Kahn Institute Student Fellows 2025–26

Published April 29, 2025

The Kahn Liberal Arts Institute is delighted to announce our student fellows for 2025–26 that will be joining long-term project “Hauntings,” organized by Alex Callender, Art, and Jennifer DeClue, Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality. The concept of haunting serves as a mechanism to draw us into dialogue with unresolved pasts, whether personal and familial histories as personified in the haunted house, the ghosts of our disciplines in perpetuating inequalities, or the legacies of spectral forms of governance where loss or violence can haunt our public imaginations.

Hala Anderson ’26

Architecture & Urbanism and Government double major

Anderson will be examining how architectural homogenization haunts contemporary society, erasing cultural specificity and disconnecting communities from their histories. Her primary interest is understanding how people are influenced by the built environment and how governance and policy influence urban development.

Cynthia Arguijo ’27J

Mathematical Sciences major; Environmental Science & Policy minor

The increased frequency of flooding due to global warming has haunted marginalized communities. Incorporating statistical and data science methods, Arguijo will research how water quality, homes/infrastructure, health, and finances are affected by frequent flooding in Harris, Cameron, Galveston, Brazoria, and Jackson Counties in Texas and to determine how resilience varies in communities of different racial and economic demographics.

Nikté Lopez-Aleshire ’26

Latin American Studies and Studio Art double major; Museums concentrator

Lopez-Aleshire will explore the impacts of past dictatorships and revolutions on contemporary culture in Latin America and how the brutality of past political repression haunts nations in the present. What role do the arts play in remembering these histories? How do non-Western spiritualities help individuals confront collective trauma?

Laura Torraco AC ’27J

Anthropology major

Torraco will explore how the ancient olive trees of Sicily are haunted and what they are haunted by. Rather than being just passive relics of empire and conquest, do they also carry the legacies of the Sicilian people's resilience? How do these olive trees symbolize the past while actively shaping the ways history continues to haunt the present?