Graduate Student at Sciences PO, Paris

When Josamine Hall ’18 was accepted to UVM she was committed to studying biology. When she graduated magna cum laude four years later, she was a philosophy major. In between those milestones spanned an undergraduate career that explored along the boundaries of many different disciplines. In the fall of 2019 she continues her studies at the Sciences Po., the Paris School of International Affairs—it is among the top three internationally-ranked graduate programs in politics and international relations. “I really wanted to be a biologist, but I was intrigued by many of the humanities and social science courses I was taking,” she said. She found mentors and made connections across the UVM quad. Hall was hired by political science professor Garrison Nelson as a research assistant, and she contributed important background for his upcoming project on Presidents and Speakers of the House, as well as helping with articles published in The Hill, Polity, and others. She got interested in local politics, working on human rights issues for Vermont Democrats. In philosophy, she presented her independent research “Porphyry’s Argument Against Eating Animals” at the UVM undergraduate Research Conference in 2018. “One of the best things about UVM was a I felt the freedom to explore ideas from many different viewpoints.”