The Feminist and Gender Studies Department is delighted to share that Lucia Daranyi ’24 (FGS Major and Environmental Studies Minor) will be starting a new position as the Island Institute Fellow on Deer Isle after graduation. The mission of the Island Institute is to "navigate climate and economic change with island and coastal communities to expand opportunities and deliver solutions." The Island Institute Fellowship is a two-year program in which fellows work in community-based organizations on one of Maine's islands or small coastal communities while also living there.
As an Island Institute Fellow, Lucia will be working with the Community Education program, where she will be helping build an outreach and marketing strategy for the school. In doing so, Lucia will be drawing on the knowledge that she gained while doing ethnographic research on community climate resilience in Maine during her Senior year. Entitled Coastal Communities: Everyday Resiliency in the Face of Uncertain Times, Lucia’s Capstone project brings together the insights of feminist, critical science, and environmental studies to make an argument for more community-engaged research on climate change that is attentive to its effects on everyday life in small island communities.
When asked to reflect on the significance of this new chapter of her life, Lucia had this to share: “I am extremely excited to start this next chapter of my life, to be moving back to my home state, and to be living on the coast once more. This work is closely related to my senior capstone in FGS, and I am so excited to continue to learn from community members on Maine islands. I could not be more grateful for all of the wisdom and guidance that the Feminist and Gender Studies Department has given me during my last four years at Colorado College. I feel excited to take this opportunity and know I would not be where I am right now without the knowledge that I have gained through my major in FGS.”
Congratulations, Lucia! We are so proud to know you and to see you giving back to your Island communities in Maine in ways that not only build on the insights you gained as a Feminist and Gender Studies major but also honor Islanders’ ways of knowing and community resilience!