Mita Ramani ‘20

Mita Ramani is conducting research with Professor Mariana Candido, working with 19th century court cases from Angola. The court cases are found in the form of primary document court records that have been stored in the backrooms of courthouses for over a century. Ramani is working through transcribing the documents from their calligraphic Portuguese script into modern Portuguese and then further translating the cases into English for analysis. The analysis of the cases looks primarily at the power that women yielded in the courts at that time, specifically focusing on women and their ability to hold property at that time in Angola. By going through more court cases, Ramani is working towards compiling a more holistic view of the relationship between women and the legal system in historic Angola.

Ramani did an independent research project based on her work with Professor Candido after receiving the Glynn Family Honors Research Grant. This project allowed her to travel to Washington D.C. to the Smithsonian Museum of African Art to look at the relationships that could be formed between the historical portrayal of women in ancient art in comparison to the court cases she was analyzing under Professor Candido.

Ramani is also writing her senior thesis in the philosophy department on the relationships found between silencing of women under the umbrella of epistemic violence against women and gaslighting and how that relates to trauma in women.

Thesis Title: Analysis of Epistemic Violence and Silencing of Women in the Context of Gaslighting and its Effects on Trauma
Thesis Adviser: Michael Rea