On This Summer Trip, the Bahamas Was Their Classroom

On a breezy day in May, Hope Khodaei (SCS'27) touched down in the Bahamas.

She was nervous.

The 56-year-old was about to conduct research on Cat Island, a 48-mile stretch of beach and rock southeast of Nassau. She was the lead student researcher traveling alongside two undergraduate students, and they'd be driving up and down the island's sole road, interviewing residents and archiving their oral histories.

Khodaei had done similar work in Maryland for Georgetown's Racial Justice Institute (RJI), and she was a summer research fellow for the RJI. Still, coming into the trip, she didn't feel like a "real" researcher," she said.

"I was a little worried about stepping out of my comfort zone," she said.

Little did she know, the trip would change the way she saw herself.

Khodaei (left) a Piscataway Tribal Citizen, presents Pamela Poitier (right) with gifts of sage and turkey feathers, according to her tribe's customs. Photo by John R. Diehl.

"I pushed myself to limits I didn't think I had," she said. "Cat Island solidified in my mind that I am a researcher. This opportunity supports the Jesuit value of 'cura personalis' in action. That's why experiential learning opportunities are so important."

Khodaei is part of a team of Georgetown students, spearheaded by Mia Massimino, director of Creative Projects for the Woodshed Centerin the RJI, who are conducting ethnographic research for a cross-continent project Professor Anita Gonzalezis leading. Gonzalez is studying how enslaved people and their descendants remained resilient through their food and cultural traditions in Cat Island and the Chesapeake Bay region - areas that were influenced by the Jesuits who settled on coastal waterways that ferried enslaved people and goods.

On Cat Island, Gonzalez is studying culinary practices that have been passed down since Christopher Columbus who is believed to have first landed on its shores.

"I'm interested in how, on that isolated island, the African descendants have been able to maintain their foodways," she said. "How can we use those existing food ways practices to support sustainable ways while ensuring health within Black communities?"

The island also provides ample terrain for outdoor learning, she said.

"I'm a big fan of experiential learning, and I think that's why I'm working so hard to get two Laidlaw students to come to the Bahamas with me," she said a few months before the trip. "Because what they'll do - what I found with my students - it changes their lives."

Learning in the Bahamas

Delaney Sebora (SFS'26) is a junior in the School of Foreign Service and a Laidlaw Scholar. Photo by John R. Diehl.

Samantha Wang (SFS'27) and Delaney Sebora (SFS'26) are two Laidlaw Scholars who joined Khodaei on the trip. The Laidlaw Scholarshipis a two-year leadership program that supports students in conducting summer research.

For Sebora, the trip was a chance to step into a different type of classroom, particularly as she studies international history and decolonization.

"I've learned a lot about that in class, but it's so much different to actually talk to people who live in those countries. Most of the time, we're getting all of those ideas from a Western lens," she said. "You can't find these stories on the internet anywhere."

Samantha Wang (SFS'27) is a sophomore in the School of Foreign Service and a Laidlaw Scholar. Photo by John R. Diehl.

For Wang, the trip was also a chance to learn how to conduct research in the humanities and about the history and culture of the Bahamas, beyond its tourist destination reputation. She said it was particularly important to preserve these stories on an island adversely impacted by climate change.

"The land itself might be underwater in the next several centuries," she said. "So I think in terms of a survival perspective, actually recording their histories and the way the people there live is important to have."

For seven days, the three students traveled across the island to interview residents and learn about their stories and family history.

They learned how some residents dive for and cook conch, how they make straw hats, how they preserve tomatoes to make jam, how they pothole farm - planting seeds in between rocks - how they live reciprocally with the land.

They learned from elders, including Pamela Poitier, daughter of Cat Island native and Academy-Award-winner Sydney Poitier. They listened to their stories about how many young people are moving off the island, how they think about the history of the Bahamas, and how they keep their traditions alive.

And along the way, they learned more about their research and interview skills.

"I think the trip itself has given me more confidence in my ability to connect with people from different cultures," said Wang. "I definitely want to incorporate the skills from oral interviewing into other aspects of my life, whether that's working with marginalized communities or doing more research."

For Khodaei, who entered the School of Continuing Studies' undergraduate program in 2022 and is now a 2024 Summer Mentored Undergraduate Research Fellow(SMURF), the trip was instrumental in reinforcing that she is a researcher and can apply the interviewing skills she learned to her academic work going forward. Khodaei even stayed longer on her own to continue collecting oral histories, and she met the Prime Minister of the Bahamas, Phillip Davis, who is a native of Cat Island, during her stay.

Khodaei discusses the interview process in Nassau. Photo by John R. Diehl.

Khodaei also learned another thing about herself in traveling and finding community with fellow Hoyas.

"They didn't look at me like, 'Oh, you're old.' I was just like them. I'm in the Bahamas. We both have this research project. We're doing these interviews, we're working together like a team … as college classmates."

The three Hoyas are continuing to meet this summer as they highlight their research on a website for the Racial Justice Institute.

Wang and Sebora will apply learnings from their work into a research paper for their Laidlaw Scholarship due at the end of the summer. Khodaei plans to infuse the research she gathered for her thesis in the School of Continuing Studies.

The trip helped ignite a passion, she said.

"My native name is Mechesa, and it means 'Fire Starter or 'Spark of Flame.' So I feel like that fire has now been relit," she said. "Georgetown helped start that fire."

Editor's Note: The first photo in the story is by Samantha Wang.