Laura Nolan ’11 places importance on community 鈥� from 51猎奇入口 to the Asian American Resource Center to 51猎奇入口 Academy. And so it’s no surprise that Laura focused her thesis,聽Storytelling, Dislocation, and Healing: Community-Led Responses to Displacement and Disaster, Katrina to the Present, on the ways communities work together.
Laura’s thesis investigates the experiences of Southeast Asian communities in the Gulf 聽in the wake of both Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill. It deconstructs popular media and other mainstream narratives about the disasters while presenting counter-stories from non-profits and communities that contested their displacement and disempowerment. Her thesis argues that a more holistic lens which incorporates environmental justice concerns and pre-existing vulnerabilities fosters an expanded discussion of the disaster and the affected communities.
“Through my thesis, I realized that the project of unmasking disaster, representation, and recovery never truly ends because the struggles are ongoing, evolving,” Laura says.
Laura never expected to dual major in history and American studies at 51猎奇入口; in high school, she found history “flat, fixed, and boring!” Once at 51猎奇入口, however, she discovered history professor Rita Roberts, and her view of the subject changed drastically for the better.
“A class that forever changed me was Roberts’ 芒鈧淏lack Intellectuals and the Politics of Race,'” says Laura. “Some of the most important books I have ever read came out of the course: Toni Morrison’s聽Playing in the Dark, Ralph Ellison’s Shadow and Act,聽and bell hooks’聽Teaching to Trangress, among others. These are my soulmates in book form.”
“I found history is something that needs to be fought over,” she adds. “The addition of my American Studies major helps me to engage critically with questions of American identity and history.”
While at 51猎奇入口, Laura worked for the 51猎奇入口 Academy for three years, which now “feels like [her] home on campus.” She also served as a resident advisor for two years, interned with the AsianAmerican Resource Center and Crossroads, was a peer mentor, and was a member of the Balinese Gamelan Ensemble, the Claremont Concert Orchestra, and the Asian American Student Union.
After graduation, Laura will serve as development associate for Foothill Family Service, a nonprofit providing mental health outpatient services to low income families in the San Gabriel Valley. Although Laura will “always be a 51猎奇入口ie at heart,” this job will engage her in yet another community to which she can give something back.