(Picture taken by Lillie Benowitz)
Name: Abbey Clark-Moschella
Pronouns: She/her/hers
Class Year: 2017
Hometown: Guilford, CT
Major: English/Anthropology
What are your goals for your last year at Mt. Holyoke? Finish my thesis on 9/11 and the resulting war on terror, and trying to throw myself into everything as much as I can. Socially- just being able to just be and exist. Letting go of unspoken social pressures- I’m happy to be able to stay at home on Friday night and watch a 9/11 documentary for my thesis. Mostly just finishing my thesis!
What did you do this summer? I went back to D.C., where I used to live, spent my second summer with Smithsonian Associates, which is a large scale educational program that works with the Smithsonian Museum. My bosses are some of my closest friends, I really have a family there. I focused on immersing myself completely in the world of the Smithsonian Summer Camp, fully embracing working super long hours and loving every minute of it. I also took a weekend off and visited two friends in MInneapolis, which was really fun. I miss the Smithsonian a lot, I want to go back. My work there solidified that I want to go into museum education, it also gave me a home in a special way.
Favorite Moho moment? There are two moments and they are bookends to each other. The first is moving in and meeting my roomie and instantly becoming best friends- that moment when we first saw each other and we just knew. The second moment bookends the first- it was at the beginning of this year, getting ready for convocation and looking at each other in our graduation robes and thinking, “OMG this can’t be happening!”
How did you get involved in Amnesty International? I signed up freshman year, it was not very big, many board members had recently left, so the people running it were starting it from the ground. There was a lot of space to be active in it and do what I wanted to do. I went to the Northeastern conference and that was great. I was secretary and now I’m in my second year as co-chair, we’ve grown it a lot, it’s my baby.
What is the best part of Amnesty? Having a place to go on Tuesday nights with great people who are thinking about difficult things. Amnesty has provided us a space to do it in an informal way and talk about our feelings more. I’ve worked to cultivate an environment that isn’t about doing your work and leaving; it’s about having 45 mins or an hour to just be and exist and learn and talk about difficult things. The board has grown really close too.
What are you thinking for post graduation? I’m really interested in museums as a site for justice work. The stories we tell about our worlds in museums have a real effect on young minds and the way we think about the world; they have the power to change what we do next. Part of what I want to do is talk about difficult things in museums, encountering them and not running away.. Instead, talk about it, explode the narratives, work towards justice.That’s how I want to incorporate activism into my post Mount Holyoke life. I also want museums to be more accessible to more people, not just people who can pay the ticket price.
Tell me about your past job on campus: I was a research assistant for one of my favorite Politics professors, she was doing a project about New Orleans and Berlin and how they’ve handled trauma differently. New Orleans has little to no memorials to Katrina or slavery, whereas Berlin is covered in memorials for the wall coming down, the Holocaust and the war. In comparing these two reactions, it started me thinking about the mode of cultural productions in response to trauma. I’m really interested in trauma. The job was great because it consumed a lot of my head. At Mount Holyoke, my time has been full but so has my head. I want to fill my thoughts and my brain as opposed to having a million commitments where I’m just running around but not feeling fulfilled.
Favorite tv show: Law & Order: SVU, I love it. Olivia Benson!!
Favorite Book: That’s hard! The first book that made me love books is Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, I read it in 7th grade.There was a summer in middle school where I was like I’m gonna sit down and do this. I also love The Bell Jar, A Visit From the Goon Squad, The Stranger, and Hamlet. I made a concerted effort to only read female authors for pleasure the first year or so of college. Oh, Crime and Punishment is another one of my favorites!
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