Current MA Students

Kareem Alston

Born and raised in New York City, Kareem has a B.A. Honors in African & African American Studies from Stanford University with a concentration in Identity, Diversity, and Aesthetics. As an undergraduate, he pursued research on local Hip Hop culture, activism and education in Cape Town, South Africa, writing an honors thesis and producing a short documentary.

As an M.A. student in African Studies, he plans to continue his focus on the intersections between art and culture, with the ultimate goal of continuing to work in the music industry.

Kareem has worked throughout the arts world in many capacities, formerly working in dance and is currently the Co-Chair of the Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford. He is excited for the opportunity to keep learning and growing academically while searching for ways to contribute to the arts globally.

Kelsey Chase Mcfaul

Kelsey is a native of Washington state, where she grew up and attended Seattle Pacific University. She graduated with degrees in English Liteatue and Political Science. Her senior thesis was a collection of short stories exploring connections between myth and narrative among Ethiopian Evangelical Christians.

Kelsey first visited Ethiopia as a child and has since cultivated an academic as well as a personal knowledge of its history and people. Two summers ago, she travelled alone in South Sudan, Kenya, and Ethiopia interviewing and writing the stories of everyday citizens, enterprising businesspeople, leaders, and teachers.

As an MA student in African Studies, Kelsey plans to continue her focus on African literature and storytelling, including how these forms may be leveraged in political rhetoric. She is also looking forward to studying Amharic. She hopes to pursue a doctoral degree in Anthropology or Comparative Literature and spend some of her next years living in Ethiopia. 

Raphaël deberdt

Raphaël grew up in Foix, France and studied Central Africa with an emphasis on civilian-military relationships. He is interested in the historical roots of the conflict in the eastern Congo, and the Rwandan genocide's role in the current war. Prior to joining Stanford, Raphaël interned in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he worked on social and political issues faced by the Bambenga people. He also worked at the Oakland Institute, focusing on the World Bank's policies in Bolivia and land-grabbing in Tanzania and Ethiopia.

Raphaël holds a strong interest in the African Great Lakes region, and particularly the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He hopes to pursue a doctoral program in political science focusing on the civil war in the eastern Congo and to travel more throughout the region. He currently holds a B.A. in Political Science and an M.A. in Modern International Relations from Sciences Po Lyon, France.

Melanie kent

Melanie lived in Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Laos for 13 years as the child of community development specialists. She experienced communist and democratic governmental systems, rural villages and a burgeoning Asian capital, and Christian, Buddhist, Orthodox, and other African religious contexts. She also worked on an agricultural demonstration farm and taught English as a second language.

Melanie received a B.A. in International Affairs from the University of Georgia, studied abroad at Oxford University, and minored in African Studies and Arabic. She was inspired to work in policy when she interned with UGA’s Center for International Trade and Security, where she interacted with government officials from around the world, studied nuclear policy, and researched national legal-regulatory frameworks for nonproliferation and strategic trade controls in Kenya and India.

She is excited to explore the complex transnational security challenges facing East Africa through the African Studies MA. Her research focuses on the cultural and historical background to these issues.

gloria kyallo

A Native of Kenya, Gloria earned her bachelor’s degree in Political Science International Affairs from the University of California, Riverside (UCR).  During her time at UCR she wrote her honors thesis on examining the International Criminal Court from a restorative justice perspective. During her undergraduate career Gloria worked as a U-TOUCH intern, where she developed and executed a three-week training program focused on women empowerment in Gulu District in Northern Uganda. The project went on to be an integral component of U-TOUCH’s work as a part of their curriculum in Northern Uganda. Gloria’s time in Uganda influenced her decision to pursue her Master’s degree in African Studies.

Gloria’s research interests include international development, human rights, gender inequality, women’s rights, international relations, and comparative politics. After completing her Master’s degree, Gloria plans to work in the international development field before finally pursing her Ph.D. in International Affairs.

mina shah

Mina Shah is currently completing her senior year in Comparative Literature, and is working on an honors thesis analyzing different forms of literature from Ghana. She is from South Salem, New York, where her parents and two dogs still live. Mina has spent the past two summers working in Accra and Takoradi, Ghana with the West Africa AIDS Foundation, helping with outreaches and writing projects, as well as conducting two interview-based studies. She is committed to public service in a variety of different capacities and has worked closely with the Haas Center for Public Service during her undergraduate career, both on fellowships and in a peer-advising capacity.

 Mina is interested in representations of Africa in literature, particularly in literature coming out of the African continent itself. As an M.A. student, she plans to explore African literary history and connections between literature and politics in Africa.

laetitia walendom

Laetitia has extended her stay at Stanford to supplement her BAH in Urban Studies and Minor in African Studies with an MA in African Studies. Laetitia spent much of her undergraduate career at the Center for African Studies as a student assistant, served as an editorial assistant for the Ghana Studies journal, and contributed as a course development assistant  in African-literature related courses on campus.

Laetitia completed an honors synthesis on the architecture and urban planning of Antananarivo, Madagascar in her senior year, and spent this summer interning with the ArchiAfrika organization in Accra, Ghana. Having lived in Chad, Madagascar, Tunisia, and Cote d’Ivoire, she plans on soon returning to the continent to work in urban planning and design after completing her coterm.