Arwen Fluit '23
Summa Cum Laude
BA Linguistics, BA Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Minor in History
Pronouns: he/him

On Stony Brook:
I chose Stony Brook because of the Combined BA-MA for TESOL (which I ultimately decided against), and because I liked the campus when I walked around it on a tour.

On his major:
I went for linguistics originally because I wanted to become a TESOL teacher. When I decided not to pursue TESOL, I stayed with linguistics because I'm truly fascinated by the inner workings of language, and I'm part of a great research internship in the Department of Linguistics. I started with women's studies through feminist literature courses that I really enjoyed, so I took a women's studies minor to give myself an excuse to take more of these courses. When the minor wasn't enough for me, I bumped it up to a second major. The history minor came about because I took a history class on gender in Europe for a WST elective and loved it enough to take more history to supplement my women's studies education.

Favorite Class:
WST399: Queering Science Fiction with Dr. Ritch Calvin. To this day I'm still recommending stories that we read in this class to my friends. The material was fascinating and entertaining, and I loved discussing the readings with my classmates.

Interests and accomplishments:
For hobbies: singing, reading, and tabletop roleplaying games. Accomplishments: Presenting at the URECA symposium multiple times because of undergraduate research through my Linguistics internship and the WST Research Paper course.

Greatest Achievement:
That's difficult, but I think by academic measures my greatest achievement has been attending and presenting at the Linguistics Society of America's annual conference this past winter while still an undergraduate. My research with the project got a poster into the conference, and the internship as a whole presented a talk on collaboration in linguistic fieldwork.

Awards & Accolades:
Graduating Summa Cum Laude, and invited into the Phi Beta Kappa society.

Plans for post-graduation:
Grad school! I'll be getting an MA in English and Gender Studies at Brandeis University in Boston.

Career aspirations:
I want to eventually get a PhD and become an academic. But I also want to write fiction.

Clubs and organizations:
I'm on the E-Board for the Tabletop club. I sing Tenor 1 in the High Cs (Stony Brook's men's a cappella group). I've acted in multiple Pocket Theatre musical productions. I'm also a part of Stony Brook's Camerata Singers, where I've been a Soprano 1, Soprano 2, and Tenor 1.

Advice for potential Seawolves: If you're ever unsure about something, you can walk up to a person at a welcome desk and ask them questions, and if they can't answer them they can probably point you in the right direction of someone who can. Also make sure you bring rainboots.

Favorite SBU memory:
There are a few things: the thrill of stepping up on stage for a performance, whether singing or acting, and adjacent to that, feeling pride and excitement in presenting my research. I'll also deeply treasure walking around campus with my friends and catching meals with them.