Marissa Doran ‘05

Major:

History

Field site:

Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children

Doran, a history major, is perhaps the first undergraduate to co-author a course with a faculty member. Throughout summer 2003, she worked with Professor Jackall developing New York, New York, a Gaudino Fund course that examines the history, culture, society, and institutions of this “great American metropolis.” The course was a prerequisite for participation in the Williams-in-New-York Winter Study in January.

“I had never met Professor Jackall before collaborating on this project with him. A mutual friend put us in contact. He called me one day, and told me he was writing a course on New York City, a new kind of course designed to teach students critical, reflective habits of mind essential in the world of affairs. Did I want a job working as a research assistant?

“The co-authorship part came a lot later. In the last week of the summer, he told me that he was naming me co-author of the course.”

Doran relished the opportunity to work closely with Jackall. “It was fabulous. I don’t know if there’s a way of replicating my experience in the curriculum, but if there is, I’d be the first supporter,” she said.

After the summer’s extensive research, Doran and Jackall worked out the key themes that became the warp of the course and built upon that.

Doran served as a writing tutor during the semester and assisted many students in the course in developing extensive term papers.

In January, Doran began fieldwork with the Women’s Commission on Women and Children Refugees in New York City, working for a special committee housed within it called the Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict. She examined the effects of wars and other armed conflicts on vulnerable populations. “My job was essentially to translate and write briefs of French-language documents (lists and stories of human rights violations, etc.) coming out of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was quite interesting,” she said. She was also exposed to U.N. work and even got the opportunity to attend a conference on Uganda.

“New York was good. We got to do lots of great things at night (theater, opera, ballet, Letterman!),” she said, adding, “I think it was a good idea to run a small version of the Williams-in-New-York semester program during Winter Study, because there are always some kinks the first time, so when it’s a semester program, those will have been worked out.”