As we welcome the new academic year, we’d like to recognize the outstanding work of last Spring’s Lunsford Award winners, who will be honored at a ceremony in May 2023.
Max Jardetzky: Lunsford Winner (Spring 2022)
Max presented his research project, “«Trop clean pour toi » : Investigating the Diverse Dynamics of English Language Borrowing in French Rap Music” for Jennifer Johnson’s PWR 2 course, “Language in Context: (Re)appropriation and reclamation.” Jennifer highlighted the way his “compelling data-driven project investigates[ed] how French rappers resist linguistic purism.” She also noted his “dynamic delivery with media support enhancing analysis.”
A rising junior, from San Jose, CA majoring in CS (Systems), minoring in SymSys, Max plans to coterm in Music, Science, and Technology at CCRMA. As his PWR 2 project indicates, he’s very interested in computer music and digital audio, and how music shapes and is shaped by human experience and cultural transmission. He writes of his PWR 2 experience: “In Dr. JJ's PWR 2, I had the unique opportunity to apply programming techniques to social sciences inquiry, doing word matching on a lyrical dataset that would have been intractable by hand. PWR 2 helped me nurture valuable presentation and research skills which will continually guide how I approach personal and career development.” Over the summer, Max interned at Appleon an audio systems software engineering team and reports that he “was having an absolute blast!”
Kaelyn Ong: Lunsford Winner (Spring 2022)
Kaelyn is a Product Design major with interests in Education and Science, Technology, and Society who delivered her award-winning presentation, “Where Disability and Design Meet: Solving Mismatches, Not ‘Disabled Bodies’” for Selby Wynn Schwartz’s PWR 2 course, “Are We There Yet? The Rhetoric of Mobility.” When nominating Kaelyn’s presentation, Selby characterized her work as “an impassioned and thoughtful project that showcases Kaelyn's strong investment in disability studies.” Selby elaborated specifically on Kaelyn's nuanced approach to her topic: "Kaelyn makes an important intervention in the rhetoric around disability, challenging the trope that disability is 'a problem to be solved'; instead, she argues, the problem is a 'mismatch' between what people with disabilities actually need and designers who assume they already know best." She does so through "compelling use of storytelling" and a "case study [that] opens out onto much more global questions of expertise, inequity, and the purpose of design itself."
In her comments on her Lunsford Award, Kaelyn credited her PWR 2 class -- and her instructor specifically -- for creating a powerful, collaborative learning environment designed to foster meaningful student work. She writes: “In PWR 2, Professor Selby constantly emphasized ‘writing as a social practice’— and I have truly learned this from creating community with my peers in the class. Whether we were helping each other talk through our ideas or laughing about our procrastination tactics, it was wonderful to support and be supported by each other.”
In her future work, Kaelyn aims to create safe and inclusive spaces that foster play, learning, and equity. Originally from the San Gabriel Valley in SoCal, she enjoys delving into the complexity of Asian American identities, architecture that dissolves the lines between function and form, and the (im)permanence of digital memory on the internet. On campus, you can find her imagining worlds with the Stanford Improvisors (SImps), freestyling with the Common Origins dance team, or cutting fruit for her friends.
Other Spring 2022 Lunsford Finalists
Brett Chy, “Perspectives on Cambodian Music” for Selby Wynn Schwartz’s course, Are We There Yet? The Rhetoric of Mobility
Lorenzo Del Rosario, “Farmworkers to the Frontlines: A Historical Look Into Why the COVID-19 Pandemic disproportionately impacted Filipino Nurses” for Nissa Cannon’s course, California Dreaming:The Golden State's Rhetorical Appeals
Sherwin Lai, “The Irrepressible Myth of Justice Scalia” for Kevin DiPirro’s course, Myth and Contemporary: Talking Across Two Worlds
Header image from OpenClipArt.
