Gwendalynn
Roebke
CV
Personal Statement
I am a PhD student , and interdisciplinary scholar, in the University of Pennsylvania’s Philosophy department. And, I am a proud McNair Scholar and Fontaine Fellow.
After spending just a year in Marquette’s M.A program, I moved on to Penn to have more freedom in cultivating my interdisciplinary endeavors.
Before my graduate career, I completed my undergraduate studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. I earned a B.A in Distributed Studies with the distinction of Magna Cum Laude for my independently structured major named ‘New Age Existentialism’ which blended Astrophysics, Neuroscience, and Philosophy. The intention of my self designed major was to thoroughly remarry scientific and philosophical thought, as well as to tether seemingly unrelated fields via their existential relevance.
Outside of my university life, I occasionally perform poetry as well as coordinate poetry related events, and have been getting more recognition for my work in the Boulder Denver area. My first full length poetry book, A Bruxist Manifesto, was published by an indie group in Denver Fall of 2021.
Skills
Public Speaking
Event Organization
Creative Writing
Qualitative Research /Survey Work
Research
Experience
2023 Spring - Ongoing |
University of Pennsylvania
Dispossessions in the Americas (Penn-Mellon Just Futures Initiative)
Graduate Fellow
I was awarded a graduate fellowship on the DIiART grant project. After being encouraged to submit materials to the head of the grant in CLALS (The Center for Latin America and Latinx Studies) , I was asked to join the team and do work specifically on the “bodies” sublayer, which deals with the physiological, psychological, and spiritual toll of dispossession. I have been asked/tasked with writing chapter for the project’s website, where I will discuss removal of agency and narrative capacity in dispossession as corresponding to issues of soul death, spiritual death given the psychological (and physiological) trauma of dispossession .
2020 Spring Semester|
University of Colorado Boulder
Peter Ossorio Archives Fellowship (1500$)
Being and the Collectively Well/unwell, known/unknown Self:
An Investigation into how Ossorio’s ideas on cognition, mental health,and community in the framework of Descriptive Psychology are compatible with the practice of Curanderismo
I was awarded one of the first Peter Ossorio fellowships to conduct archival research based in his collection of papers held in the Norlin Library at CU. The research is distinctly interdisciplinary, and looks at how cognition, mental illness, and culture are connected.
2019-Present|
University of Colorado Boulder
Undergraduate Research Grant Program (UROP)
Power, Death, and Freedom:
An Investigation into how Social Identity Affects our Perception of Self and our Existential Experience
I was awarded an undergraduate research grant to conduct research in both Barranquilla, Colombia and Boulder, Colorado around how power, death, and freedom are perceived by different people and how this perception is influenced by their social identity and how social identity affects their perceptions. I tie all of this together using Nietzsche’s The Will to Power, and critique his position as an arbitrator of meaning while encouraging a modern adoption/adaptation of some of his ideas of power as coming from our ability to make/do ourselves into who we want to be. To contribute to my assertion that more non philosopher voices are needed in creating language and taking part of philosophical discourses, I conducted 2 rounds of interviews and surveys in both Colombia and the U.S.A around power, death, and freedom. I also engage with the phenomenology of identity, colonialism, and differences in social hierarchy as rooted in perceived race.
2018 | June-August
University of Colorado Boulder
Summer Multicultural Access to Research Training (SMART)/STROBE
I spent the summer engaging in optics research with Professor Rafael Piestun’s lab in the Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering wing. My specific project, which I had formulated for myself at the behest of my PI, was an investigation into the propagation of light through turbid media.
2018-2021|
University of Colorado Boulder
Thesis Research (defended for Latin Honors in Philosophy Spring 2021, Magna Cum Laud)
Thesis: “New Age” Existentialism:
Understanding the Modern Turbulence of the new challenges to the Idea of the ‘Individual’ as framed within Power,Death, and Freedom as the basis of ‘Free Will’ and their ties to the newly bolstered fields of Neuroscience, Astrophysics, and Philosophy
My past research for my thesis centers around the interplay between astrophysics, philosophy, and neuroscience as related to our existential crises. In this era, with an overabundance of trauma and an overabundance of trauma, and no good ways for human beings to process this overwhelming reality, what does this mean for our relationship with exiting? I also heavily look into how social structure affects our existential experiences, and make ties between stress, ability to learn/comprehend, and social stratification. Each field is tied to what I take as the 3 essential pieces of existentialism, power, death, and freedom. Power as tied to neuroscience (the power to do and act), death as tied to astrophysics/relativity (death as an event in time), and freedom as tied to philosophy (the freedom offered by philosophical reflection).
Languages
Intermediate German
Intermediate Spanish
Conference
Experience
2022| April 23 | Wisconsin Philosophical Association Conference at Saint Norbert College
I was accepted to present my paper titled “The Public Performance of Ignorance in the Knowing Deployment of Unintelligibility: What Supposed Unintelligibility can Mean for Contemporary Discussions of the Harms and Culpability of the Powerful’s Intentional Actions”. I gave a brief 30 minute presentation of the paper, and sketched out how GEM Anscombe's project in Intention holds unique insight into modern issues such as dog whistling.
2021| February 27th| MAP Group Session on public philosophy and activism at the Central APA
I was accepted to present the beginnings of a paper I was working on named "Gaslighting for the Good of the Violent in Popular Non Violence Activism Rhetoric" with a panel of other MAP scholars across the world at the Central APA meeting.
2020 |July 18-23|Questioning 2020: What Does Philosophy in the Contemporary World Mean Today?
POSTPONED DUE TO COVID 19
I was accepted to present my paper at the Society for Philosophy in the Contemporary World’s conference at Guilford College:
When there are no more Chairs, your Brethren’s Backs become One: Why Seat at the Table Politics are anti-Liberatory by their compliance with Colonial and Capitalist Ideology and bolster the Construction of Whiteness
2020 |April 23-25| 5th Annual Latinx Philosophy Conference POSTPONED DUE TO COVID 19
I was accepted to present a poster version of my paper at MSU Denver:
When there are no more Chairs, your Brethren’s Backs become One: Why Seat at the Table Politics are anti-Liberatory by their compliance with Colonial and Capitalist Ideology and bolster the Construction of Whiteness
2019|May 29-June 2| National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Portland
I presented/facilitated a workshop I created called “Ode to be born Black and Intersectional: How Colorism, Classism,Queerphobia, Misogynoir, and Internalized Anti-Blackness Affect Academia and Activism on Campuses”. The goal of this workshop was to build further understanding around the complexity of Black identity in academia and how to empower our identities while doing work to make the institutions of academia as a whole better.
2019|March 28-30| AAC&U’s Diversity, Equity, and Student Success conference
I co-presented an interactive session with two of my scholarship mentors and a fellow scholarship student called Changing the Narrative: Using Story Sharing to Mitigate Stereotype Threat.
2018 | July 27- 29 | Leadership Alliance National Symposium
I gave an oral presentation on my 10 week research project “The Propagation of Light through Turbid Media” to other high achieving students who had done research in my field.
Leadership and Organization Affiliations:
Fall 2023-Ongoing| CAMRA (Center for the Advancement of Multimodal Research Arts) Member
I became an active member of CAMRA at Penn after connecting with one of its faculty advisor’s in anthropology. I regularly attend meetings and events, and helped (in a smaller capacity) to put on their annual film festival (The Screening Scholarship and Media Festival/SSMF ). I assisted with SSMF by helping plan the panels that were put on by identifying common themes and determining what the cohesive makeup of panels would be, and then in coordinating the panel moderators (and moderating a panel myself).
Fall 2023- Ongoing| CLALS ( Center for Latin American and Latinx Studies) Graduate Board Member
I received an offer to participate on the CLALS graduate board and graciously accepted it. On the board, my duties will be to coordinate suggestions for the center with other graduates, plan programming/events for graduates affiliated with the center, and organize a graduate working group. My duties will commence in the Fall of 2023 and my term will cease in the Spring of 2026.
2022-Ongoing| Affiliated with the Middle Eastern Center (MEC) at Penn
I was made into an official affiliate of the Middle Eastern Center (MEC) at Penn after meeting with their Executive Director and outlining the intersections of my research as it relates to the Middle East. I have presented one of my developing projects at their monthly graduate coffee hours.
Grants & Fellowships:
2023- Ongoing | Social , Cognitive, and Affective Neuroscience (SCAN) Graduate Fellow
2022-2023| Mellon Humanities Graduate Fellow
In the Spring of 2023 I was notified that I was awarded funding from the Mellon Humanities Graduate Endowment. The funding I was awarded paid for a substantial amount of my first year, and in turn supported my academic pursuits .
Fall 2022 | Fontaine Fellow
In my acceptance to the University of Pennsylvania, I was awarded a Fontaine Fellowship to support my PhD progress. This fellowship is awarded to scholars from an array of backgrounds who are traditionally underrepresented in the academy.
Spring 2021 | Latin Honors designation of Magna Cum Laude for defense of my thesis in Philosophy
2019 June |Alain Locke Fellow (500$)
I participated in an intensive week long summer philosophy program at MIT called Philosophy in an Inclusive Key (PIKSI). All of the participants of this program were given a 500$ stipend and the prestigious title of this fellowship.
2019 Jan-March | Living Library Fellow
I was the first recipient of the Living Library Fellowship. My duties included recruiting people to act as “books” in the library, advertising the event, and thinking of what ways the living library can improve.
2018-2021 | McNair Scholar (1000$ per year)
As a McNair Fellow I represent academic excellence and receive support to continue my life in academia as a philosophy professor through mentorship and applicable programming. I also receive significant support for my research pursuits through both funding and preparatory workshops.
2016-Present | Miramontes Arts and Sciences Program Scholar (1500$ per year)
As a MASP Scholar, I represent both academic and community excellence. Through the program, I have acted as a summer peer mentor, taken thought provoking supplementary classes, and been introduced to faculty members who have helped shape my college experience for the better.
2016-2021| Colorado Opportunity Scholarship Initiative Recipient (5000$ per year)
Due to my affiliation with MASP and my excellent academic standing at the University, I received the COSI Scholarship to help limit my student loans.
2018-2019| GLAAD Campus Ambassador
I received this recognition/position to further my work supporting QTPOC/LBTQIA+ students on my campus. Between my radio show ‘Queers and Coffee’ and doing an addressal of ballroom culture /QTPOC at the annual drag show, I have used my ambassadorship to broaden people’s perceptions around queerness.
2018 | CU Student Government Community Excellence Award
I received this award for my work as BSA Officer of Outreach, as well as my recognition across campus for building coalition between different orgs of color.
2015-2016 | Congress Bundestag Youth Exchange Scholarship Recipient
For my senior year of highschool, I was selected as a youth ambassador to maintain a goodwill program between Germany and the U.S.A. I spent 10 months immersed in German culture and language and came back home with a decent hold on the language as well as new insight into global affairs.