Betanya Mahary, Spelman's 2017 Beinecke Scholarship recipient, is a proud member of the Class of 2018 with a double major in sociology and anthropology and comparative women’s studies with a focus on global studies. In addition to being the 2017 Beinecke recipient, she was a UNCF/Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow, Social Justice Fellow and a WEL Scholar.
A native of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Betanya's research interests lies at the intersection of development, multi-level governance, refugee rights and border policies. Her senior thesis documented the narratives of Eritrean refugees in Sweden and analyzed Eritrea’s current political structure influencing the refugee crisis. Promoting comparative analysis and cross-cultural coherence within the field of refugee and migration studies is central to her methodology. Currently, Betanya is pursuing an MSc in International Migration and Public Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
