AMANDA GASTEL
Colgate University, B.A., French, Psychological Sciences

While at Colgate, Amanda double-majored in psychology and French. Her passion for Romance languages began at age 11 and she has pursued it ever since by studying, living, and traveling abroad. Amanda first learned Italian at the Dante Alighieri School in Tuscany and recently retraced Galileo’s path through Italy with her Colgate professors. She spent another summer developing an English text by translating an 18th-century primary source document from French. Amanda studied French literature at the Université de Bourgogne in Dijon and she has explored more than 20 countries—cooking, skiing, hiking, and immersing herself in every aspect of foreign cultures. Her enthusiasm for outdoor exploration has included backcountry backpacking and canoeing in more than 15 national parks in the United States and Canada. Amanda was the captain of the Colgate Women’s Squash team for two years and volunteered her free time teaching French to local students in Hamilton, New York. Besides travel, languages, and adventure, Amanda loves the culinary arts and makes it her mission to learn new recipes and cook with locals in every country she visits. Amanda is fluent in French and proficient in Italian and Spanish.

LUKE MCCRACKEN
University of California, Santa Barbara, M.A., Ph.D., Religious Studies
Institut Catholique de Paris, M.A., Philosophy
Washington and Lee University, B.A., Religious Studies and Philosophy

As an undergraduate, Luke studied existential philosophy, French Romantic poetry, and the history of Christian thought. He published an undergraduate thesis on happiness, grief, and coping with loss. After graduating, he was invited as an honorary doctoral researcher to the Institute Catholique de Paris to translate a work of philosophy and to complete a dissertation, which he defended with a perfect score, the first in the department’s 145-year history. Luke is now a Ph.D. student in religious studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he’s writing on entertainment addiction and consumerism, while teaching and working with students. Luke is fluent in French and reads Latin and Greek. This fall, Luke will be returning to UCSB to teach an undergraduate course titled Secularization and Disenchantment.