Lauren Brazeal

Today, we’ll share the story of Lauren Brazeal, a PhD student in Literature at the School of Arts and Humanities.

“I am Lauren Brazeal, a PhD student in Literature at the School of Arts and Humanities. My doctoral project collaborates with members of the indigenous Waorani Nation of Amazonian Ecuador, combining field-work inspired documentary poetry, narrative essays, and translations of witness testimony of survivors of ethnocide, waves of polio, and starvation that followed sustained missionary involvement in the second half of the 20th century. I plan to publish the manuscript as a multidisciplinary narrative, offering multiple perspectives of the Waorani Nation’s emergence as a notable and successful example in the global battle for indigenous rights in the twenty-first century. I am also the founder and president of the non-profit organization, Fundación Warepo Beye, which delivers medicine, medical supplies, and vital provisions to Waorani communities in crisis. While the foundation currently focuses on providing relief for communities struggling in the COVID pandemic, we hope to refocus post-COVID to provide scholarships and grants for Waorani students and schools.

I hope this project will bring more attention to the narrative of the Waorani Nation, and their fight to reclaim rights to their ancestral territory and receive reparations from the Ecuadorian State. I also hope it might inspire other writers to consider how scholarly inquiry can translate into a creative product that is both emotionally resonant and meticulously researched. I believe interdisciplinarity is our future, and this project is an example of this approach. Lastly, I hope the manuscript, once it is in print, might inspire readers to take action and get involved in issues about which they are passionate.”

When we asked her to share some advice for students who might be interested in graduate school: “Graduate school can be a wonderful experience, but requires discipline and self-motivation. I entered both my master’s program and PhD program with projects already in mind, and while plenty of students don’t, I would recommend that prospective students have at least a strong idea of what they would like to focus on for their thesis or dissertation. Once you have that project or direction in mind, find programs that specialize in this, and find scholars and thinkers who specialize in these interests, whose work you admire. Also—and I don’t know if this is said often enough–find programs that offer good funding to deserving, qualified candidates. Some programs are far more nurturing when it comes to financing their students than others. It’s important to feel supported.”

PhD Student,
Literature,
School of Arts and Humanities