In May 2017, Monique Claiborne will graduate from Princeton University with a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and a Certificate in American Studies. Growing up in the small southern town Opelousas, Louisiana, Monique developed a deep appreciation for local culture and the arts, despite limited extracurricular opportunities in her hometown. During her sophomore year at Princeton, she discovered her love for philosophy. Her independent research during her junior fall semester proposes a framework by which one can attribute moral responsibility to agents, and she spent her junior spring semester independently researching the ethical consequences of aestheticizing evil in popular films. Her senior thesis offers an account of the aesthetic experience that occurs when using interactive digital products, and it examines the ethical consequences of designing and interacting with empathetic technology.
As a member of the Campus Iconography Committee, Monique collaborates with the executive vice president of the University and select professors, students and administrators to draft proposals aimed at diversifying Princeton’s iconography to better reflect the university community. Her primary creative outlets during her time at Princeton have been dancing and choreographing for Disiac Dance Company, as well as photography and filmmaking for Princeton Faith and Action. She also enjoys leading campus tours, coaching a youth basketball team and helping undergraduates and graduate students with written work as a Fellow in the Princeton Writing Center. Monique plans to continue studying the intersection of ethics, aesthetics and culture by pursuing a doctoral degree in Philosophy. She also hopes eventually to open her own coffee shop, a space whose design will reflect its neighborhood and whose mission will serve diverse patrons.