Speth researches the intersection between genocide, tourism, and transitional justice. Her dissertation project focuses on Rwanda and the ways in which tourism serves as a space in which state-produced discourses around conflict/reconciliation, neo-colonial imaginaries of Otherness, and personal trauma narratives converge. She aims to understand the ways that illegible sites of power relations inherent to tourism relate to and influence extensive and ongoing transitional justice efforts, including nation-building, reconciliation, peacebuilding and both societal and personal healing.
Advisor: Elyse Semerdjian
Education:
- B.S., Biology & Environmental Studies, Ursinus College, Collegeville, 2015
- M.Esc, Environmental Anthropology, Yale University School of the Environmental, New Haven, 2020
Fellowships:
- Suesser Student Research Award, 2022 – 2025
- Kirsch Scholar Fund, 2025
