Announcing the Winners of Our 2015 Student Opinion Contest!

Last fall, as part of our eighth annual fall conference, "Why Privacy Matters: What Do We Lose When We Lose Our Privacy?," we announced a Student Opinion Contest that challenged university and campus students to answer the following question: "Does Privacy Matter in the 21st century?"

After reviewing close to 50 submissions, we are pleased to announce the winners of our 2015 student opinion contest!

Mia Lotan - Winner

Mia is a sophomore at Bard College. She is an intended Art History major with a concentration in Bard's Experimental Humanities program. Lotan was a participant in Roger Berkowitz's course "Privacy: Why It Matters," which discussed the work and theory of many speakers of the Hannah Arendt 2015 fall conference.

Mia's winning submission, an essay entitled "Community and the Self at the 2015 Hannah Arendt Center Conference," can be read here.

Ava Lindenmaier and Zelda May Bas - Winners

Ava is a Senior at Bard College pursuing a B.A. in Historical Studies. A participant in the inaugural semester of ‘Practice of Courage’ courses in the Courage To Be Program, she is thrilled to undertake the responsibilities entailed in the Student Fellowship. Most recently Ava has been working as a Graphic Design Intern for the Hannah Arendt Center and looks forward to working on more creative projects throughout the coming year. A summer spent traveling in Europe after her sophomore year was particularly influential upon her appreciation for and study of foreign languages. In her spare time Ava enjoys cooking, hiking and backgammon.

Zelda is a senior at Bard College, where she is pursuing a B.A. in Political Studies with a concentration in Global and International Affairs. Her senior thesis looks at the phenomenon of homelessness through the lenses of Hannah Arendt and to what extent it applies to the contemporary figure of the Syrian refugee. (Over her winter break, Zelda is volunteering in the Lebach refugee camp in Germany, where she is also conducting interviews with refugees.) After graduation, she plans to attend the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom and pursue a Masters of Arts in Contemporary Identities within the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies.

Ava and Zelda's winning submission, a short film entitled "What Does Privacy Feel Like?," can be viewed here. You can also read the two filmmakers' personal statements here.

Matthew Balik - Honorable Mention

Matthew is a Junior at Bard College and a Written Arts major. Originally hailing from northern New Jersey, he is interested in short fiction. Matthew currently interns at Conjunctions, a literary journal based at Bard College, and is acting as one of the editors of a new student-run art publication on campus, Ingenue. After Bard, he hopes to advance his professional career in editorial and/or publishing work.

Matthew's honorably mentioned submission, an essay entitled "The Importance of Solitude for the Artist," can be read here.

Dina Toubasi - Honorable Mention

Dina is a sophomore at Bard who is pursuing a multidisciplinary major involving economics, philosophy, and literature. She was born and raised in the West Bank, Palestine. In the summer of 2014, she came to the United States for the first time to begin her college studies. Dina enjoys academic writing, both in English and in Arabic (her native tongue), and she hopes to eventually pursue a writing-centered career. Additionally, she loves traveling and is beginning to believe that it should be a human right.

Dina's honorably mentioned submission, an essay entitled "Privacy and Sex Regulation Administration," can be read here.

Congratulations once again to our winners and honorable mentions!

We want to thank everyone who entered into our student opinion contest, and we look forward to reviewing the submissions to our contest for our upcoming ninth annual fall conference, "How Do We Talk About Difficult Questions?: Race, Sex, and Religion on Campus"!