Yuquian (Dawa) Liu (Duke University)
Oral history/narrative writing: Cairo, Egypt
Yuquian Liu, a native Tibetan who was raised in western China, worked this summer with DukeEngage in Cairo; while there, she documented in writing the experiences of Chinese Muslim immigrants with the support of the John Hope Franklin Award. Liu's interviews with the immigrants trace their reasons for moving to Cairo and explore whether they have encountered difficulties as non-Arabic speaking Muslims living in an Arabic-speaking country and how their identity is defined, both by themselves and by their host country.
Alex Reese (Duke University)
Photography: The Philippines
Alex Reese spent the summer photographing street children (boys ages twelve to seventeen) who were undergoing residential and educational rehabilitation through the Stairway Foundation on Mindoro Island in the Philippines. Because he arrived at the Foundation just as a new group of children come into the program, he was able to capture the transformation that takes place when children are off the streets for even a few short weeks.
Alyssa Reichardt (Duke University)
Photography/multimedia: Bronx, New York
Alyssa Reichardt worked this summer with the Women's Housing and Economic Development Corporation (WHEDCo) in Bronx, New York, which serves low-income families through a variety of programs: Head Start, afterschool education, family support, affordable and green housing, and a food pantry. Using photography (with audio and writing), Reichardt and a group of middle-school students created a multimedia project that focused on the stories of family and community members in the Grand Concourse neighborhood of the South Bronx.
Emily Robertson (Duke University)
Photography and video: Muhuru Bay, Kenya
Emily Roberston traveled to Muhuru Bay, Kenya, to document a community in transition from traditional ways of thinking toward new practices that promote gender equity. Robertson explored this question in two ways: first, through a video examining the creation of a boarding school for girls in the village, and second, through a series of photography workshops that engaged Muhuru youths in discussion and contemplation of gender roles.
Roxanne Turpen (UNC–Chapel Hill)
Photography: Dominican Republic
Roxanne Turpen traveled to the Dominican Republic (DR), which suffers from one of the highest rates of income inequality in the Caribbean, to photograph both its wealthiest and poorest citizens in a style consistent with that of high-fashion magazines. Her portraits, in which the subjects are removed from their surroundings, hinder the normal process of interpretation, and for her, prove that wealth and beauty are not interdependent.
