Marine affairs graduate student, Rachel Cohn, has been awarded a 2022 Critical Language Scholarship through the American Councils for International Education. The Critical Language Scholarship offers fully-funded, intensive summer language experiences for American college and university students in a variety of key languages. Cohn has been admitted to the Swahili program, where they will improve their language skills for fieldwork in Kilifi, Kenya. 

 

Since 2020, Cohn has been working with a USAID-sponsored research project studying the effects of small-scale fishing practices and education on food security in coastal Kenya. “With the pandemic falling when it did in my academic journey, I questioned how I could best support my team from afar, and one of the answers I found was to start learning Swahili online.”

 

Cohn is grateful for the opportunity to extend their language knowledge further, and hopes to use their skills during interviews and observational fieldwork: “Because my research is collaborative and uses ethnographic methods, the quality of what I can produce will be greatly improved through this language learning opportunity.” They will return to Kilifi in May to share their MAF Major Project— a children’s book about coastal food sovereignty—with community members, and they are excited to learn more about environmental food relationships in Kenya through interviews and storytelling. 

 

Learn more about the Critical Language Scholarship (clscholarship.org), as well as the USAID ‘Samaki Salama’ project (https://www.fishinnovationlab.msstate.edu/research/projects/samaki-salama-securing-small-scale-fisheries-kenya-healthy-nutrition-and) and associated Rhode Island / Kenya research team (http://ahumphrieslab.com/nutrition-security-1), here.