Shelly Cormier

Shelly Cormier '26, a 2025-26 Hackworth Fellow, studied the ethics of land acknowledgments. 

Learn more about Cormier's project via this video of her Showcase presentation.

Access Cormier's paper, "More than a Ritual: Rethinking the Purpose of the Land Acknowledgment."

About Shelly Cormier '26

Cormier graduated from Santa Clara University with a double major in Gender & Sexuality and Philosophy with a Pre-Law emphasis. She worked as a student inclusion educator on campus for the OML & RRC, where she was approached with ethical considerations and reflected on how to hold space for so many identities on campus. Additionally, during her time at Santa Clara, Cormier participated as a student-athlete on the Women's Cross Country team and Track and Field. In her Hackworth Fellowship, Cormier studied the ethics of land and moral responsibility–specifically, the land we reside on within the context of the Mission and the moral debt owed to Native populations.

Cormier examined questions such as: What do we owe to Native communities after centuries of historical and ongoing oppression? Is a land acknowledgment enough?

In the future, Cormier would love to continue her journey at law school, asking questions of who's being included and what we are doing to bridge disparities that should no longer exist.