HRI Inquiry Research Blog

Asmaa Elsayed (Education Policy, Organization & Leadership) is a 2025–26 HRI Graduate Fellow. Her current research project, “Between Shadows and Stories: Navigating the Physical and Digital to Redefine Womanhood and Reclaim Belonging for Minoritized Women in the Global South,” examines how vulnerable and minoritized women in the global south navigate, resist, and reconstitute identity, belonging, and citizenship under conditions of… Read more: Redefining Womanhood, Reclaiming Belonging in Student Development

Kirsten Barker (Music) is a 2025–2026 HRI Graduate Fellow. Her current research project, “Max of the Antarctic: Stories of ‘Wilderness’ in Music and Word,” explores how English composer Peter Maxwell Davies experienced the southernmost continent as “wilderness” and encapsulated both real and imagined Antarcticas in music and personal accounts of his trip. Learn more about HRI’s Campus Fellowship Program, which supports a… Read more: Max of the Antarctic: Stories of “Wilderness” in Music and Word

Ilaria Strocchia (Spanish and Portuguese) is a 2025–2026 HRI Graduate Student Fellow. Her current research project, “Flowing Histories: Examining the Role of Water in Shaping Urban Spaces and Identities Across Cultures,” investigates how bodies of water—rivers, lakes, and the sea—have historically shaped urban places in Valencia, Mexico City, and Naples while simultaneously forging their stories. Learn more about HRI’s Campus Fellowship… Read more: Stories in Water: “Hydro-Social” Transformation of Urban Spaces

Serouj Aprahamian (Dance) is a 2025–2026 HRI Faculty Fellow. His current research project, “‘Showtime!’: Dancing in the New York City UnderGround,” investigates community-based hip-hop dance forms in everyday spaces, including the New York City subway, and the complex relationships between place, performance, and power. Learn more about HRI’s Campus Fellowship Program, which supports a cohort of faculty and graduate students through a… Read more: Place, Performance, and Power: Hip-Hop Dance in Everyday Spaces

Priyanka Zylstra (History) is a 2025–2026 HRI Graduate Fellow. Her current research project, “‘It was called Liberation’: South Asian Women’s Activism in Multi-Racial Britain, 1979–1994,” examines how South Asian women in Britain during the 1970s–80s resisted racialized and gendered state violence. Learn more about HRI’s Campus Fellowship Program, which supports a cohort of faculty and graduate students through a year of dedicated… Read more: Solidarity and Resistance: South Asian Women’s Activism in Multi-Racial Britain