Hey everyone! I'm a Classics (4-year programme) student at Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge. I grew up in Hong Kong but went to high school in Arkansas. Right now my main focus is surviving (and hopefully thriving!) at university, but I'm open to any opportunity to develop my interest and skills in literary studies, research, creative writing, leadership, and creating change through education and the humanities! 

Wena Teng studies History at Columbia University specializing in Political Economy. Born in Queens and raised in Asia, Wena’s transnational experience drives her advocacy for migration labor and diasporic communities. Wena has led the Urban Justice Center on policy campaigns to accommodate legal resources for street vendors and has provided policy recommendations on labor and trade as a White House Intern. She serves as Columbia University Senator and is a Truman Scholar, Laidlaw Scholar, and Research Assistant. Wena aspires to build inclusive migration policy as a clinical legal academic and elected policymaker. Wena is from the United States.

I am a Scholar from the 2022 cohort at the University of St Andrews, pursuing an MA (Joint Hons) in English and Art History. My areas of interest include nineteenth and early twentieth-century art and literature, with a particular focus on the Victorian and Modernist periods. My Laidlaw research project was on 'Alfred Tennyson's Idylls of the King and Other Poems Illustrated by Julia Margaret Cameron: challenges to gender roles and tradition in the formation of Victorian artistic and literary legacies.' This interdisciplinary project presented the overlooked contributions of a female photographer in one of the most dynamic transitory periods in art and literature. Using Cameron's edition of Tennyson's Idylls as a case study that focuses on the female gaze as a 'translator' of the male poetic voice, this project aimed to understand how this work challenged traditional views of art, literature, and gender roles. I was honoured to have been awarded 'Best Poster in the Arts Faculty' for the research poster that I created based on my project. My Leadership in Action project has taken some of the core ideas from my self-defined research project and seeks to apply them in educational settings. I am partnering with local schools and non-profit arts organisations in Scotland to create workshops that promote widening access in the arts and the many benefits of creative engagement to young people facing disadvantages in education. These dynamic, hands-on workshops are oriented around the idea of finding personal connections to the art and literature of the past and promoting its accessibility and contemporary relevance.