When the Past Won’t Let Go

“I brake for ghosts.”

The sticker of a ghost riding a skateboard that’s on Alex Callender’s laptop isn’t just a cute conversation starter; it’s also a striking visual juxtaposition of past and present. This makes it a fitting mascot for “Hauntings”—the long-term project at Smith’s Kahn Liberal Arts Institute that Callender has organized with Jennifer DeClue.

“Hauntings” came about thanks to two Smith professors—Callender, associate professor of art and associate chair of studio operations and technology, and DeClue, associate professor of the study of women and gender—and their mutual interest in spirituality and hauntings and the myriad ways in which the present is affected by the past.

“We both contend with these concepts in different ways in our own work,” DeClue says, “so when Alex brought up the idea of expanding the conversation across campus and among other scholars in different divisions [through the Kahn Institute], it was perfect.”

The Kahn Liberal Arts Institute was established in 1998 as a way for Smith and Five College faculty, students, staff, and visiting scholars to engage in collaborative, interdisciplinary research projects that span academic departments and areas of expertise.

Projects vary in length: Long-term projects are conducted over the course of a year, while short-term projects are more flexible and typically last a few days.

Four students and 11 faculty and staff from Smith, Hampshire, and Mount Holyoke colleges—including Smith art professor Frazer Ward, who ordered the “I brake for ghosts” stickers for the “Hauntings” fellows—began meeting weekly at the start of the fall semester to research the multiple ways in which unresolved past injustices and inequalities continue to haunt the world today.

Fellows can pair up or work independently on research related to various kinds of hauntings within their own disciplines. Two presentations are held per meeting, followed by a shared meal that offers opportunities for further discussion and camaraderie-building within the group.

“Our present is formed through the past,” Callender says. “We can look at the concept of haunting through art, but we also have fellows working in data science and legal scholarship who are approaching it through institutions and social spaces.”

One of the project’s student fellows, Hala Anderson ’26, is utilizing her double major—in government and in architecture and urbanism—to examine how increased uniformity in the design of physical spaces haunts society today, erasing cultural influences and disconnecting communities from their histories.

“The whole thing has made me feel ready to make that transition from a student to an adult out in the world,” says Anderson, who decided to apply for “Hauntings” after having been intrigued by previous Kahn projects. “This experience is about so much more than research for research’s sake; I feel like I’m fueling my relationship with learning.”

It’s a sentiment shared by Nikté Lopez-Aleshire ’26, a Latin American studies and studio art double major with a museums concentration. While studying abroad in Chile, Lopez-Aleshire saw firsthand how the country is still haunted by its dictatorship from 1973 to 1990.

She wanted to continue learning about Chile’s past, so her Kahn research focuses on how Cuban art institutions worked to preserve Chilean arts and culture as part of Cuba’s political solidarity with Chile during the country’s dictatorship.

“Everyone has such unique perspectives and thoughts on one another’s projects, whether they have an expertise in the area or not,” she says. “I’m so grateful that I have the opportunity to listen to projects in subjects that I wouldn’t necessarily think to explore on my own time or take a course on.”

“Hauntings” also features a field trip component. Fellows have participated in a walking tour of Smith’s campus to learn about the history of the Mill River and how its path through Paradise Pond intersects with the natural and social landscape; visited Historic Northampton to study the history of slavery in the city; and traveled to Dana Common, one of four former Massachusetts towns disincorporated and flooded in the 1930s to make way for the Quabbin Reservoir.

Those firsthand experiences, DeClue says, are an invaluable way for the fellows to forge deeper connections to their work.

“There’s something about feeling the presence of what was here before, that reminder of a connection across time, that I appreciate,” she says. “We’re able to experience what issues persist in a space that are no longer spoken about—but can still be felt.”

This story appears in the winter 2026 issue of the Smith Quarterly.