Kilachand in the News
Living with a Rare Disease, This Recent Grad Is Trying to Help Others Like Herself
In 2019 Alexa Quintero (KHC, Questrom’24) was diagnosed with a rare genetic connective tissue disorder called hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. The disease is caused by defects in collagen, the protein that provides structure and support to a person’s skin, muscles, bones, and connective tissues. Symptoms include joint dislocation, stretchy skin, scarring, chronic pain, and, as in Quintero’s case, severe gastrointestinal disorders. Unable to eat or drink, she has relied on a feeding tube for the last three years.
After she got her feeding tube, Quintero decided to begin sharing her medical journey publicly, posting videos on TikTok—she now has more than 80,000 followers. Many of her posts have been viewed millions of times. Not content with just sharing her story, Quintero wanted to help improve the lives of others who depend on medical devices, like the type of feeding pump she uses. With the help of biomedical engineering student Audrey Lindsay (ENG’27), Quintero designed an “improved enteral feeding pump for the modern user” for her Kilachand Honors College Keystone Project called Tubie2Go.
BU’s New Center on Forced Displacement Will Address the Global Refugee Crisis
October 6, 2022
Congratulations to Professors Carrie Preston and Muhammad Zaman on the founding of the new University-wide Center on Forced Displacement. CFD’s mission is to improve the lives of, and give voice to, displaced people around the world and has its roots in the Initiative on Forced Displacement (IFD), which Professors Preston and Zaman began together in 2017.
Border Studies Program Offers Chance to Learn about Migrants and Border Wall Firsthand
March 24, 2022
Over spring break BU & Kilachand faculty and students, traveled to the Rio Grande Valley with the 2022 Mexico-US Border Studies Program—part of the University-wide Initiative on Forced Displacement. While there, they volunteered with a number of nonprofits that support migrants, including Refugee Services of Texas, Rio Grande Relief Projects, Team Brownsville, the Humanitarian Respite Center, La Posada Providencia, and LUPE.
BU Today spoke with the participants following their trip and published a collection of their reflections about what they learned.
BU Today: My Own Boston
March 15, 2022
Mira Dhakal (COM ’22) highlights her Keystone Project by exploring her own Boston
New Interdisciplinary Class Asks: “What Do Plants Know?”
BU Today features our Kilachand Honors College course “The Secret Life of Plants” and joins KHC faculty and students on a class trip to the Arnold Arboretum.
“The Secret Life of Plants” is one of the section topics this semester for KHC HC 401: Epistemologies and the Process of Inquiry
From Glasgow to Comm Ave: Cutting Methane Emissions
November 3, 2021
Nathan Phillips (Kilachand, CAS Faculty Member) speaks with BU Today on whether UN climate summit pledge will prompt leaking gas line repairs in Boston and the United States
WBUR: Cognoscenti article by Dr. Travis Franks, Kilachand Postdoctoral Associate
October 11, 2021
In this commentary entitled “Indigenous Peoples’ Day is a start. Now let’s change how we remember,” Dr. Franks discusses the history of Columbus Day, the work to rename the holiday Indigenous Peoples’ Day, and touches on some conflict this has created with some Italian Americans.
October 1, 2021
After months of discussion, the Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag is proposing Boston University change the name of Myles Standish Hall, ditching the name of the colonial military leader in favor of a title honoring a Native American figure killed by Standish, Wituwamat. Dr. Travis Franks, a postdoctoral associate at the university, reached out to the tribe and launched a petition regarding changing the dorm’s name. Emma Kopelowicz reports!
Dr. Travis Franks, Kilachand Postdoctoral Associate, is published in WBUR: Cognoscenti
September 21, 2021
Dr. Travis Franks shares the history of Myles Standish, the Pilgrim’s military leader, and why he is working with the Massachusett Tribe to change the name of Myles Standish Hall at Boston University.
BU Today POV: The Importance of Teaching and Learning about Afghan Refugees
September 20, 2021
Professors Muhammad Zaman and Carrie Preston discuss the current situation regarding Afghan refugees and why faculty and students must address the ongoing humanitarian crisis brought on by forced displacement.
John Woodward, Kilachand Faculty In Residence, has been appointed to the MA Commission on Facial Recognition.
March 10th, 2021
Created by Massachusetts law, the commission is charged with conducting a study of facial recognition’s use in the commonwealth and making policy recommendations.
Kilachand Student Solange Hackshaw (COM’21) Creates A Blog and a Podcast for BIPOC Students Navigating Their 20s
March 6th, 2021
Kilachand senior Solange Hackshaw (COM’21) was featured in BU Today and shares about the blog and podcast she created for BIPOC students navigating their 20s.
“I really wanted to create a space for, essentially, marginalized people—especially Black and brown women and queer identifying individuals—where…we don’t need to filter certain topics, like mental health, sexual health, racism, implicit biases,” Hackshaw (COM’21) says. “A lot of these topics are quite personal to me, but they’re also personal to others.”
Kilachand Alum Carina Terry (CAS’20) is published in Biological Conservation
March 1st, 2021
Congratulations to Carina Terry, Professor Richard Primack, and the rest of their team on having their paper, “Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on noise pollution in three protected
areas in metropolitan Boston”, published in Biological Conservation.
Kilachand Student Amit Bhatia (Questrom’24) Gives Tips on Managing Papers, Projects, & Midterms
March 1st, 2021
Kilachand student, Amit Bhatia was featured in BU Today and shares his tips on managing everything school has to throw at you. “Keeping a balance is being productive,” Bhatia says. “Allow yourself to be human, allow yourself to take time, allow yourself to enjoy college.”
Kilachand Faculty-in-Residence John Woodward Featured in New Book on Warfare
February 4th, 2021
First Platoon author Annie Jacobsen highlighted Woodward’s background, as a CIA clandestine officer, a lawyer, and a former U.S. Army officer as part of her new book.
Kilachand Alum Macken Murphy (CAS ’20) Creates a Different Species of Podcast
January 13, 2021
BU Today caught up with Macken Murphy (CAS ’20), a Kilachand alum who plans to publish A Boston Bestiary, his Kilachand Keystone Project, in 2021. The book explores the everyday fauna all around us that we often overlook, from crows to turkeys and from starlings to rats. His second book, due in 2022, already has a publisher (Macmillan), but beyond confirming it’s a nonfiction children’s book that also involves nature, Murphy says he’s not at liberty to talk about it yet.
Kilachand Professor Muhammad Zaman Honored with Guggenheim Fellowship
Two BU Faculty Honored with Guggenheim Fellowships. BU’s Muhammad Zaman and Sigrid Nunez have each won a 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship, awarded annually to individuals who have “demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts.”
Kilachand Student Bayley Connors (CAS ’20) Featured on BU Today For Research On Child Poverty
April 9, 2020
Recent Kilachand graduate Bayley Connors (CAS ’20) explains his research on how public policy shortcomings, like the Child Tax Credit, only exacerbate economic inequality for children in the US.
Kilachand Student Wiley Hundertmark (CAS ’20) Makes Green Space Even Greener at BU.
March 18, 2020
In this article, recent Kilachand graduate Wiley Hundertmark (CAS ’20) explains how new research data will influence the landscaping and carbon footprint of BU’s Charles River Campus.
The work of BU anthropologist Cheryl Knott and her drone-flying son Kilachand student Russell Laman (CAS ’22) featured on the BBC.
February 24, 2020
The work of Cheryl Knott, a BU anthropologist and Kilachand Professor, and her drone-flying son, Kilachand student Russell Laman (CAS ’22), is featured in the BBC’s Seven Worlds, One Planet.
Former KHC Student Directed A Staged Reading of Question and Question For BU Conference
November 5, 2019
At a recent Boston University conference titled “The Role of the University in the Crisis of Forced Displacement,” Nicole Rizzo, a recent graduate of Boston University who was also a Kilachand Honors College student, directed a staged reading of Syrian playwright-filmmaker Liwaa Yazji’s Question and Question, a work based on Yazji’s interviews with displaced Syrian women.
Kilachand Faculty-In-Residence Kinh Vu’s Journey from Vietnam Orphan to BU Music Professor
October 23, 2019
In this article, Kinh Vu, Kilachand Faculty-in-Residence and College of Fine Arts assistant professor of music, talks about the power of music education and shares his experience making music in an orphanage in his native Vietnam.
Bostonia: Kilachand Director Carrie Preston Featured as One of Seven Researchers Impacting the Human Experience
September 20, 2019
Kilachand’s very own Director, Carrie Preston, was featured in a recent article from Bostonia: “The Transformers. Meet seven researchers who are impacting, and in some cases, revolutionizing, the human experience.” Read the full article to learn about how Dr. Preston is studying a humanitarian crisis through the lens of performing arts.
Kilachand Student Wins Sociology Award
May 2018
Kilachand junior, Erin Tichenor, has won the College of Arts and Sciences Department of Sociology’s annual Best Seminar Paper Prize for 2018. Erin, a sociology major with a minor in African American Studies, received the award for her paper “The 19th Century Criminalization of the Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand”. Congratulations, Erin!
BU Today: Plumbing the Public Health Lessons of the AIDS Crisis
May 7, 2018
For three-plus hours on the last Sunday in April, 75 Kilachand students, broken into groups of four or five, offer solutions to real or potentially real health conundrums, including bioterrorism, the refugee flood from Syria’s civil war, soaring suicide rates among Canada’s Inuit people, and improving Boston’s program for training a more diverse workforce in health care.
BU Today: A Performance at the Intersection of Theater and Activism
April 24, 2018
Nicole Rizzo’s play about sexual trauma inspired by Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues debuts tonight, and the timing is right. As the #MeToo movement exposes the breadth of sexual violence and harassment nationwide, To Stop Treading Water: Monologues That Challenge the Undertow of Trauma looks at how seven fictional university students cope with sexual violence.
BU Today: BU Admissions More Selective than Ever
March 28, 2017
Students admitted to Kilachand Honors College also average in the top 3 percent of their class, with 3.9 GPA and 1515 SAT (33 ACT) averages.
BU Today: BU Names Kilachand Honors College Associate Directors
February 16, 2017
Linda Doerrer and Paul Lipton lend scientific thought to Kilachand’s visionary curriculum.
BU Today: Carrie Preston to Lead Kilachand Honors College
September 29, 2016
Carrie Preston is a scholar who blends academia and activism (one of her class assignments led to the creation of BU’s Sexual Assault Response and Prevention Center). “I hope to build on the existing strengths of Kilachand as a residential learning community offering energetic, high-achieving students the opportunity to enhance their already excellent undergraduate experience at BU,” says Preston.