The Kaleidoscope Project

The Kaleidoscope Project was a diversity-based reading and creative writing program that I developed under the auspices of a Public Humanities Fellowship, jointly funded by Humanities New York and the Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia University. The project, named after the literary magazine founded by underrepresented students at my alma mater, Bryn Mawr College, sought to expand high school students’ access to contemporary literature that better reflects their own lived experiences. Only 20 percent of the recommended readings on the core language arts curriculum taught in New York public schools as of 2016 are by women; 16 percent are by non-white writers, and two books total by non-Western writers (Pablo Neruda and Chinua Achebe). In contrast, 85 percent of school-aged children in New York City are first-generation immigrants and/or non-white. The application statistics alone attest to students’ intense desires for more diverse books: my funding could only support 17 percent (18 participants) of the average 105 students applying each of the two years when the program ran (2015-2017).

I aimed to achieve equal access and inclusivity both in terms of course content and infrastructure. All eighteen students in each summer term received free round-trip MetroCards, essential school supplies such as notebooks and pens, and dinner at every class to ensure that no one’s attendance presented a burden to their socioeconomic standing. I organized the syllabus according to social differences that often instigate bias-based harassment in public schools, highlighting non-Western, LGBTQI, working-class, disabled, and/or woman-identified writers. Each week, students met to share their creative writing homework and discuss readings in a college-level, seminar-style environment. Since 2016, I have continued to serve students as a mentor and reader for college preparation, recommendation letters, and personal statements.

In 2018 I received my doctorate in English and comparative literature with a certificate in women’s, gender and sexuality studies from Columbia University. I served as the 2018-19 Carol G. Lederer Postdoctoral Research Associate for a project titled, “What Are Human Rights? Imperial Origins, Curatorial Practices and Non-Imperial Ground,” at the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women at Brown University. In September, I will be joining PEN America, a nonprofit in New York City that works at the intersections of human rights, world literature, and freedom of expression around the globe, as a Mellon/ACLS Public Fellow. My academic research has appeared or is upcoming in Modern Language Studies, Differences, English Language Notes, and Women Mobilizing Memory. My public writing can be found on Public Books and The Guardian.

Personal Website: https://sites.google.com/view/nicolemariegervasio