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Yazan Kopty, a dual citizen of Belgium and the
United States, graduated this spring 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. He will work
with Homeland in Battambang, Cambodia, which works to improve the
standard of living and well-being of vulnerable children and families.
Yazan’s faculty advisor will be Kate Whetten, Associate Professor
of Public Policy Studies and Community and Family Medicine and Director
of the Health Inequities Program. |
