Emily Beeson, University of the South
The Mennonite Experience with Cultural Identity and
Adaptation Abroad
Dominican Republic, Peru, Paraguay, India, Bolivia, Brazil, Thailand, Indonesia, Laos, Switzerland, Netherlands
I plan to explore the issues of cultural identity and adaptation within Mennonite communities that have emigrated outside North America. Many Mennonites have sold their land and used the profit to emigrate to less developed countries. Nonetheless, in an attempt to escape the threat to their identity posed by developments in North American culture, they must respond to the challenge of preserving that identity in the face of many new challenges-linguistic, cultural, and agricultural-in an unfamiliar environment. How and how much must they adapt in their new environment?

Laura Bergner, Davidson College
Chasing Bats and Their Shadows
Costa Rica, China, Thailand, Fiji, Panama, New Zealand, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia
Bats are mysterious, ecologically important, and misunderstood animals. I will examine the world's most intriguing bat species through the lenses of ecology, education, and conservation. In addition to exploring bats from a scientific standpoint, I will examine local perspectives of bats. Many cultures have deeply ingrained hatred and fear of these creatures. I hope to learn if such beliefs are still prevalent. Finally, I will look at environmental education and ecotourism, two disciplines that bridge the gap between nature and humans.

Conor Blanchet, Colorado College
Prints, Scat, and Sign: The Art of Wildlife Tracking
South Africa, Ecuador, Australia, Canada, Namibia
Most of us can recognize a dog's track; even the most resolute urbanite has observed evidence of a pet in the city snow. But there are individuals scattered across the globe that can identify a species and its age and also understand the intention of the creature by its ephemeral traces on a landscape. As indigenous groups rely less on the art of tracking, this skill has faded from the cultural consciousness. I will examine the modern evolution of tracking in these communities and also the contrasting role of environment in shaping the tracks that occupy four major biomes.

Laura Candler, University of the South
Land in Light of Clouds
Australia, Iceland, Norway, New Zealand, Sweden, Scotland
The seeds of identity begin with geography, which for me contains both land and sky. Clouds bound our scope of vision-from the droopy gray nimbostratus to the dizzying streaks of cirrus to the dappled pinks of seabourne cumulus. I want to explore three geographically unique cloud forms: Australia's Morning Glory cloud, Iceland's nacreous clouds, and Norway's noctilucent clouds. I plan to watch them, learn about them, document them via time-lapse photography, and explore the way that these ethereal ceilings shape identities of people and place.

Helen Chmura, Swarthmore College
Vanishing in Thin Air:
Climate and Culture in Sacred Mountain Conservation
Peru, Chile, Tibet (China), Papua New Guinea, Argentina, Australia
Climate change challenges biology and culture. With unparalleled biodiversity and intense spiritual bonds between land and people, sacred mountains illustrate these challenges. As a Watson Fellow, I will travel to sacred mountain ranges to see how scientists study global warming and to immerse myself in mountain communities to see how cultural and religious practices are affected by climate change. By understanding both the scientific and human faces of climate change, I will become a better conservationist of the mountains I love.

Brett Ciccotelli, College of the Atlantic
Change Along the Banks:
Explorations in River Deltas and Coastal Wetlands
Canada, Italy, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam, Costa Rica
Wherever I have gone in my life, waterways have acted as portals to the places beyond the streets, places where nature and culture are hidden. As a Watson fellow, I will live in and explore five of world's great river deltas and coastal wetlands. Traveling through-the Mackenzie, Colorado, Nile, and Ganges-Brahmaputra River Deltas, and the Venetian Lagoon-I hope to learn from those whose lives are linked to the ebb and flood of the water, whose prosperity, security, and identity are inseparable from their wetland or river.

Kyle Delbyck, Scripps College
Staging Questions of Historical Amnesia
Taiwan, Cambodia, Ghana, Cyprus, Turkey, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Kosovo, Argentina
Dramatic expression has always been intimately connected to the process of writing history. Societal forces have frequently utilized the power of theater to enable historical amnesia: promoting certain versions of the past and discarding others. In post-conflict nations, theater has played a particularly prominent role in shaping the ways in which populaces forget and remember. I will spend my Watson year delving into the relationship between theater and historical amnesia and exploring the formation of historical narrative through the lens of dramatic expression.

Sulochana Dissanayake, Bates College
The Development of Contemporary Theater Companies in South Africa and Indonesia
South Africa, Indonesia
I will study the development of contemporary theater companies in South Africa and Indonesia in an effort to initiate a novel contemporary theater movement in Sri Lanka. South Africa and Indonesia share colonial history, cultural dynamics, financial parity and development status with Sri Lanka and use theater dynamically as a voice of national self-realization. I hope to be inspired by such artists to promote contemporary theater as an outlet for a twenty-five-year-old civil conflict and articulate our current realities to national and international audiences.

Brian Dolphin, Pitzer College
The Music of Nature and the Nature of Music
Norway, India, Peru, Bali (Indonesia), Cameroon, Republic of Tuva (Russia)
Music eternally surrounds us, not just on radios and iPods, but everywhere. To open my ears to the harmony of Nature, I will travel to Norway, the Republic of Tuva, India, Indonesia, and Cameroon to immerse myself in "original" music: that of landscapes, animals, and humans. To be able to communicate more effectively with the universe, I will learn its language, and then sing and play with all. By getting in touch with the aesthetics that make music functional in nature, I can create the music that so boldly answers the primary philosophical quandary, "What is music?"

Trenton Elliott, Hendrix College
Beliefs and Biomedicine:
Investigating Culture and Health in the Tropics
Brazil, Vietnam, Tanzania
Moxibustion, the hot-cold system, coining-these are but a few health belief systems employed by over three billion people on our planet, almost all of whom live in developing countries afflicted by tropical diseases. Health related cultural beliefs are pervasive, holding a significant function within our global society while greatly affecting health and the healing process. I wish to examine the interface between the biomedical and cultural approaches to medicine and study how healthcare systems reconcile the two approaches to treat and prevent tropical diseases.

Jessica Engebretson, Swarthmore College
Producing Peace: Radio and Reconciliation in Post-Conflict Societies
Indonesia, Rwanda, Liberia
Cheap, portable, and requiring no literacy, radio is a key method of communicating ideas across much of the globe. During the course of my Watson year, I plan to dig into the ways that radio programming can promote peace and reconciliation in post-conflict societies. By working with local producers on everything from serialized soap operas to policy talk shows, I hope to begin to understand the ways that radio can help knit back together communities recovering from violence.

Edward Falk, Carleton College
Keeping the Faith:
Endangered Religious Communities in the Arab World
Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Ethiopia
For my Watson Fellowship, I will live, work, study, and pray in minority religious communities in Jordan, Egypt, and Tunisia, working with social justice and education organizations, studying in the traditional religious schools alongside the young faithful, and participating in religious services and devotional activity in order to experience how both old and young keep the faith in imperfect homes. I will use my faith and personal stake in religious identity to connect to and learn from Jews in Tunisia, Coptic Christians in Egypt, and Iraqi Chaldeans in Jordan.

Aisha Fukushima, Whitman College
Rhythms, Rhymes, and Raptivism:
The Globalization of Hip-Hop Activism
Denmark, South Africa, Senegal, Morocco, UK, India
I will focus on the ways in which Hip Hop has become a medium for social change in Denmark, India, Morocco, South Africa, Senegal, and the United Kingdom. I plan to explore "raptivism" (rap activism) by observing and participating in the vibrant Hip Hop scenes of each locale. During my travels, I will also record a compilation of songs that reflect the musical styles and the political climate of each country I visit.

Max Goldstein, Bowdoin College
Swimming Around the World:
Creating Bridges between Communities
Peru, Morocco, Spain, France
I aim to create bridges between communities by completing four long distance swims over the very waters that divide them. Teaching swimming, I will engage with aquatic communities abroad and make each traverse a group effort, inciting a dialogue between people on both sides of the water. I will swim across the Strait of Gibraltar from Morocco to Spain, the Bosphorus and the Dardanalles from Asia to Europe, the Incan Island of the Sun in Lake Titicaca from Peru to Bolivia, and (if travel warning status allows) the Dead Sea from Jordan to Israel.

Gillian Grassie, Bryn Mawr College
Artist 2.0: The Impact of New Technology on Independent Music
Germany, France, India, Indonesia, China, Russia
In the U.S. and U.K., technology-driven changes have revolutionized the way the music industry does business as well as the types of music produced. But what's happening beyond these English music powerhouses? How accessible is new recording software, and how compatible are these programs with non-Western music? What types of musicians and music are being left behind? I will travel through Germany, France, India, Indonesia, China, and Japan to investigate these questions, studying the impact of new recording and distribution technology on musicians worldwide.

Austin Hawkins, Hamilton College
Earth Architecture:
The Keystone to Reducing our Environmental Footprint
Turkey, Cyprus, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Morocco, Peru
Building and transportation of materials intended to improve living conditions have caused widespread environmental deterioration which is forcing us to realign our building methods and environments. Earth construction, composed of simple building methods and used by a third of the world's population, proposes ecological answers and offers opportunities to learn building and design. In Turkey, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Spain, and Portugal I will work with architects, masons, home-owners, and archeologists to understand these techniques in different cultures and climates.

Richard Horn, Harvey Mudd College
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star: How We Wonder What You Are
Australia, China, Namibia, Sweden, Chile, Peru, Puerto Rico
We all live under the same night sky. In my Watson year I will see how our cultural and scientific backgrounds influence our perceptions of the cosmos. I will use telescopes to bridge cultural divides and learn about people's traditional cosmologies, while allowing the people I meet a glimpse of the universe I know and love. In this, I will come to understand the factors that influence what we think of when we look up at night.

Nick Jenei, College of the Atlantic
Sustainable Entrepreneurship:
The Future of Business in India and China
India, China
India and China face strong social and environmental pressures to transition to sustainable economies, yet their entrepreneurs are posed to adopt sustainable business practices due to the presence of innovative thinkers, growing economies, and pro-business governments. I want to learn from and collaborate with Indian and Chinese entrepreneurs who live in a very different cultural, historical, and political context than I do, and explore innovative business models that value people and the environment as much as they do profits.

Eva Jimenez, Earlham College
Migration and Narration:
Understanding the Reasons Behind Immigration
Morocco, Spain, Germany, Poland, Turkey, Ecuador, Peru
From my work around immigration, I have encountered many migrants who believe they would have been better off if they had stayed in their native country. Nevertheless, they made the decision to leave. So, why did they migrate? For my project I will investigate the stories that are being told in Ecuador, Spain, and Peru regarding migration. From these interviews, I hope to get an insight on the complex questions surrounding immigration, immigrants' rights, and the reasons behind policies set by migrant-receiving nations.

Winifred Johnson, Haverford College
Visions of Paradise: Landscape and Culture in the Garden
China, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, Vietnam, Japan, Costa Rica
The islands of Indonesia, Western Cape Province of South Africa, and Oaxaca State in Mexico present landscapes with rich native floras and diverse cultural traditions as well as distinctive climatic challenges for gardeners. In China and Europe, long histories of formal garden design have shaped our concept of art in the landscape. Working side-by-side with gardeners of each region, I will explore and document the synergy that can occur when science and art perfectly meld to create both sustainability and beauty in the garden.

Michael Keller, College of the Atlantic
Mapping Asylum in Fortress Europe
Denmark, Poland, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, Italy, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Croatia, Norway, Ecuador
I will engage refugees in mapping and interpreting their unique landscapes of migration as they start new lives amidst intolerance and strict asylum policies. Persecuted or forced to leave their homes because of race, religion, nationality, social group, or political opinion, refugees from diverse backgrounds are forming new worlds of innovation, entrepreneurship, and political action in European cities. I will explore places of sanctuary and resettlement in five EU nations to understand how refugees interact with environments to develop a new sense of place.

Salome Kiwara, Berea College
Embracing the Past: Identity and Cultural Heritage
Ethiopia, Egypt, South Africa, Ghana, Togo, Thailand, Cambodia, Tanzania
My project is geared towards learning more about cultural heritage and identity. I plan on exploring the formation of identity in different communities in relation to their objects and monuments of cultural heritage.

Danielle Koplinka-Loehr, Oberlin College
Streets to Strings:
Music as a Social Justice Tool for Marginalized Youth
Venezuela, Chile, Ecuador, Uganda, Rwanda
Few people consider the possibility of classical-music instruction as a transformative force for change in the lives of at-risk youth. I will travel to four countries to examine youth orchestral programs that enroll street children and search for the secret behind their success in a world where classical music is waning. By interviewing, observing, and teaching in a global context, I will redefine what music education means to me.

Kenyon Laing, Hamilton College
Traffic: Red Light, Green Light?
Prostitution and the Modern-Day Slave Trade
Sweden, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Turkey, India, China, Thailand
I will investigate how political and social attitudes about prostitution, regional relationships, and increased international contact, affect the flow of human trafficking. In Sweden, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Turkey, and India I will work alongside lawmakers, advocacy and religious groups, healthcare providers, journalists, sex workers and survivors, to understand what does and does not work to curb trafficking, and why.

Kelly Maby, Wheaton College
Tales From Beyond the Trashcan:
The Faces Behind Informal Waste Management
Egypt, Australia, Brazil, Ecuador, Guatemala
Who are the "human faces" behind the processes of waste scavenging? What are the collective perceptions of scavengers, and how do they either hinder or encourage such processes? Searching for the human stories behind the social-structural formations of marginality in the informal waste management sector of urban locales, I will observe the who, the how, and the why, by working alongside waste scavengers, engaging them in dialogue and looking beyond the garbage dumps and trash cans to get to the core of informal waste management: the scavengers themselves.

Jeronimo Maradiaga, Colby College
Redefining Success Narratives:
A Glimpse Into the World of the Marginalized
Ecuador, South Africa, India, Dominican Republic
I will revisit the point in my life when the decision to go away to college and to leave my family behind became especially salient. In traveling to Ecuador, South Africa, and India, I hope to gain a better understanding of how marginalized college students negotiate ideals espoused at home and in school. Specifically, I would like to determine how their unique positions within this liminal space affect their views of what constitutes success. I hope to audio record these stories and reflect on their personalized "success narratives."

William McGuinness, IV, Rice University
Red Sky at Morning:
The Collision between Culture and Hurricane Policy
Mexico, Anguilla, St. Martin, St. Maarten, Bangladesh, Madagascar, Fiji, Japan, South Korea, Belize, Australia
Hurricanes pose the greatest consistent risk to life of any natural disaster. Year after year they change lives and entire societies. I will travel to a diverse selection of countries and work with government officials and NGO workers to examine different approaches to evacuation for and recovery from hurricanes. I will converse with private citizens to explore each nation's "hurricane culture" and understand its interaction with public policy. I hope to gain insights into programs and policies that can leap the divide between the developed and developing worlds.

Calista McRae, Amherst College
The Characters of Ruin
Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, Turkey, India, Bangladesh
The suggestive power of abandoned buildings is immense. It has been responsible for a millennium of poetry and art, often sentimentalized, allegorized, or picturesqued out of all proportion. In my Watson year, I will write about and draw ruins as the terribly complicated structures they are, everywhere from desolate mining towns to industrial districts. I hope to emerge from the year with a clearer sense of how to express-verbally, visually; emotionally, aesthetically, critically-such a moving subject.

Courtney Sato, Wellesley College
"Writing Toward Home": Tracing Poets and Places
France, Ireland, United Kingdom, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, the Czech Republic, Germany, Bangladesh, India
I have always been told: write what you know. Writing is deeply rooted in place, one's childhood home or neighborhood. I plan to visit the homes of international poets, to re-trace their steps, and seek out specific places developed in their poetry. My aim is to understand how their sense of place seeps into their writing and shapes their creative habits and tendencies. Immersed in these neighborhoods and poetic circles, I will create my own poems in response to the settings and share my poetry with these literary communities.

Sachiko Schuricht, Colgate University
Cubing Across Cultures: Documenting the Rubik's Resurgence
India, China, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Hungary
I plan to investigate the international subculture of speedcubing-the sport of competitive speed Rubik's-Cube solving. As I immerse myself in well-established and incipient speedcubing communities in Europe and Asia, I will capture footage for a documentary film. The film will feature diverse speedcubers and competitions, with a focus on the psychological interplay between cubers' individual identities and the larger subculture.

Aliza Simons, Wesleyan University
Voices Across the Airwaves:
Community Radio Broadcasters Across the World
Sierra Leone, Ecuador, Canada, Argentina, Uruguay, Senegal, South Africa, The Gambia
Who is a community radio broadcaster? How do community radio broadcasters serve their communities? What kinds of challenges do broadcasters face day to day? What are their goals? These are questions I will ask a diverse range of community radio broadcasters. By conducting oral-history interviews with community radio broadcasters, I will reach a deeper understanding of what roles broadcasters serve in communities across the world.

Anthony Siracusa, Rhodes College
People Using Pedal Power: Global Bicycling Communities
Denmark, the Netherlands, China, Australia, Germany, Guatemala, United Kingdom
What is the relationship between the bicycle's ability to unite people into communities and the bicycle's transformative potential for urban environments? The answer to this question lies in understanding the people in bicycling communities. I hope to understand how thousands of kilometers of bike lanes are created in a city, how successful bike shops are started, weekly bicycle rides sustained, independent bike companies developed, innovative bike programs strengthened, and how individuals are formed with a bike at the center of their lives.

Anoush Suni, Pomona College
The Language of the Oud: Cross-Cultural Connections Through Music
Armenia, Jordan, Turkey
I will travel through Armenia, Turkey, and Morocco to study the music of the oud and the way that the oud is expressive of each unique society. I will explore the way that oud music is produced and perceived, participate in the living culture of music, and investigate the where, when, how, and why of oud music being created to better understand each culture in and of itself and within the broader context of the musical and cultural connections that exist throughout the greater Middle East.

Kelsey Threatte, Ursinus College
Voice and Veil:
The Power and Impact of Arab Women Poets on Society
United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, Oman, Spain
I will explore the political and cultural impact of Arab women poets on their societies. By connecting with the women poets in the Arab world, I hope not only to see the place of women in society, but also understand what they believe and how they are making a difference in their communities, their governments, and the Arab world as a whole.

Irene Toro Martinez, Pomona College
All the Time in the World
Spain, Mexico, Norway, Sweden, Peru, Bolivia, Chile
Our individual and cultural perceptions of time are shaped by our natural environments and communicated indirectly through the myths and folklore surrounding natural cycles and catastrophes. I plan to visit the sites of four very different natural events-volcanoes in Chile, the monarch migration in Mexico, the polar night in Norway, and fishing cycles in Spain-to gain an understanding of their effects on philosophies of temporality.

Madhuri Vijay, Lawrence University
The Two "I"s in "Indian": Writing the Stories of the Indian Diaspora
Tanzania, Malaysia, South Africa, Singapore, Uganda, Trinidad and Tobago, Mauritius
Indians live in almost every country in the world, but the fiction written about them is sparse. I would like to live in four countries with significant Indian populations and traditions-Fiji, Malaysia, South Africa, and Tanzania-and write a book of short stories that explores how these Indians cement their necessarily dual identities. Through these stories, I hope to start to fill the gap in the literature about these populations. And, as an Indian now living in America, I would like to use this as an opportunity to explore and develop my own dual identity.

Skadi von Reis Crooks, Macalester College
Charismatic Megafauna versus Pestilent Predator
Sweden, Spain, Canada, Turkey
Wolf conservation is becoming polarized as rebounding populations come into contact with humans. Successful management of these key predators depends on understanding the broader political conflicts and cultural frameworks at work. I will investigate how culture and various political battles shape wolf conservation in areas of varying natural resource extraction, rural livelihoods, and indigenous rights issues. This work is conducted in hopes of informing contextual management that takes into account the varying needs of both people and threatened species.

Klara Wojtkowska, Rice University
In Search of the Polish Diaspora:
Creating Community through Theater
Ireland, Romania, South Africa, United Kingdom, Turkey, Egypt, Brazil, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe
I am seeking a way to understand life in motion, then bring it to an audience, and in this way pull all of us closer together. My Watson year will be spent in search of the Polish Diaspora, as well as reasons for its migration and survival. I want to use theater as a lens into these communities and their concerns, and to discover how drama functions, not only in perpetuating national jargon, but also in crossing personal prejudices.

*Travel to this country is permitted only if the U. S. State Department lifts its travel warning.