Faculty Remarks:
Janel enrolled in my very first Gateway course at Duke. Two memories stand out: one general, the other specific. First, she was dazzlingly sharp in class discussions. One day, she might be breaking down complex theories of utopian literature; another, she would be brilliantly analyzing the genre distinctions of Octavia Butler’s The Parable of the Sower. Regardless, as only a sophomore student, she demonstrated a virtuoso understanding of texts and an eloquence that I am sure others envied. Second, she wrotea stunning final essay on Pyotr Kropotkin’s anarchist philosophies and Ursula Leguin’s The Dispossessed. It was the rare type of paper that seemed to teach the reader something new on each page—and the perfect capstone for her stellar semester. On the sporadic occasions that we would pass each other in the Allen building halls since then, I would find comfort in the knowledge that—even if our course together had ended—Janel was undoubtedly making someone else’s class a better place.
– Mike D’Alessandro
