FRANCESCA DUCKER
2026-27 Traveling Fellow
Designed for Living: Exploring the Boundaries of Everyday Life With Modern Prosthetics
Francesca’s Keegan project explores how economic, social, and political forces shape whether mothers are able to raise their children and, when they cannot, how caregiving responsibilities are redistributed. She will examine formal institutions such as foster care and orphanages, as well as informal alternatives like family or community based caregiving, and global care networks including full-time domestic labor. The project spans diverse contexts in which motherhood is shaped by constraints such as labor migration, state policy, patriarchal lineage systems, and economic inequality. She is particularly interested in understanding the conditions under which mothers are most constrained in their ability to raise their children. Francesca was inspired by her own personal story with her family, her experiences with MNPS HERO, and her interest in understanding how families respond to and navigate structural pressures.
She will use an exploratory qualitative approach, engaging in observation and informal conversations in everyday settings such as community centers, childcare environments, and public spaces. She also hopes to learn from local organizations and individuals involved in child welfare and caregiving systems.
Francesca aims to understand how motherhood is experienced and oriented across cultures. While she focuses on the challenges mothers face, she also hopes to highlight moments of care, resilience, and connection. As part of this project, she plans to create a database of lullabies, viewing them as intimate expressions of care and comfort that also reflect cultural identity.
Hometown: Annapolis, Maryland
Majors/Minors: Human and Organizational Development/Data Science
Francesca Ducker was raised in Annapolis, Maryland. Growing up in a multicultural family, her parents instilled a deep love of travel and an interest in learning about different cultures. Her mother is Italian and Francesca grew up visiting Italy to see family.
At Vanderbilt, Francesca was involved in multiple student organizations. She is currently co-president of Italian Club and has also been involved in the Asian American Student Association’s Advocacy Committee and Vanderbilt Programming Board’s Homecoming Committee. She studied abroad twice across three different continents, Australia, Europe, and Asa.. While studying abroad in Japan, she conducted independent research on Japanese identity. For her HOD Capstone, she interned with Metro Nashville Public Schools’ (MNPS) Homeless Education Resource Office (HERO). She conducted qualitative research on chronic absenteeism in partnership with the local women and children’s shelter. These conversations were intensely vulnerable and what started as a study of the barriers to school attendance, quickly became personal conversations about family systems and trauma. She authored a 16,500-word booklet compiling the mothers’ stories in narrative format. During this time, she also spoke at the Tennessee capital advocating for affordable housing advocacy.
In her free time, Francesca loves scrolling on AnchorLink to find new events and experiences at Vanderbilt. She also enjoys watching the Premier League (Go Arsenal!), thrifting, baking, reading, and collecting photobooth pictures with her friends.