Gwendoline Choi (UK)

Originally from Hong Kong, I completed my undergraduate degree in Philosophy and German at the University of St Andrews. During my time there, I spent two years researching the role of material culture and collection practices in reinforcing and perpetuating the German colonial imaginary. This period reaffirmed my commitment to interdisciplinary cultural history, which I hope to further at Oxford with an eye on the intersection of the archive, the object, and the body. Drawing on my background in analytic philosophy and translation, I am also fascinated by the potential of language to broaden one’s conceptual map. For my dissertation, I plan to interrogate how translating concepts integral to our worldviews can affect the framing of our ideas, disclosing the power we all have to bring about change. This coheres with my community-oriented question of how we can come to fill our own hermeneutic gaps by forging new connections between the discoveries of others. I hope that this can further illuminate the everyday language-, concept- and self-making practice of individuals occupying a hybrid cultural arena.

As always, I am immensely grateful to my mentors at St Andrews for their supportive tutelage, and to the Ertegun Graduate Scholarship Programme for their generous scholarship and welcoming community. I hope to repay their commitment through wider community outreach at Oxford. Above all, I very much look forward to learning from the different disciplines and methodological approaches that characterise the diverse Ertegun research community.