Summer Interns Open the Doors to Incoming Fellows

_{^{(clockwise from top left) Victoria Borneman, United States; Juliana Castro, Colombia; Siobhan Grayson, Ireland; Satvik Shukla, India; Mai El Sherif, Egypt; Adam Nagy, United States; Skylar Salick, United States}}

Victoria headshot _{by Victoria Borneman}

This summer we shined a light on the breadth of passions and motivations that drive our 2018-19 Fellows. Our newest cohort touts an array of backgrounds and brings a wealth of experience to their respective undertakings at the Center.

Each 2018 summer intern (or "Berktern") paired with an incoming Fellow to tell their triumphant tales. With the help of our talented Berktern group, we created a tapestry of interviews to reveal each fellow’s personal focus and magic.

To bring these stories to fruition, the interns initiated conversations with the Fellows to learn more about their work. Some reached out internationally, to Zimbabwe, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. Other interns greeted Fellows in person here at BKC.

For the interns, the endeavor provided the opportunity to connect with experts on critical subject matters. It was a collaborative effort to refine communications and journalism skills, and use creative avenues to establish dialogue. The summer interns communicated through Skype and video calls, captured stories using audio recording equipment and video cameras, and refined with audio and visual design editing software. Ultimately, they produced illuminating works to be shared and preserved.

These stories reveal a refreshing visage of the Fellows’ wishes, wildest dreams, and maxims behind their accomplishments. These stories remind us that, though we all come with our unique perspectives and backgrounds, what brings the BKC community together, and what propels our work forward, is our mutual concern and dedication to building the Internet for the public good.

Dragana Kaurin

"There is a huge need for people, especially marginalized communities, to be able to access and contribute to technologies which address real world challenges around issues like government surveillance, journalist security, whistleblowing, and secure communications."

Velislava Hillman

"To some, playing video games may seem like a waste of time; to a ten-year-old it is a very complex experience where you learn a specific language, strategy and social skills."

Jessica Dheere

"Digital rights are human rights as they manifest in digitally networked spaces. But the concept really begs more questions than it answers. I created a working definition of digital rights to establish some common ground and help guide researchers when combing through legislation."

Jonathan Jackson

"What happens at scale is the people who are making culture never recoup anything off it. And arguably it's only valuable when someone else takes it. And I think that is a very dangerous precedent."

Paola Ricuarte Quijano

"We are so used to living the way we live, thinking the way we think, to gathering with people that are similar to us. Really trying to connect with other people that have been raised differently, that speak a different language, that think differently, but also that sense differently, it's a challenge."

Jasmine McNealy

Mainstream advocacy groups often fail to realize that there are cultural, racial, gender, sexuality, and class issues in connection to privacy and security that often go unaddressed.

Momin M. Malik

“History of science has to do with understanding how science actually works rather than the way it’s presented in the science textbooks.”

Lily Hu

“What do we owe each other as we design our institutions, as we try to live together in society? ..And that’s not something that you just get from intuition; it’s something that really needs to be studied.”

Rachel Han

"Our individual and collective memory are shaped by the narratives that we build, to describe what we see. This last decade, the speed of seeing and experiencing the world has increased dramatically; I find it all quite fascinating and challenging.”

Armando Guio-Espanol

"If younger generations are not prepared to engage with technology then it's a huge risk, especially for developing countries, that have a whole generation that is not engaged with technology in education, and it will be impossible for us to catch up with developed countries."

Amy Zhang

"I think we need more tools to get better at managing and handling information overload. I think everyone has that experience where they are inundated with emails and chat, articles and tweets to read, and have difficulty understanding, filtering, and knowing whether something is true or not.”

Padmashree Gehl Sampath

“Analyzing the digital economy calls for interdisciplinary work because most of the policy issues are complex and draw from science, technology, law and economics. BKC offers the perfect place for such a medici effect.”

Sabelo Mhlambi

“I’m now interested strongly in the right to be left alone, the right to be anonymous — to not be mapped — as a way to possibly prevent members of marginalized groups from being further oppressed.”

Jim Lucchese

"There are number of technologies coming together in and around music that are enabling collaboration in new ways, and that are changing the definition of what we consider to be a musical work. Things are becoming increasingly multimedia and collaborative. But with each of the steps forward, come challenges on the legal side, challenges on the business model side. In some cases these challenges have been around for 30 years. In other cases we are seeing novel questions of law, policy, and business model."

Hyunjin Seo

Dr. Seo’s fellowship year at the Berkman Klein Center focuses on “developing a multilevel model of collective action for analyzing the role of communication in protests, social movements and other types of social change initiatives.” Dr. Seo has conducted several empirical studies about how popular social media platforms are used for collective actions in different countries in the Middle East and Africa. She hopes to use these studies to proposal a multilevel model of collective action.

Titi Akinsanmi

"After spending as much as a few minutes conversing with Titi Akinsanmi, it’s hard to resist getting swept away by her passion, excitement and deep-rooted optimism regarding her work and the interconnected, multifaceted environment she’s impacting. We were incredibly lucky to get the chance to connect with Titi earlier this month and discuss a number of topics pertaining to some of her past efforts as well as her hopes for her upcoming fellowship at the Berkman Klein Center."

Nick Brie-Guarriello

"Nick-Brie Guarriello is a Pokemon Go gamer, Feminist Film Studies professor, and a ctrl+F book scanner! In this interview with BKC summer '18 intern Andrea Nishi, they discuss the blurred lines between recreation and research, the challenge of satisfying the self versus the fanbase, and the balance between teaching and research in academia."

Mindy Seu

"Berkman Klein Center Summer Interns Skyler Sallick and Juliana Castro, spoke at length with Mindy Seu, a 2018-19 Fellow at BKC, about her archival digitization philosophy. The chat focused on how archival microsites have the ability to widen access to the documentation of histories and what that means in terms of how we operate within an online world."

Journeys to BKC