Lavanya Mani is a student in the College of Arts and Sciences from St. Louis, Missouri. She is pursuing a degree in Comparative Literature and hopes to attend law school. She’s passionate about the intersection of language, politics, and social issues and is excited to enhance her pursuit of these topics through new understandings about the role of dialogue as an SNF Fellow.
Lavanya is inspired and motivated by the combination of her South Asian heritage and her Midwestern residence, which have instilled in her the necessity of dialogue across cultural and social boundaries. She aims to use her experiences as a Fellow to more deeply understand the art and science of arriving at and communicating one’s beliefs. Long-term, she hopes to cultivate a deeper understanding of the conscious and unconscious forces that shape how people form and share their beliefs and learn how that understanding can be used to address current social and political issues.
Lavanya spends her time writing for the Daily Pennsylvanian News department, where she covers political issues relevant to the Penn community. She’s also a member of the Penn Debate Society, Penn Reproductive Justice, and Penn Atma.