Using Stories Toward Greater Inclusion

“Our identities affect how we experience the world around us and how others perceive us,” said Sara Xayarath Hernández, associate dean for inclusion and student engagement and co-facilitator of the Feb. 20 My Voice, My Story (MVMS) session. 

“Whenever we look at or engage with someone, we make multiple assumptions about their identities and experiences based on our perceptions of them. However, perceptions are not always accurate, not all identities are obvious, and everyone is susceptible to the negative implications of implicit bias.”

The MVMS sessions pair video monologues – constructed from real experiences of Cornell graduate and professional degree students – with facilitated dialogue. The stories shared are ones that frequently go untold. The program uses these stories as a means of generating understanding and empathy, and to identify factors that negatively influence the climate experienced by students. Through the facilitated dialogue, participants also have the opportunity to develop and share strategies on how to create more inclusive and supportive research and learning environments.

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Linguistics Students Create Language for Ground-Breaking Marvel Movie

The newest story to come out of the Marvel Universe, “Captain Marvel,” features the work of a team of linguists from Cornell’s Ph.D. program. Doctoral students Ryan Hearn and Joseph Rhyne are credited with the creation of the alien language Torfan, which is used in the film.

Linguistics researchers are used quite regularly in large-scale science fiction works, Hearn said. “Anytime you have to create a new language, you can either just put together a bunch of sounds or go about creating a new language,” he said. “To do the latter, you need to know what things you can change to make it sound like a human or alien language. That comes from a linguistic background.”

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Student Spotlight: Ekarina Winarto

Ekarina Winarto is a doctoral candidate in linguistics originally from Jakarta, Indonesia, who has also lived in Malaysia, Singapore, Germany, and the U.S. After earning a bachelor’s degree at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Ga. and a master’s at the University of Georgia in Athens, Ga., she chose to attend Cornell due to encouragement from alumni paired with the ranking of the linguistics program.

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Interested in what other graduate students are doing both on and off campus?

Check out our student spotlights, Q&As with current students about their research, hobbies, and experiences at Cornell.

Graduate Student Research

Master of Public Health students are currently working with the Northeast Regional Center for Excellence in Vector-Borne Diseases to educate the community on ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat tick-borne disease.

Read more about the MPH-NEVBD collaboration in the Snapshot into What MPH Students are Doing blog entry.

U.S. Legislative Advocacy Opportunity

The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) recently published its inaugural Federal Policy Agenda for 2019-2020, outlining the policy principles and priorities CGS will be advocating for with the 116th Congress and the Administration. Issues include:

• Federal student financial assistance
• Tax
• Immigration
• Science and research
• Diversity, equity, and inclusion

The full policy agenda can be found on the CGS website.

Students interested in voicing opinions or concerns on these issues or others can find Senate email addresses on the U.S. Senate contact information webpage and House email addresses on the U.S. House of Representatives Directory of Representatives webpage.