With her thesis, “How We Care for Each Other: Mutual Aid Organizing on College Campuses,” Brisa Kane ’25, an anthropology and educational studies double major, explored mutual aid efforts on Haverford and Bryn Mawr campuses. Kane’s specific focus was on Bi-Co Mutual Aid, the student-led organization that was established during the COVID-19 pandemic to support community members at both colleges by building communities of care and sharing material resources.
“My thesis work was inspired by my own work in mutual aid organizations during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Kane, “and then through my years of work with Bi-Co Mutual Aid as a student at Haverford.” Kane says her goal was to better understand the sustainability of community organizing and mutual aid’s radical roots.
Working closely with her advisor, Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology Sophie Schrago, Kane developed a structure for her thesis that integrates fieldwork, history, and theory. “She was instrumental in helping me think through the abstract understandings of my topic,” Kane says of Schrago. “I struggled with connecting the literature and history of the topic to my daily and current fieldwork, and she provided insight and reassurance on how to structure my work.”
The project led Kane to reflect on the language of urgency that often surrounds mutual aid and the importance of building systems that last. “I explored how mutual aid is seen as linked and needed in urgent and emergency situations, but only when everyone feels that urgency,” she says. “Bi-Co Mutual Aid has continued to replicate this language of urgency in their work to make it clear that the material needs of other students are not being met.”
As part of her thesis work, Kane created a website and archive for Bi-Co Mutual Aid, hoping they can serve as a toolkit for its future leaders and a scholarly resource for others interested in organizing on college campuses. There’s little research available on mutual aid organizations on college campuses, she says, and hopes that her thesis can offer insight on ways student-run organizations can sustain their work beyond urgent on emergency situations in their communities.
Now, as she steps into a career in education, Kane sees mutual aid as integral to her work as she seeks to nurture community and strives for justice. “I think studying and understanding principles of mutual aid and mutual care is essential to my work as an educator,” says Kane. “I will continue practicing and striving to practice principles of mutual aid organizing in my day-to-day life.”