grace Wallis: BA Human Biology

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Project Statement

Earthsong explores possibilities for joyful collaboration with the environment. It offers an antidote to apocalyptic messaging surrounding climate change by finding delight in the unexpected. The burble of corn growing; the chatter of community farmers sharing a meal; the syncopations of bird chirps. Earthsong is firmly rooted in local experience, deeply grounded in ecofeminism, and unapologetically experimental. Through interviews, soundscapes, choreography, and improvisation, Shiriel and Grace hope to create an immersive, eco-acoustic experience that leaves your ears stimulated and your heart just a little more open to the possibility that humans can exist in harmony with the natural world.

Shiriel King Abramson is a tap dancer and interdisciplinary artist. Her current work explores the ways that humans engage sonically with the natural world.

Grace Wallis is a theater director and sound designer. She is fascinated by human-environment interaction and the ways in which storytelling can be used as a medium for science and environmental communication.

HANNAH MIAO and CATHY YANG | Journey to the West

Hannah Miao: BA Economics, Minor in Creative Writing

Cathy Yang: BA Art Practice

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Project Statement

Journey to the West explores the experiences of Chinese American women in the form of a printed zine that features short stories and artworks in conversation with one another. The zine expands on the intersection of gender, race, and culture that make up our complex identities. The stories and artworks trace the course of three generations of women: a first generation immigrant who comes to America as an adult, a 1.5 generation Chinese American whose cultural dissonance is a result of immigrating as a child, and the American-born Chinese who struggles to maintain a tenuous connection with her heritage and her family’s homeland. The zine will highlight experiences that accompany immigration, assimilation, and globalization, exploring the ways in which immigrant mothers connect with their American daughters, the cultural gaps that emerge in issues such as education, sexuality, and mental health, as well as the resilience and love that is passed down through generations of Chinese American women.

APARNA VERMA and MELINA WALLING | Movement

Aparna Verma: BA English

Melina Walling: BA English, Minor in History

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Project Statement

Land influences our sense of belonging. Some might say stability, family, and circumstance play a more direct role in your definition in home--and those things certainly can--but the land itself has a subtle, more powerful pull on us that we may not at first recognize. This relationship is revealed in our artist’s book, Movement. Movement is an immersive collection of short stories and photography that delves into the environment's effect on one’s sense of identity and belonging.