El Karfi Wins Fellowship
Khadija El Karfi, a student in our doctoral program in French Language & Literature, has won the Henry S. Newman Graduate Student Fellowship, awarded to students in the BU Graduate School of Arts & Sciences whose dissertation focuses on some aspect of immigration to the United States. Mr. Newman, the benefactor of the fund, immigrated to America following World War II, having survived two years in a concentration camp. Khadija tells us:
“I am grateful to have been awarded the 2022 Henry S. Newman Graduate Student Fellowship for the 2023-2024 academic year. Although I very much enjoy teaching, I am glad to be able to devote next year to my dissertation research which focuses on investigating the rise in anti-Black racism in Morocco following the influx of West African migrants that began in the mid-1990s. While my dissertation focuses primarily on West African migration to Morocco, the fourth chapter examines the increase in Moroccan migration to the United States and other neighboring Western countries. By comparing these two migratory experiences, this section seeks to counter the dehumanization of West African migrants who are treated as if their lives were “disposable” and “unworthy” of the most basic care and respect.”
Congratulations, Khadija!