Chloë Poynton
San Francisco, California
International Studies, Anthropology
After Mac: Watson Fellowship
Sneh Rao
Palatine, Ill.
International Studies, Hispanic Studies, Latin American Studies
After Mac: Watson Fellowship
When I began in International Studies, I thought I was going to learn about the world 'over there.' And I definitely did. But I was also fascinated by how much I learned about myself and where I fit on this planet, especially here, where I am, but do not look like, an immigrant.
-Chloë Poynton
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David Chioni Moore (DCM), Chair, International Studies
Excerpts from a conversation
DCM: Chloë is most recently from San Francisco, but was born in England and spent her early years in a small village in France. Sneh was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs, though his parents are Gujurati immigrants from India. Chloë and Sneh-the two of you met each other before either one of you met me. Can you tell me about that?
Chloë: We met in our first-year course at Macalester. First-year courses are designated first-semester seminars where the professor is your adviser for the first two years. Our course was Refugees, Religion and Responses to Conflict, with Professor Shandy in anthropology. We looked at worldwide crises that forced people to cross international borders. At the start of the semester, I'd just returned from India and immediately wanted to share stories with Sneh, since I assumed he had grown up there.
Sneh: So Chloë and I started talking. She mentioned that she'd been to six or seven cities in India and I thought, "This is interesting: She's not Indian, yet she knows more about it than I do."
DCM: After you took that course, you both enrolled in my Introduction to International Studies.
Sneh: It was one of the most challenging classes I've taken. One of the things the class focused on was global identity formation. I loved the film we studied, Mississippi Masala, about a young woman born in Uganda of Indian parents, who moved to the U.S. after the Asians were expelled from East Africa. That movie changed my whole viewpoint. Before I saw it, I thought that identity was fixed: you are, for example, Indian, Ugandan or American. But Mina shuttled between all of those identities-and I could relate.
Chloë: When I began in International Studies, I thought I was going to learn about the world "over there." And I definitely did. But I was also fascinated by how much I learned about myself and where I fit on this planet, especially here, where I am, but do not look like, an immigrant.
DCM: Since our course, both of you have studied abroad.
Sneh: Latin American Studies is about all of Latin America-including the ultra-significant country of Brazil, so I decided to study there.
Chloë: I studied in Paris. Originally, I intended to go to Dakar, Senegal, since most of West Africa is also French-speaking. But then I found a program in Paris focused on African and particularly Muslim immigrants in France. So France meant returning to my personal roots and tackling key African questions.
DCM: Here at Mac, the Minnesotan who's studied in Cameroon, the Bulgarian who went to high school in Bahrain, the suburban Connecticut kid who's an expert on women's prisons in Ecuador-we all learn from each other. In your final semester, we are back together again in my Post-Colonial Theory seminar. What is it like for you now?
Sneh: It's a challenge. It's bringing together much of what I learned or experienced here at Macalester, and is a great way to wrap up my major in International Studies.
Chloë: On a personal note, it's great to come back in my final semester and take another class with Professor Moore. It's also great to be able to stop over, knock on the door and talk about Paris or Dakar or what happens after graduation.
DCM: Chloë and Sneh, what's next for the two of you?
Chloë: I've been working at Fusion Hill, a cutting-edge global market research firm, for the last two years, here in Minneapolis, which is a major national center in this field. They've offered me a very attractive position, but both Sneh and I have actually been blessed to have won major fellowships which we will certainly accept.
Sneh: It's the Watson Fellowship, which allows people to pursue independent research throughout the world. The only requirement is that you don't set foot in the U.S. for one year! I'm really excited. I will be studying how sex workers-often called prostitutes and such-are organizing in order to defend their economic and citizenship rights against heavy opposition on three continents. I will live in Argentina, South Africa, Ecuador and Hong Kong, and involve myself with social advocacy groups that do research and agitate on their behalf.
Chloë: I will be studying refugee and humanitarian relief organizations, focusing on the work-lives of the professionals at the two most elite agencies: the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Red Cross. I'll ask how they understand what they do in situations considered to be some of the worst examples of large-scale human tragedy and crime. I'll start at their headquarters-both in Geneva, Switzerland-then go to actual refugee camps in Tanzania and Thailand, and then move to resettlement locations in Australia and Sweden.
DCM: I should be getting some powerful and bracing e-mail reports from you, which of course I will share with my ongoing and incoming students.
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