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Hart Fellows 2006-07
Yazan Kopty, a dual citizen of Belgium and the United States, graduated in 2006 with a major in international comparative studies with minors in English and religion. As a recipient of the Dean’s Undergraduate Research Fellowship, International Comparative Studies Research Grant, and Duke’s Overseas Summer Research Fellowship, Yazan conducted research in ten Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Israel and the West Bank. This research became the basis of his senior thesis, “The Diasporic Implications of Palestinian Nationalism,” which examined the relationship between Palestinian refugees, their host communities, and their right of return. Yazan interned at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency’s Center for Physically and Mentally Handicapped in the Baqa’a Refugee Camp in Amman, Jordan, and put together a collection of documentary photographs from his time in the Middle East that was recently showcased around Duke. Yazan is fluent in English, French, and Arabic and has taken up Italian and modern Hebrew in the past two years. As a hart Fellow, Yazan worked with Homeland in Battambang, Cambodia, which works to improve the standard of living and well-being of vulnerable children and families.
Nicholas Shungu, from Lawrenceville, New Jersey, and Morrisville, North Carolina, graduated in 2006. A Reginaldo Howard Memorial Scholar, he majored in cultural anthropology and minored in chemistry. He has conducted research in Dakar, Senegal, to examine the levels of collaboration between traditional healers and other medical practitioners, and volunteered in four health care facilities in Cape Town, South Africa. As a Howard Hughes Research Fellow, Nick conducted research at the Duke University Primate Center on the interactions between Lemur catta males and presented his findings at the Levine Science Research Center. At Duke, Nick was an active member of Duke Presidents’ Council on Black Affairs, the Public Anthropology Committee, and the Health Care Internship Program. As a Hart Fellow, Nick worked with Save Lives Ethiopia, located in Addis Ababa, on the organization’s programming and outreach for children and others affected by HIV/AIDS. |
