Emily Auerbach, Colorado College
Transformative Strategies: Indigenous Grassroots Initiatives
Bolivia, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru
I want to learn new ways of giving a voice to silenced communities. Since indigenous people embody non-Western ways of being, from communal land ownership to consensus decision making, the ways they organize to transform their communities offer tremendous lessons. Through collaboration with a spectrum of indigenous grassroots initiatives in Bolivia, Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru I will understand unexplored strategies for social change.

Robert Beahrs, Pomona College
Throat-Singing: In Pursuit of Overtones
Russia, Mongolia, India, Canada, Italy, France, Norway
Human beings are remarkably inventive with their voices. As a Watson Fellow, I will focus on mastering one specific singing technique that tests the limits of vocal ingenuity: throat-singing. By manipulating vocal resonances to create incredibly rich sounds, a skilled overtone singer can produce two or more distinct pitches at the same time. My goal is to understand why and how throat-singing is traditionally practiced, to look at what role it plays in different cultures, and then to see if there are any physiological effects associated with its performance.

Danielle Bennett, Willamette University
The Steed: Tracing the Evolution of Horses and Equestrian Society
Mongolia, Turkmenistan, Egypt, Morocco, Greece, Spain, Argentina
I will examine the bond between humans and horses through three investigations. A behavioral study evaluating signals will discuss regional differences in communication. I will seek out master horsemen to learn regional techniques for handling horses. I will study the roles of environmental and anthropogenic selection factors on two traits. I will build a concept of the ancient riding horse through old "pure" breeds and then examine the influence of four ancient breeds on modern composite breeds.

Stephanie Carlisle, Wesleyan University
The Practice of Movement: Nomadic Domestic Architecture
Mongolia, India, Mauritania, Ireland
This project seeks to investigate the relationship between a social group and its spaces, between political economy and landscape organization, between collective voices and agency by focusing on how nomadic people use everyday space to articulate social relations, identity and cultural meaning in a way distinct from that of settled populations. The art of building is a process of social mirroring, maintenance and construction. As such, architecture provides clear insight into understanding of the nomadic ethos as a culture of movement.

James Dodington, Vassar College
The Impact of Social & Environmental Factors on Pediatric HIV/AIDS
Botswana, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa
I plan to examine the social and environmental aspects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and their impact on pediatric populations in four Sub Saharan countries. Specifically, I am interested in the social and psychological blocks to education, awareness and treatment of HIV/AIDS in both clinical and community settings. My specific emphasis will be on the sensitive examination of the social context of HIV/AIDS to gain understanding of how affected children are impacted by the silence, stigma and lack of resources that surround the epidemic.

Sarah Drummond, College of the Atlantic
Inquiring Eyes: Natural History Artists and Island Exploration
England, Argentina, Chile, Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia, Sri Lanka
Before the invention of photography, artists were essential members of exploratory expeditions. They recorded new landscapes, documented new species, and provided vicarious glimpses of newly "discovered" or colonized areas to the people of their home countries. Their work strongly influenced their viewers' perception and consequent treatment of the lands they depicted. I plan to research the work of several such artists in island environments, and explore the natural history and culture of these areas by creating my own artwork on site in the same places.

Christopher Fletcher, Macalester College
Investigating Cultural Survival:
A Photographic Documentary of the Tibetan Diaspora
Canada, Switzerland, New Zealand, Japan, India, Nepal*, Bhutan,
Tibet (China)
The prospects of Tibetans gaining self-determination in the near future are slim. Given this, I wish to go to the countries where the Tibetan Diaspora lives to explore two primary phenomena: in the process of waiting for political change, how do Tibetans assimilate and adapt to their new host countries, and at the same time preserve, retain, and celebrate their cultural heritage?

Matthew Friddle, Berea College
Performance Arts in Small Communities
Ireland, Scotland, Australia, Canada
It is my hope to experience the music, dance and theatre of specific communities in Ireland, Scotland, Australia and Canada. I intend to learn and participate in both dance music and accompanying dances in local venues. I also wish to learn how communities in these countries express themselves and their stories through both ballads and theatrical productions. Most importantly, I will gain a better understanding of how to use the performance arts to create a strong and healthy sense of community.

Adam Grode, Union College
Long-Necked Lutes from Baku to Bishkek:
A Musical Journey in Central Asia
Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan*
Since the days of antiquity, Eurasian traders have traversed the steppes of Central Asia along the Silk Road. Amid this dynamic exchange of goods and ideas, Central Asian musical styles and instruments developed from centuries of cultural syncretism. As a Watson fellow, I will travel to five Central Asian countries and, by learning to play the long-necked lute indigenous to each, lay a foundation for understanding a region of rich culture and musical heritage.

Jennie Gubner, Pitzer College
Searching for the Souls of Tango: A Violinist's Journey
Argentina, Uruguay, Serbia and Montenegro, Italy, Spain, France, Finland
Embarking with my violin on a musical treasure hunt through South America, Western, Eastern and Northern Europe, I will explore the ever changing culture of tango music and its relationship to other popular music cultures. After immersing myself in the contemporary culture of tango in South America I will follow tango's roots back to Europe to study musical styles that influenced its beginnings. I will then explore the way in which tango has traveled back to Europe and been integrated into the popular music cultures of Serbia, Italy, Spain, France, and Finland.

Sandra Hartmannsgruber, Earlham College
Following the Ancient Thread:
Pre-Contact and Contemporary Andean Textiles
Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru
How will we be remembered two thousand years from now? To explore connections between pre-contact and contemporary Andean textiles I will live and work in weaving communities near sites where ancient textiles have been found. Following an archeological timeline, I will journey figuratively from 2000 BC to 2006 AD, and literally through the Andes Mountains. Drawing on my weaving knowledge I will record textile patterns, histories, and inspirations to share with future generations of weavers.

Amelia Hight, Scripps College
Genocide and Remembrance: The Politics of Memorialization
Rwanda, Cambodia
I will investigate the politics of memorialization through genocide museums and memorials in Cambodia and Rwanda, two countries that experienced mass killings and have recently begun new processes of reconciliation and closure. I will study the ways in which the living commemorate the dead, the visitor experience that curators, designers, or conservers of various memorials and museums have attempted to create, and the political motives behind the presentation of sites and museums as well as the impact this has had on the popular memory of traumatic events.

Asma Husain, Colby College
Concepts in Concrete:
Searching for Utopias to Alleviate Urban Poverty
Brazil, India
In two countries where urban poverty is the norm, there exist beacons of a different world. By visiting the holistically planned cities of Chandigarh and Brasilia, I will explore the Utopian principles applied to their architecture. I will record and analyze the structure of each urban fabric. These cities were designed to break social hierarchies and reduce the burden of poverty. By studying the successes and failures of their designs, as each exists within the context of either country, I will understand how architectural concepts can alleviate poverty anywhere.

Kira Intrator, Haverford College
Beyond and Back: A Musical Journey through Jazz, Maqam, and Raga
Egypt, India, Turkey, Brazil
I want to take a journey beyond my own Western musical background in jazz singing by immersing myself in the study of Hindustani and Islamic music. I will solidify my jazz singing and repertoire in Barcelona, focus on traditional classical Arabic singing in Istanbul, look at the fusion of Arabic and Western music in Egypt, and explore the synthesis of jazz singing with Hindustani vocal techniques in Mumbai (Bombay).

Omondi Kasidhi, Grinnell College
Bringing Home More than a Medal:
The Socioeconomic Impact of African Runners
South Africa, Botswana, Ethiopia, Morocco, Nigeria* or Ghana
I intend to study the socioeconomic impact of African runners on their societies. I want to trace their economic effect on their families, their immediate communities and their countries. I will also explore their impact on education: do they reinforce education by investing their financial gains in schools, or are they a motivation for students to leave the formal education system? Finally, I will examine the role these runners play in shaping national pride, and whether Africa could find a unifying theme in the success of its runners.

Hilary King, Hamilton College
Grounds for Change: Coffee and Cooperatives
Guatemala, Nicaragua, Ethiopia, Tanzania
I will study the production of coffee and examine how participation in cooperatives enables grassroots community development among coffee producers. Working directly with small-scale coffee farmers I will see how coffee is produced, grown, harvested, dried, and exported. I will examine the mobilization of farmers in cooperatives to determine the efficacy of organizational efforts to better farmers' lives, and to examine the role of Fair Trade as a variable in the development of communities of small-scale coffee producers.

Christopher Kingsley, Haverford College
Technopoles:
E-democracy and Development Seen From the Bottom of the Stack
India, South Africa, Hong Kong (China)
Bangalore, Johannesburg, and Hong Kong have benefited inordinately from their access to the Internet. They are its success stories. Yet the Internet also incubates resistance to the byproducts of these cities' successes. The network's future will be determined as the resolution of how these diverse actors adapt existing participation and protest strategies to these new technologies. Working with local groups, I will use environmental conflict as a lens through which to examine how they transform, and are transformed by the Internet.

Benjamin Klein, Lawrence University
Stirring Music's Melting Pot: Active Innovation with the Tuba
The Netherlands, Australia, Hong Kong (China)
I will collaborate with other young and emerging musicians and artists in the cities of Amsterdam, Sydney, and Hong Kong through tuba performance and composition. Creativity is my base in both of these pursuits; in turn, they often go hand in hand. I want to become actively involved in innovating music by crossing cultural boundaries.

Erwin Konesni, Middlebury College
"Haul Away, Joe": Exploring Musical Labor of the Land and Sea
The Netherlands, Germany, Ghana, Tanzania, Vietnam, Switzerland, Mongolia
From shipboard chants to cattle yodels, people all over the world have found musical ways to make difficult work more enjoyable. How do people merge song and labor in unique settings? What do you sing to a corn seedling? How do you calm a pregnant Yak through song? Sea shanties and river songs, farming chants and herding yodels are the subject of this participatory exploration of work and song. By working and singing alongside farmers, herders, and sailors, I will learn and record just how and why people around the world "whistle while they work."

Erika Kulnys-Brain, Oberlin College
Voices and Hands in Struggle: Folk Music for Social Change
Puerto Rico, Brazil, South Africa, India
I will study and play traditional and fusion folk musics engaged with social change such as salsa, samba, freedom songs, rap and hip hop. I will explore relationships between colonialism, musical resistance, and cultural fusions by attending concerts, jams, political events, and apprenticing with bands combining music and activism. I will study the production of music for the market and will conduct interviews about how musicians see folk/popular music interacting with community development and issues of social change.

Tafari Lumumba, Colorado College
Storytellers and Folktales: A Journey through Community Expression
Guatemala, Brazil
I will participate in storytelling traditions from the Yoruba in Brazil and the Maya in Guatemala to learn their unique tales and techniques. I will study the religion, music, and daily life of communities and live in a cultural context where storytelling creates itself anew, and its essence sustains the community's soul.

Lindsay MacKenzie, Colgate University
Exploring the Utility of Transboundary Conservation
Finland, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Albania, Macedonia, South Africa, Mozambique, Lethoso, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, Ecuador
The recent rise in the popularity of transboundary conservation brings up a number of questions about its viability as a means of promoting sustainable development and fostering cross-border cooperation. I plan to travel to four different global regions - Europe, Southern Africa, Central America and South America - to engage with the diverse range of actors involved in transboundary conservation in order to gain a better understanding of both its potential and its pitfalls.

Meghan Mahoney, College of the Holy Cross
Life Without Title IX:
The International Development of Women's Ice Hockey
Denmark, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa
How is women’s ice hockey developing in nations where the sport is rather new to the culture?  Can those nations compete with dominant hockey countries such as Canada and the United States?  Playing on women’s teams in South Africa and New Zealand, I will ascertain the progress of the game both in terms of skill level and the treatment of female players. I also will play in Denmark, where the game has a long history and where women are quickly progressing to Olympic-level hockey.  I hope to see whether other countries are taking initiatives to develop women’s sports, such as our own Title IX, and whether such actions play a role in the overall development of women’s ice hockey, in particular.

Kyle Marquardt, Grinnell College
The People's Fate: Language and Politics in Three Turkic States
Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan
There is a saying in Eurasia that "the fate of the language is the fate of the people." After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the citizens of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan appeared to agree with this adage: language issues dominated each nation's agenda. My project explores the process by which the linguistic situation of each former Soviet state has continued to affect its politics, and vice versa. To so do, I will stay in each country for four months and immerse myself in its cultures and languages, while observing its political system.

Tyler Matteson, Wheaton College
Baião and the Beatbox:
The Electronic Drum Machine in Traditional Musics
Domincan Republic, England, Brazil, India, France, Morocco, Sweden
What is it about the beatbox that tantalizes some traditional musicians and terrifies others? In my year as a Watson I will study the varying levels and effects of integration of the electronic drum machine across a range of traditional music. In my study of such disparate genres as Reggaeton, Bhangra, Mangue, Filmi, Raï and Nordic Roots Music, I hope to find potential aesthetic commonalities in the underscoring the beatbox offers traditional musicians.

Selena McMahan, Bowdoin College
Contemporary Clown Circuit: Performances Across Borders
South Africa, India, Mongolia, Hong Kong (China), Mexico, Brazil, Guatemala, Swaziland, Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania
I will explore the use of clown and circus skills with people who have experienced some form of group trauma. My work will be through the programs of Clowns Without Borders, Cirque du Monde and Caja Lúdica. Performing and teaching as well as observing various projects, my questions will focus on the nature of the artist-audience interaction. Because of the magic and delight of the work, these questions that can become analytic and stuffy will remain rooted in real practice and passion while offering something full of joy, hope and delight to others.

Elvira Miller, Oberlin College
Free Reed Traditions:
Accordion in Folk Music and Dance Communities
Ireland, United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland
Tracing the roots of New England contra dancing through traditional music and dance communities in northwest Europe, I plan to explore how accordion, a quintessential folk instrument, brings people together across boundaries of culture, politics, religion, race, class, gender and age. Through my involvement in these communities, I'll explore the nuances of musical technique and expression with masters of the piano accordion, returning to the question of how music and dance help to facilitate a peaceful world community.

Rebecca Monarrez, Swarthmore College
Creating Space:
Negotiating Heritage and History through Landscape Painting
Mexico, Spain, France
How do artists negotiate cultural heritages that are marked by the violent history of colonialism? Following the travels of Diego Rivera, I will try to answer this question as I examine how the colonial relationship between Mexico and Europe affected the depiction of space/place in landscape paintings. Working with painters, studying art, and painting landscapes, I will build a visual vocabulary that can describe the contradictions of my own artistic heritage as a Mexican-American in a way that can create a space for healing and understanding for my community.

Stephanie Morales, Middlebury College
An Intergenerational Redefinition of Leadership Through Film
Spain, Argentina, Venezuela
I want to make a documentary examining, exploring, and redefining the leadership of women. The women leaders whom I interview and film will be identified and chosen by creating a focus group of young women who will express who and what is a leader to them. We will, together, find women that fit their definitions and film them. The project would involve a collaborative editing process that would bring together the young women, the women leaders, and I to create collectively, and give the women whom I film a voice on how they wish to be visually represented.

Benjamin Nelson, Davidson College
Stringing Together My Tradition
Senegal, Gambia, Mali, Scotland, Northern Ireland
I grew up with parents who play old-time string band music, and I have few musical memories that don't include the fiddle and the banjo. However, the seeming inseparability of these instruments in Southern music belies the fact that the precursors of the fiddle-banjo tradition were brought to America from two distinct cultures. In Ireland and Scotland and in the Senegambian region of West Africa, I will learn to play the tunes of the African lutes and Scots-Irish fiddles that, more than two centuries ago, converged in the fiddle and banjo of the American South.

Philip O'Hara, Carleton College
My Old Men and Their Seas: Learning Traditions on Four Continents
Russia, Japan, The Cook Islands, Peru, Tanzania, United Arab Emirates
For my Watson Fellowship I will live in traditional fishing villages in Siberia, Japan, the Cook Islands, Peru, Zanzibar and the United Arab Emirates, work with the old fishermen, and experience first hand how they 'pass the torch' to younger generations. I will use my own family fishing tradition, which was passed on to me by my father, as a 'common language' to connect with and learn from the fishermen in those places.

Paulina Ponce de Leon Barido, Wellesley College
Powering Livelihoods through Appropriate Technology
Peru, Sri Lanka, Dominican Republic, Mali, Madagascar
Energy is essential for human development yet a vast majority of people living in developing countries have no access to modern forms of energy supply and are dependent on traditional energy sources such as fuel wood and crop residue. My project focuses on how appropriate energy technologies can meet this challenge and thus help disadvantaged communities in their fight against poverty. My goal is to better understand how these technologies work, how different societies respond to them, and how implementation approaches vary across development organizations.

Joseph Rachiele, Amherst College
The Global Diffusion of Basketball
Argentina, New Zealand, Puerto Rico
I will study the global diffusion of basketball by taking part in local basketball communities: sports clubs, youth organizations, and pick-up games. I will focus on how different cultural norms influence how the "American" game is played, and will compare my observations against the literature on the sociology of sport.

Kristofer Rios, Hamilton College
In Search of the Perfect Beat: Rare International Funk Music
England, Ghana, Brazil
I propose to research distinct cultural inflections in Funk music that were popular during the 1970's with the intent of cultivating and preserving this musical heritage. Although Funk enjoyed a brief span of popularity, its impact on world music has been far-reaching and has lasted for many decades. Traveling to the UK, Ghana, and Brazil, I will meet the musicians, DJs, music historians to appreciate the historical and social contexts in which this music thrived.

Emiliano Rodriguez, Swarthmore College
Outside the Canon: Nationalist Music in Spain, Brazil, and Argentina
Spain, Brazil, Argentina
I propose learning, playing, performing, and listening to music by nationalist composers in Spain, Brazil and Argentina. I will also be actively engaged in performing and listening to the various folk forms that influence these composers.

Katherine Sammons, Carleton College
Dyeing to See:
Exploring Color and Craftsmanship through Natural Dyeing
Japan, India, France, Mali, Peru
Letting indigo guide my path, I will explore color and natural dyeing before this ancient art vanishes. I will see color as different peoples do and experience what it means to be a craftsperson as I spin, dye, and live with artisans in Japan, India, France, Mali, and Peru.

Grace Sanders, Spelman College
Beyond the Court:
Female Volleyball Players as Agents for Social Change
Barbados, Brazil, Uganda, Australia
Observing the reality of women's volleyball as a launching pad for social transformation, I will gather oral histories and still images of female volleyball players in the countries of Barbados, Brazil, Uganda, and Australia. I will examine the social and political paradigms that promote or prohibit female athletes' ability to redefine the athletic space and themselves in an arena that often perpetuates patriarchal, racist, and elitist athletic and societal constructs.

Kelly Scheer, Lawrence University
A Year on the East Asian-Australasian Flyway
Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia
I would like to spend a year on the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, studying the migratory shorebird populations and the habitat these species utilize along their voyage. In addition, I would like to investigate the interactions of humans with these birds and their habitats. Specifically, I would like to examine the place of the shorebirds within the local human cultures and the conservation efforts made by scientists and the governments of the Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Russia.

Katherine Sears-Sann, Bryn Mawr College
Locally Grown, Locally Eaten: Marchés of the Francophone World
France, St. Pierre et Miquelon, Réunion, Corsica
Virtually every town in France contains some form of the marché, a local farm market that supplies the surrounding community with prepared foods and produce specific to that region. I will study the translation and appropriation of the French marché structure as it exists in islands of the post-colonial Francophone network. Because of the isolated topography, an island's self-containment makes its populations even more resourceful, self-reliant, and invested in local foods and produce. I hope to capture this dynamic through recipe production and reportage.

Elizabeth Semler, Wheaton College
The Last Morning Milking: Aging Dairy Farmers on Dying Farms
Switzerland, Ireland, Sweden, New Zealand, Canada
My journey will lead me to the oldest generation of dairy farmers experiencing the final evolution of their farm, as it ceases operation. Urban encroachment on rural lands, factory farming, and the flight of possible inheritors to less backbreaking work all jeopardize a unique dairying tradition that was once a prominent cultural symbol in each of the countries I seek to explore. Using oral history and documentary photography, I will attempt to capture the lives of aging farmers facing the death of their dairy farms and the end of a way of life.

Caitlin Shrigley, Reed College
Keeping Traditions Afloat: Ships and Sailors on the High Seas
International waters and England, Norway, New Zealand, Australia, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica
"Son of a Gun!" "pooped out," and "Shake a leg!" are linguistic reminders of the days when tall ships were a common sight. Unfortunately, in the 19th century steamboats put an end to the Era of Sail, but instead of letting tall ships sink into oblivion a few select people have held fast to the traditions and arts that gave tall ships such a rich heritage. Today these sailors and ships live those traditions on oceans all over the world. I will experience the ways these tough men and women sail - keeping the art of both sailing and maintaining tall ships alive.

Gwen Spencer, Harvey Mudd College
Reinterpreting the Gender of Science and Technology
in Emerging Economies
Tanzania, Swaziland, Kenya*, India, Ireland
The economic impacts of science and technology are widely recognized, but these influences also have the potential to dramatically reforge gender politics. My project investigates the interactions between the movement for gender equality and sciences/ technology in emerging economies. Through personal interviews with women in Southeastern Africa, India and Ireland, I seek to understand the ways in which women are actively reinterpreting and shaping the cultural space that surrounds science and technology.

Sandolore Sykes, Rhode Island School of Design
Imagined Cities: Diving for Underwater Myths
Micronesia, Australia
I will travel to Micronesia and Australia with the goal of creating a science fiction myth inspired by the gardens and creatures of coral reefs. Diving the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the world's most bio-diverse coral reef, I will be experiencing its underwater landscapes as cities in future worlds, or as metaphors for the workings of the human mind.

Ryan Takemiya, Sarah Lawrence College
Wild Style: Break Dancing Across Asia in Search of Soul
Vietnam, Hong Kong (China), Taiwan, Japan, Korea
In the 1990's, break dancing and hip hop culture spread to almost every country in the world, becoming an overnight, international phenomenon. After more than a decade of mixing with the cultures of Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea, what does break dancing look like? What has affected its evolution? Is it being used to uplift youth in these countries? I will explore how these East Asian countries have adapted their own distinctive styles of break dancing and how they have been using it in schools, neighborhoods, communities, and in the streets.

Drew Thompson, Williams College
Listening to the Unheard:
AIDS Education and Therapy through Public Art
Uganda, Botswana
I seek to examine how grassroots and governmental organizations use public art as an advocacy and a therapy tool in Uganda's and Botswana's fight against AIDS. Using the resources of these outreach groups as a foundation and guide, I will help communities to develop AIDS public art initiatives in schools, churches, or community centers, where participants create art about AIDS. Additionally, I will bring together student groups and congregations to create a community-initiated response to the epidemic through a local public art mural.

Sujata Tuladhar, Connecticut College
Community Radio as a Vehicle for Social Change
South Africa, Sri Lanka, New Zealand
Community radio has emerged as one of the most effective means for people in developing countries all over the world to take communications and information matters into their own hands. It increases participation and opinion sharing, and helps diversify knowledge and skills. Furthermore, it can give people hope for a better future. As a Watson Fellow, I wish to explore this remarkable medium of radio to broaden my understanding of and empathize with communities and cultures in South Africa, Sri Lanka and New Zealand.

Laure-Anne Ventouras, Wellesley College
The Essence of Perfume:
Science and Tradition in Essential Oil Making
Morocco, China, India, New Caledonia, Madagascar
My project focuses on the production of essential oils used in perfumery in countries where this activity has been present for generations. I will study the impact of perfume making on communities from a social, economic, and cultural perspective. I also want to learn how the scientific techniques used in perfumery have developed and evolved in these different countries. I hope to reach these goals by living with traditional perfumers and farmers and by participating in their daily tasks, such as cultivating, harvesting, and distilling crops.

Derrick Wansom, Swarthmore College
Where You're At: Exploring the Evolving Hip-Hop Cultures of Asia
Japan, Korea, Hong Kong (China)
"Even other states come right and exact; it ain't where you're from it's where you're at." - Rakim. Hip-hop isn't from Asia, but Asia has the fastest evolving hip-hop cultures in world. I will explore and participate in the hip-hop cultures of East Asia. I want to discover the ways hip-hop is reinventing itself in different cultural contexts. I want to see how each country creates their own version of hip-hop and integrates their own culture into the culture of hip-hop. I also hope to share the music and styles I learn in my travels through mixtapes and videos.

Scott Warren, University of Puget Sound
Time Is a River:
Change, Culture and History in the Grandest Canyons
Namibia, Ethiopia, China, Peru, Mexico
Canyons are places of unfathomable history and complexity. Between billion year old rocks and new dams, the passage of time and a river have shaped both human histories and sandstone or granite. I plan to hike five grand canyons of the world in Namibia, Ethiopia, China, Peru and Mexico, inviting the legends and issues of the people in them. Immersing myself in deep geologic time and the natural rhythms of a harsh landscape I hope to grasp the relationships between history, canyons and people to understand the current management and pressures canyons and people face.


*Travel to this country is permitted only if the U. S. State Department lifts its travel warning, in place as of March 25, 2005.
**Travel to this country is subject to review of U. S. Treasury Department embargo.