The event highlighted the results of a semester-long research partnership between Georgetown and the and featured four panels of student researchers whose work will support public interpretation of Barton’s life and legacy. 

Kevin Patti, a park ranger and site manager for the Clara Barton National Historic Site, told the crowd gathered at the symposium that Barton’s story remains urgent and relevant.

“Clara Barton died 113 years ago, and yet we still have a great deal we can learn from her life and her service,” he said. 

He praised the Georgetown students, who also served as volunteer researchers with the NPS, for producing work that will strengthen interpretation at the site as it prepares for .

“The work they have done in a Clara Barton-focused class this semester will be used by the National Park Service to educate people and connect people to the Clara Barton National Historic Site — online, on social media and in other ways at the site,” Patti said.

A Mutually Beneficially Collaboration

Manning, a Civil War historian and professor in the Department of History at the şŁ˝ÇÂŰĚł of Arts & Sciences, designed and taught the history seminar, Hands on DC History: Researching Clara Barton for the NPS.

She explained that the collaboration emerged when she learned that NPS staff wished they had the time and resources to look more closely into specific questions about Barton, who Manning describes in her course syllabus as “one of the most significant Americans in the 19th century.”

Barton’s home and the national headquarters of the American Red Cross are both located in the DC area, and students spent the fall reading Barton’s diaries, deciphering 19th-century handwriting together, visiting local historical sites and collaboratively analyzing and discussing archival discoveries. 

“Every single one of them has learned something new,” Manning said. “And now that knowledge is being used by the Park Service.”

A Humanitarian and Reformer 

The first panel examined how Barton’s upbringing, values and early professional experiences shaped her later humanitarian work, offering new perspectives that will inform how the National Park Service interprets Barton’s life for the public.

Carleigh Heckel (C’27) found that Barton’s views differed from evangelicals inspired by the Second Great Awakening. She held equally deeply felt moral views, but they sprang from Universalism, not evangelicalism. Barton was raised in a Universalist household, Heckel explained, but “most of the evidence we have shows she isn’t especially religious” in the way that mainstream evangelicals were. 

Fallon Wolfley (C’28) explored Barton’s poetry and how it helped her forge meaningful relationships during the Civil War. Barton exchanged poems with soldiers and reformers, using poetry to connect with others during the Civil War, and later, to illuminate her own experience. 

“Is Barton necessarily a good poet? … I’m not convinced,” Wolfley said. “But what’s more important is the story her poetry tells about emotions, connection and grief.”

Dahlia Lozier (C’28) focused on Barton’s short but revealing tenure as superintendent of the . 

Lozier argued that Barton’s emphasis on kindness, dignity and politeness subtly challenged prevailing reform models that sought to reshape incarcerated women according to rigid ideals of domestic femininity. Barton’s approach, Lozier suggested, foreshadowed later critiques of punitive reform systems.

A Public Health Pioneer

Barton was a public health pioneer who helped shape early approaches to mental health, emergency response and first aid education by extending care beyond hospitals and military settings to ordinary civilians.

Lily Marino (C’28) examined Barton’s lifelong struggles with melancholy through a modern psychological lens while emphasizing that any diagnosis would be speculative. By tracing patterns in Barton’s diaries, Marino argued that recognizing these episodes “puts in relief how much harder she had to push to do the spectacular things she did.”

Olivia Matlaga (C’28) highlighted Barton’s establishment of the in her early 80s. Matlaga’s project, Barton in a Box, creates an educational kit accompanied by online instructions and informational pamphlets linking early first-aid tools with modern ones. 

Barton’s efforts, Matlaga explained, “spread the ability to render aid to the hands of ordinary people … without waiting for the approval of larger institutions.”

Caroline Thomas (C’27) traced Barton’s evolution as an emergency-response leader, from delivering supplies after the to improvising battlefield care during the Civil War. Thomas argued that Barton’s work anticipated the development of disaster and emergency medicine long before the field was formally recognized.

Responding to Natural Disasters

Barton shaped the way that people responded to major natural disasters by systematizing relief efforts, preparing in advance for emergencies and developing recovery models that were later applied across the country.

Sophia Grossman (C’27) analyzed the , shifting attention from heroic relief narratives to the social dynamics of recovery. Grossman showed how class shaped access to housing and resources during reconstruction, revealing how post-disaster recovery could reinforce existing inequalities.

Sylvia Jordan, a second-year Ph.D. in history candidate, focused her research on the and found it was “the organization’s fifth largest domestic relief campaign” during Barton’s tenure and foundational for later responses in Johnstown, and Galveston, Texas. 

The Mount Vernon project, Jordan said, shows that “we cannot base everything we know about the early American Red Cross off just three major disasters.” 

Patti also singled out Jordan’s work, noting that it highlights “an aspect of Miss Barton’s work that has not been highlighted as it will be now because of Sylvia’s work.”

A Women’s Rights Advocate

Barton’s legacy includes expanding opportunities for women in public leadership and humanitarian work. 

Marie Kim (C’27) analyzed how Barton strategically navigated 19th-century gender norms, using domestic spaces and the performance of proper womanhood to gain authority in male-dominated political and humanitarian spheres.

Maggie Stephens (C’28) studied Barton’s participation in international Red Cross conferences spanning the late 19th century. Barton fiercely defended the integrity of the Red Cross symbol and used conference speeches to highlight American relief innovations. Media coverage praised her as a female delegate operating on equal footing with international leaders.

Emma Vonder Haar (C’28) mapped how Barton is commemorated across the United States and abroad — from schools and roads to a Public memory, she argued, reveals what communities choose to value. 

“What do you see of yourself in Clara Barton’s triumphs, tragedies, or ordinary moments?” she asked.

Patti closed the event by thanking the students for “the wonderful program,” adding, “I know that your work will serve the park very well in the future.”

By housing the initiative in historic Old North – the oldest academic building on the Hilltop – the university is symbolically and formally recommitting to, and celebrating, the humanities. Since the university’s founding in 1789, the humanities have been central to a Georgetown education. 

Today, they offer students an entry point into interdisciplinary research that pushes the boundaries of knowledge and facilitates journeys of personal growth.

“The humanities will broaden a student’s perspective of the world around us through a deeper understanding of the human condition and cultures,”  said Toni Boucher, (P’98, ‘00, ‘04), one of the initiative’s founding donors. “The skills developed through the humanities include communication, writing, evaluation of ideas, problem-solving and critical thinking skills, which are essential in any profession.”

Getting Into the Gilded Age

Davis Fellow Melinda Reed (C’25) spent the summer bringing the humanities into her personal passion project, a novel set in the Gilded Age. 

“I wanted to turn a novel I’d started as a teenager into a historically accurate, textured work that I could send to literary agencies,” said Reed, a justice and peace studies major and creative writing minor. “In service of that specific personal goal, my alien-in-the-archives mentality worked—it allowed me to be curious and to approach my research with the mind of an artist as well as a historian.”

Reed began working on the book when she was 16 during a summer writing camp at Georgetown.  

“We went to the National Gallery of Art and were supposed to write something based on a painting,” said Reed. “So, I picked a painting, “Study of Lilia” by Carolus-Duran, and started writing what would become my first novel that I finished in quarantine. Fast forward five years and I started building an academic project around my creative writing, realizing that there were a lot of gaps in that novel because originally I was writing it for fun and not for historical accuracy.”

The book begins the same year Carolus-Duran painted his piece: 1887. A bildungsroman, it follows 19-year-old Lilia Daley from her sheltered rural life through an unplanned pregnancy and a clash of cultures as she begins working as a maid for a wealthy family on the New England coast. 

Reed cites several faculty and staff members at Georgetown as being instrumental to the completion of the project, including creative writing professor and historian , who helped point her in the right direction when she began doing research. Outside of class, Reed worked as a student employee at the Center for , where the  staff were able to help her reframe her creative project as a piece of academic research. 

Reed began her summer in Rhode Island, where she conducted formal research and informal exploration of one of the settings in her work. 

“I’d visited Newport when I was a kid and I remembered these mansions that are typically associated with the Gilded Age and the incredible amount of wealth that certain families had to have these summer homes on the coast,” said Reed. “I was there looking at the current experience and talking to anybody who would talk to me–all of the tour guides were lovely and would talk about the period and help me get a sense of the physical space that the story was set in.” 

Once Reed was back home in New Jersey, she began commuting into New York City to do archival research. There, she looked through journals and letters from the Gilded Age to get a firsthand look at how her characters should speak, act, and think. 

“I got so invested in the stories of the people that I was reading about–reading very personal documents that they probably never intended for anyone else to look at,” said Reed. “I was very aware of that kind of privilege and that distant violation of privacy–to be able to read these documents and meet people who had lived so long ago and had all these emotions and feelings that they put on the page. I honestly felt honored to get a glimpse into their lives.” 

“After doing the research, I realized how much work the book needs in order to make it something I’m willing to send out. Now, I have a clearer sense of what I want the book to look like. 

“Research, broadly defined, is the process of discovery,” said Reed. “But in our attempt to define it more specifically, we’ve narrowed our understanding of what research can be, creating laws and a locked gate professing that only the qualified are allowed to enter and discover for themselves.”

Reconstructing Paradise in the Humanities

Inspiration struck Alex Wang (C’25) during an introductory English literature course when she first read John Milton’s Paradise Lost. 

“All the texts we were reading were canonized—that’s why they’re in a survey course,” said Wang. “I read Paradise Lost and it was such a long, dense, and incredibly beautiful text. It was so good and so amazing, but in many ways it didn’t provide a foundational story that was relatable to me, personally, and to the community that I identify with.”

Wang, who also received a Davis Fellowship to pursue her humanities research over the summer, scripted a one-act theatrical adaptation of Paradise Lost. At the end of the summer, she marked the completion of her script with a reading staged and attended by her close friends.

“I sought to create a world, a paradise, that I wish to live in,” said Wang. “Even with minimal tech, I attempted to envision a coherent space. Having been a director and designer, I often see a world on stage more vividly than I can on paper—and that’s where the audience comes in.”

Wang is a double major in English and political economy with a minor in theater and performance studies. 

“Paradise Lost can establish aesthetics often aligning with mainstream productions, I sought to create a world, a paradise, that I wish to live in. Even with minimal tech, I attempted to envision a coherent space. Having been a director and designer, I often see a world on stage more vividly than I can on paper—and that’s where the audience comes in.

“Universal might not be the right word, but I believe that the script reflects a queer experience that is not just Chinese or only related to one religion,” said Wang. “I hope this work is the first step toward creating more intersectional and cross-cultural projects.”  

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His thesis took the form of a brief, four-episode podcast miniseries called . In it, Akil invites listeners to think differently about peace, sustainability, and the world’s social and environmental challenges. He does so by introducing comparative case study research he conducted on two environmental organizations that use gardening, farming, and other land-based projects to positively impact their respective communities (in Columbia, Maryland and Cape Town, South Africa).

Listen now to see how these organizations are making their communities more resilient against oppressive systems!

Lewis stayed at Queen’s University Belfast, where she studied the historical, political and cultural landscape of Northern Ireland. The program focused on the historical, cultural and political history of the region as a jumping-off point for discussions of division and conflict resolution around the world. 

“My time in Belfast was transformative,” said Lewis. “I made deep connections with those in my program and spoke with so many brilliant professors. I’m thankful to have been welcomed into the community and I hope to one day return to Queen’s University Belfast.”

A Derry, PA Girl Learns About the Real-Life Derry Girls

Lewis, who is originally from Derry, Pennsylvania, came to the Hilltop interested in exploring conflict and communion between different groups of people.  

“I chose Georgetown due to its commitment to community service and fostering understanding between different cultures and communities,” said Lewis. “One of my favorite experiences at Georgetown was through the Center for Social Justice, when I visited Detroit and learned about it through the lens of racial justice. Many of the discussions and themes discussed during the Summer Institute at Queen’s University Belfast were reminiscent of my experiences in the  .”

Lewis’ summer program was divided into two halves, one that focused on the particular history of Northern Ireland and Belfast and another that included a broader exploration of identity and intergroup relations in divided societies. 

“I learned about identity and intergroup relations in divided societies and I explored the psychology of division, the process of “othering” and how that leads to extreme polarization and radicalism,” said Lewis, who plans to major in psychology. “As someone interested in social psychology, this part of the summer institute was fascinating and relevant to my academic path.”

For Lewis, seeing firsthand how a lasting peace can be built on the grounds of violent disagreement was an eye-opening experience. 

“In all of my conversations with cab drivers, professors and Belfast locals, there was a shared understanding that though Northern Ireland is deeply divided, there is no place for violence,” said Lewis. “Tension hangs over the region — and stances on the future of Northern Ireland remain polarized — yet each community has found ways to build peace and create connections among one another.”

A visit to the Museum of Free Derry, which commemorates the massacre of Bloody Sunday and the events of the Troubles, will remain with Lewis as she returns to campus. 

“This visit stuck with me because it reminded me how alive Northern Ireland’s history is and how it continues to affect everyone living there,” said Lewis. “Through all of these moments, I am reminded of the importance of listening to the stories of those affected by times of conflict and violence to gain a nuanced perspective of the situation.”

Lewis on the Hilltop

As an extension of her academic interests, Lewis worked as a research assistant in Jennifer Woolard’s . Woolard, a professor in the and vice dean of faculty affairs in the şŁ˝ÇÂŰĚł of Arts & Sciences, studies ways that individuals and families interact with systems of care and control, such as the criminal justice system and the school system. 

As a research assistant, Lewis worked on the Protection Orders Project examining restraining orders in Washington, DC. Her work involved collecting cases at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, entering case data and engaging with the scientific literature on protection orders.

“Mara joined our research group and jumped right in to the work, actively engaging in our lab meetings and asking questions of our research partners,” said Woolard. “As a first year student, she quickly became an important part of our team.” 

During her first year at Georgetown, Lewis has also been an active member of the Hilltop community outside of the lab, becoming involved with GU Women of Color, a member organization of the , and playing on the Club Ultimate Frisbee team. This fall, Lewis will be a member of the Black Student Alliance Board and a tutor at the Writing Center. 

Lewis received her summer scholarship from the Fulbright Commission, which selects awardees through a rigorous process. 

“In making these awards, the Commission looks not only for academic excellence but a focused application, a range of extracurricular and community activities, demonstrated ambassadorial skills and a plan to give back to the recipient’s home country upon returning,” they said in a release.  

Lewis is excited to be back on the Hilltop and hopes more academic travel is in her future. 

“During this program, I reflected a lot on how language is used and how it changes based on where one stands,” said Lewis. “The summer institute not only gave me insight into Northern Ireland but also made me more mindful of global affairs and conflicts.”

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The program, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1953, is one of the most prestigious fellowships available to American students, providing an opportunity to pursue a graduate education in the United Kingdom for up to two years. Since the program’s inception, the only institutions to receive five or more scholarships in a single year are Harvard, Yale, MIT, Stanford, Princeton and, now, Georgetown.  

“I see this scholarship as the realization of a massive amount of work,” said Greenberg. “Work from the scholars ourselves, but also from our professors, advisors and peers who helped along the way.” 

Synthesizing Science and Style

Through the fellowship, Greenberg will pursue two master’s degrees: one in systems and synthetic biology at Imperial şŁ˝ÇÂŰĚł London and another in science communication and public engagement at the University of Edinburgh. 

“The unique combination of my degrees will give me a valuable perspective and an ability to predict and explain both the short-term and long-term consequences of gene editing,” said Greenberg. “Ultimately, I aspire to lead a research lab to advance the field while being aware of a broader, non-scientific audience.”

Greenberg’s interest in genetic engineering, when humans alter an organism’s DNA, began during an internship at the National Institutes of Health. Working in the lab of Takashi Akera, who studies chromosome dynamics and evolution, Greenberg observed the phenomenon of natural gene drives in mice, where some genetic traits become overrepresented through intragenomic conflict during meiosis. However, according to Mendel’s Law of Segregation, that shouldn’t be possible – two alleles of any gene should have an equal chance of being transmitted.   

“The experience of seeing a real gene drive system in action at the NIH was pivotal for me,” said Greenberg. “Witnessing firsthand an exception to the so-called ‘laws’ of genetics turned my theoretical interest into a practical one, and ignited my motivation to become a gene drive researcher.”

In Greenberg’s eyes, genetic engineering is likely here to stay and that means creating scientific consensus around the morals of the issue and communicating to the public what it means and why it is important. 

“Gene drive technology is the future, but conducting research and raising awareness about it is the present,” said Greenberg. “The field of genetic engineering is both exciting and risky. I want to be someone who works at this frontier with a socially conscious and responsible perspective.”

Greenberg on the Hilltop

Throughout her time as an undergraduate, Greenberg has not only conducted research into molecular biology, molecular genetics and evolutionary genetics, but explored other passions both on the Hilltop and beyond. 

“Naomi is a special scholar – some are good at generating questions and others at working toward their answers. And then there is Naomi, who is unusually good at both,” said , a teaching professor in the who mentored much of Greenberg’s research. “It’s going to be fun over the next few years to watch as she makes the most of these opportunities. I feel like we’re at Cape Canaveral here, watching a scholar launch.” 

In addition to her time at the NIH, Greenberg spent a summer conducting research for the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, where she worked in neurobiologist Erin Schuman’s lab to optimize research experiments and learn molecular biology techniques. This research was supported by a Royden B. Davis Fellowship.

A biology major and journalism minor, Greenberg has sought to unify her love for research and communication. She interned on the communications team at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, where she penned articles for their Ocean Portal website and Smithsonian Magazine. 

On campus, Greenberg spent all four years involved with The Hoya, working as a copy assistant, copy deputy and copy chief. She then founded and led the publication’s science section, which shines a spotlight on science-related news on the Hilltop and beyond. 

In the spring, Greenberg was awarded the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship, one of just 413 recipients in the entire country, for her research in theoretical evolutionary genetics. Established by Congress in 1986 to honor U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater, the scholarship provides up to $7,500 to sophomores and juniors who are pursuing research in the fields of mathematics, engineering or the natural sciences.

For Greenberg, faculty mentorship and guidance has been a highlight of her time on the Hilltop. 

“Practically every professor I have had at Georgetown has been supportive, encouraging and inspiring,” said Greenberg. “Professor Manus Patten, my research mentor, has always gone above and beyond to help me feel supported, yet independent and capable of my own research. In addition, Professors Sarah Johnson and Ronda Rolfes have given me incredible mentorship and career advice. They are amazing role models as I look ahead to a career in research and teaching.” 

After completing her degree programs in the United Kingdom, Greenberg plans to return to the United States and pursue a Ph.D. in molecular and cellular biology to further explore genetic conflict and how it informs genetic engineering. 

“Naomi’s talents are rare and impressive: she is an erudite and broad-thinking scientist, as well as an immensely talented writer,” said , a professor in the Department of Biology. “I have no doubt that she has a long and impactful career ahead of her.”

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