A Columbia University undergraduate reported on her participation in a summer study abroad program in Paris, detailing how the experience shaped her research into endangered languages and the cultural significance of fashion.
Writing for the Columbia Undergraduate Global Engagement website, the student described how the Global Learning Scholarship enabled her to enroll in two specific courses: “Endangered Languages in Global Cities” and “France and the African Diaspora.”
The student said that her interest in linguistic preservation is deeply personal, as she is a fluent speaker of Igbo, a Nigerian language designated as endangered by UNESCO.
She observed that finding other members of the diaspora who speak the language with similar fluency is rare, which motivated her academic focus on why languages disappear and how communities, such as Little Senegal in New York, serve as spaces for maintaining a mother tongue.
During her time in Paris, the student conducted fieldwork by observing the city’s fashion industry, which she later integrated into her academic projects. She argued that fashion functions as a language, possessing its own power dynamics and structures similar to those found in spoken dialects.
In her final project for the “Endangered Languages in Global Cities” course, she analyzed how fashion maintains cultural identity.
She asserted that the naming of garments often reflects broader linguistic power, noting that cultural names can be either preserved or “whitewashed” into generic terms. She practiced these concepts in real time by learning French phrases necessary for daily life, which she stated helped her understand the effort required to hold onto a language or acquire a new one.
The student plans to return to Paris this fall for a semester exchange at Sciences Po, where she intends to continue her research into the intersections of fashion and culture. She expressed that her summer experience confirmed her professional interest in pursuing a career that combines these fields on a global scale.
“I look forward to continuing this journey and nurturing my curious spirit,” the student wrote in her account for the university. She credited the support of Global Learning Scholarship donors for making her initial program and subsequent academic exploration possible.
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