Mk Speth

Email:

mk.speth@yale.edu

Academic Year:

2021-22

Direction:

From Yale

Exchange Partners:

University of Cape Town

Project Title:

Performing Trauma: Examining healing & reconciliation in the tourist spaces of post-Apartheid South Africa

MK Speth graduated from the Yale School of the Environment (YSE) in 2021 with a Masters of Environmental Science. While at Yale, she studied environmental anthropology and political ecology, concentrating primarily on conservation and development in post-conflict states. MK’s Master’s thesis explored eco-tourism as a performance space for trauma & reconciliation in post-genocide Rwanda. This experience greatly shaped MK’s future academic and professional plans, which she will commit to examining the practice of tourism as a means to access healing and promote peace. Prior to matriculating from YSE, MK was selected as a Princeton in Africa Fellow, where she worked as an environmental coordinator at a secondary school in Rwanda. MK also has extensive experience working at the intersection of academia and civic engagement in an international higher education context.