Student Spotlight: Luisa Suad Bocconcelli ’21.5

Luisa Suad Bocconcelli ’21.5 is a second-semester senior concentrating in Middle East Studies. Her capstone project, entitled On the Siege of Homs: Blurring the Lines Between Truth and Fiction, deals with narratives of the siege of Homs in western Syria through translation and comparative literary analysis. Inspired by her partial Iraqi heritage and experience as an exchange student in Morocco, she has focused extensively on learning Modern Standard Arabic throughout her time at Brown and has recently begun studying Turkish and Persian as well. Her current research deals with knowledge production throughout the Syrian conflict, as she explores the history of the conflict through art and literature. As she prepares for her post-graduate career, Luisa is guided by her desire to continue learning languages and practice them through literary translation and oral interpretation. After graduation, she will work as an intern at an international development firm in Brussels, Belgium. This summer, she will travel to Ankara, Turkey, to participate in the Critical Language Scholarship program. Luisa hopes to eventually pursue a postgraduate degree in international education.