Who?

Terry Yuan

Hi there! My name is Terry / 袁圆 (Yuan-yuan)/ 예원 (Ye-won). I was born in the US and raised in Guangzhou, China, and currently live on the East Coast. Growing up, I have found that my identity(ies) has constantly been shaped and reshaped as I have crossed borders between countries, languages, and cultures. Home has become a floating idea that I keep searching for. In this project, I am inviting my friends at Wesleyan to cook the taste of home together, to describe our homes through our taste buds, and to search for our homes.

Pablo Sanchez

This project, inspired by my senior essay “The Duality of the Mexican Narcocorrido,” explores the War on Drugs through the narco-corrido genre, a Mexican music style rooted in working-class revolution. By analyzing power dynamics between drug trade participants, government entities, and working-class communities, the project challenges mainstream narratives surrounding cartels.

My final product will be a radio show, blending narco-corridos with narration and critiques from various media sources to document tensions between mainstream America, the Mexican working class, and cartels. It seeks to de-vilify rural working-class communities and provide a bottom-up understanding of the War on Drugs, without promoting judgment for narcos.

I raise questions regarding the accuracy of depictions and motivations behind documenting cartel violence. Employing an abolitionist praxis to contextualize narcos within a framework of harm, I emphasize the impact of government decisions on militarization in the Golden Triangle of Mexico.

Samantha Ackiron

Hi, I’m Sam! This project has been in the making since I wrote my college admissions essay in high school, where I wanted to talk about my family’s history and personal relationship with the Jewish prayer shawl, the tallit.

Picking up where I left off, I want to explore how different people, belonging to diverse Jewish communities, make sense of Jewish rituals and traditions– particularly, each person’s own relationship to owning, wearing, keeping, and sanctifying this essential religious and cultural object. I hope to take a peek into how people take an active role in connecting into their larger community, and shape themselves in the process.

Xingyan Guo | 星言

hiii:) My name is Xingyan 星言, the language of the stars. Currently, I live between U.S. / Mexico /China, and I find myself constantly gazing into the silenced ones across cultures and politics. I roll in all different forms from filmmaking, to theater and movement, to writing, and to community organizing. I seek to find new ways of listening beyond the border of geography, culture, gender, and species.

On this project, I collaborated with my dear friends to explore how diasporic queer/women share the same struggle and resistance with trees in urban space. Archiving the letters we wrote in the past three years, I recreate this bilingual visual cut-up poetry anthology 《Dear Tree,》.

My past messy experimentations and collaborations: www.xingyanguo.com 

Veronica Goss

Hi! My name is Veronica. I grew up in the US (split between New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut), Chile, Panama, and Germany. This inspired both my interest in anthropology as well as my desire to explore conceptualizations of home in this project! In this project, I am inviting other Wesleyan students who have questions about the meaning of home to participate in making a collage together that represents however they view home.

Hazel Hand

My name is Hazel and I’m from DC! I’m a senior majoring in art history and (formerly) anthropology. 

I’ve always been a bit in love with houses, architecture, and anything with some mystery or history behind it. I love traveling whether that’s to another country, state, or just a 20-minute drive away. A part of my love for travel is immersing myself in a new space, seeing the ways that physical communities are constructed, and admiring the houses that I see along the way. Some of my favorite styles are Victorian houses and pretty much all of the New York-style brownstones. 

I approached this project looking to choose a building on or around Wesleyan’s campus and research its social history to create an ethnography of sorts. But I realized that the building I have the most access to is my own senior wood frame house. So by recording and filming moments and corners in the home and how its occupants use and have used the space, I hope to capture the charm and comfort that I see in it and that it has provided for my housemates and generations of seniors before us.

Harry Gleicher

Hi, my name is Harry and I’m from the Bay Area! I’m studying English and Anthropology here at Wesleyan with an emphasis in creative writing. When I’m not writing, I love to skateboard and garden.

I’m interested in the practice of love and how shared cultural notions of love impact our ability to practice and feel love. For this project, I interviewed over fifty students and adults on campus and asked them four questions: what is love? what does love feel like? how do you practice love? can you draw love? I explore my findings in this creative endeavor.

Phoebe Stein

Hey, my name is Phoebe. I’m a sophomore majoring in Anthropology and Environmental Studies with a concentration in social, cultural, and critical theory. I was born in Atlanta, Georgia, before moving to California, and I grew up exploring the nature around me. Music has acted as a common thread through each place I have called home, tying me back to my roots and telling the stories of my surroundings. It’s this function of art I endeavor to explore with my Bluegrass circle.

Sophie Clapacs

Welcome, my name is Sophie! While I’m currently an anthropology and studio art student here at Wesleyan, I like to explore the intersections of my background. I come from a half-Pakistani Muslim family, as well as a North Carolinian folksy sensibility. I want to look at the impact of Islamic traditions through food, which has led me to the creation of my recipe-oriented art book which seeks to explore the philosophical and theological roots of cooking right here in Connecticut!

Julia Noriega

Hi, my name is Julia! I am class of 2024 and I am working towards a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology with a minor in Archaeology. I am also a graduate of community college and Middletown is my hometown! I love to spend my free time outdoors or shopping in Thrift and Antique stores – two places that motivated me to create A Collection of Collections.