Keaten Wright
Government, Philosophy and Feminist, Gender, & Sexuality Studies
North Sioux City, S.D.
What was your favorite class and why?
GOVT 1101: Power and Politics. I took a first-year writing seminar on decolonization my first semester. This class ignited my interest in political theory, the subfield of political science that reads our intellectual history and asks normative questions on what a better world ought to be like. My instructor, Musckaan Chauhan, introduced us to the skill of sifting through incredibly dense and challenging literature. Everyone needs a push, and this was my push to take on studying radical politics.
What Cornell memory do you treasure the most?
There are too many times to choose from, but I love the times and the people with whom I stayed up an entire night. I am strictly committed to never going to bed first, and I appreciate those who have taken up challenging this principle. In the end, I did not always win this challenge, but I won so many connections. Thank you to those who sang, danced and chatted with me until all my college nights were gone.
If you were to offer advice to an incoming first-year student, what would you say?
Hegel says history unfolds as a rational process. If you think of your life organized around certain core beliefs and principles, your life will eventually expose contradictions in the principles that structure your life, leading you to have to organize your life around new principles. Pay attention to what principles you might have to let go of so you don't keep making the same mistakes.
What are your plans for next year?
Next year, I plan on pursuing a Ph.D. in political science at Princeton University. From Mao to the Black Panthers, I am interested in how radical ideologies transfer and survive. Long live the revolution!
Every year, our faculty nominate graduating Arts & Sciences students to be featured as part of our Extraordinary Journeys series. Read more about the Class of 2026.
