Graduate explores social justice, pushes for change

For many undergraduates, mustering the energy necessary to pursue their academic interests  and plan for the future is a worthy challenge, but for the 2019 School of Liberal Arts graduate Maddy Lowry, this was only one of the goals to be reached in her time at Tulane. Lowry, an Africana studies and linguistics major with a minor in Arabic, is also a well-known student activist, working with organizations such as Students Organizing Against Racism (SOAR) and Community Engagement Advocates (CEA), and has been committed to making Tulane’s campus an equitable and supportive environment for all students. Her work on campus involved engaging in dialogue with other students about social justice issues, bringing awareness to long-standing prejudices and discriminatory policies and pushing forward initiatives to bring about change to institutions of higher learning.

“I really feel like it is important to acknowledge the students of color who came before me in building these programs. It came out of other student activists doing this work, and I am indebted to them and I feel very much that it’s about the community aspect of it,” Lowry said of her work with SOAR and CEA.

Lowry also studied abroad for a semester in Morocco in fall 2018. Her time there was not only fruitful for her studies but contributed to her understanding of the issues of racism and sexism on an international level.

“Studying abroad deepened my understanding of how white supremacy functions on a global level and my role in it as a white person.”

This new perspective, combined with her experiences growing up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, have contributed to Lowry’s insightful world view and the importance of social justice work in her life.