Photographing Hong Kong citizens during the first month of reunification, excavating Mayan ruins, studying flamenco song and dance -- these are just some of the projects that will be undertaken by the 40 members of the Class of 1998 who have been chosen to receive Yale Summer Traveling Fellowships.
The awards are made possible through the income of a fund endowed in the memory of Robert C. Bates, one-time fellow of Jonathan Edwards College and member of the Yale faculty, as well as through six additional funds. These additional funds, administered by the Yale Summer Traveling Fellowships Committee on behalf of Yale College, are the Hilgendorf Fellowship, in memory of William Hilgendorf Jr. '67; the Wagster Fellowship, a memorial to Rhea Plunkett Wagster; the Kilborne Traveling Fellowship, in memory of Robert Stewart Kilborne, for travel to England and studies in the arts, history or literature; the Lewis P. Curtis Fellowship, in memory of Lewis P. Curtis, for studies in the fields of history, philosophy, the arts, and letters; the David W. Baer Memorial Fellowship, for architecture or design; and the John Boit Morse Memorial Fellowship, for a traveling fellowship to an art student.
All juniors in Yale College were eligible to compete for the fellowships. The students who were selected demonstrated that they had carefully worked out projects which they can complete during several weeks of the coming summer, and which will contribute significantly to the development of their special educational interests. In most cases, the experience gained abroad will enhance work which will lead to completion of senior essays or other individual projects.
This year's recipients and their descriptions of their projects follow:
Curtis Fellowships: Sonia Martin -- In Germany, conduct research on print propaganda distributed in the U.S. Zone of Occupation between 1945 and 1950 which was aimed specifically at German women to aid the project of denazification; Rafael Pardo -- Investigate the affair of alleged American Revolution traitor Silas Deane from the French point of view, using the documents at the Archives of the Foreign Ministry in Paris; and Amy Terry -- In Dublin, study the debates surrounding the first admission of Irish women into Trinity College in 1904.
Hilgendorf Fellowship: Danny Beaty -- Travel to Cologne, Germany and Spoleto, Italy to study the classical art song and opera repertoire unique to each country with renowned voice teachers in each of the cities; and David Steib -- Intern at the Puerta al Mediterry for Spanish audiences.
Kilborne Fellowship: Cary Franklin -- Determine the extent to which Vorticist art fulfilled its creators' antidemocratic purposes by examining its public reception in London newspapers between 1910 and 1915; and Lisa Hasday -- In London, research 19th-century women's reform movements through the prism of the life and writings of Josephine Baker.
Wagster Fellowships: Hae-Won Min -- Investigate the viability of establishing private schools for Russian orphans through international assistance by working in a Russian orphanage and interviewing human rights advocates in Moscow; and Yilu Zhao -- Travel to Greece, India and China to test the hypothesis that the Western art style influenced Chinese frescoes and sculpture before 200 A.D.
Baer Fellowship: Ursula McGeoch -- Through extensive sketching, study the Italian piazza as a public urban space in an attempt to understand the architectural elements of mass and volume, juxtaposition and asymmetry, and texture and materiality.
Morse Fellowship: Aimee Gross -- Research the similarities and differences between Islamic architecture created in al-Andalus (southern Spain) and al-Maghrib al-Aqsa, Morocco, between 755 and 1492.
Bates Fellowships: Brett Austad -- Study the effects of the Nazis' rise to power on the programming and performance styles of the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic orchestras; Sean Chappin -- Travel to the Lesser Antillian islands to study the Taino and Carib Indians through an investigation of petrographs; Nicole Emmons -- Retrace the journeys through Italy of Louis Kahn, Le Corbusier, Michael Graves and other architects; Claire Fallender -- Observe the different methods of "women's" development organizations in Costa Rica in an effort to examine why "feminization of poverty" continues and how it can be prevented; Laura Gilbert -- Analyze the role of mission groups in the educational development of the Huaorani Indians in the Ecuadorian Amazon; Matthew Harris -- Perform a cross-cultural analysis of child conduct disorders using information available at a clinic at the University of Manchester in England, as well as at the Yale Child Conduct Clinic; David Hoffman -- Excavate the Mayan ruins of Aguateca in the jungles of Guatemala, in order to collect data with which to evaluate different collapse theories from an archaeological and historical perspective; Daniel Hoverman -- Travel to Ghana to study three different kinds of music, paying particular attention to the interplay of African, American and European influences; Geoffrey Hughes -- Study the effects of the Alberta Treaty Nations Society for Environmental Protection on the autonomy, ecology and native culture of the Blood Tribe in Alberta, Canada; Abid Hussain Imam -- Conduct research on Iran's recently revitalized family planning program, with special attention to the Islamic government's population control strategy; Jens Iverson -- Travel to Cambodia to study and participate in the analysis of recently discovered documents pertaining to the genocidal activities of the Democratic Kampuchea regime under Pol Pot; Eve Karkowsky -- In Jerusalem, research the advent of modern Orthodox women's Torah learning, its genesis and history, the philosophy behind it and the ramifications of its institutions; Meredith Kelly -- Travel to Chile to study the relationship between the massive urban expansion and the evolution of public housing programs in Santiago established during the period of military rule, 1973-90; Grace Kim -- Explore the effects of RU-486 on endometrial growth, both on a microscopic level and a clinical one, in London; Sarah Kunstler -- Work on a photo-essay documenting the experience of Hong Kong citizens during the first month of reunification; Anthony Kyriakakis -- Travel to Greece to study both the relationship and evolving differences between the Greek and Greek American culture; Andrew Lam -- Study how China's takeover will affect the freedoms of the Hong Kong people; Nadine Lehrer -- In France, study the differences in how children learn verbs in English, Hebrew and French; Josh Mahowald -- Study the issues surrounding the implementation of digital cash systems in the Netherlands, France and England; Rowena McBeath -- Travel to Shanghai to investigate the current state of lymphatic filariasis infection, which causes elephantiasis, as well as observing the government's approach and public health methods on the problem and the scientific research in progress; Erin McCarthy -- Analyze the extremely low birth rate in Italy and its implications regarding the condition of women in Italian society; Uyen Tai Nguyen -- Research the degree of influence and impact Vietnamese emigrants -- escaping to the United States and other countries -- have on the economy of Vietnam; Shahid Nimjee -- Conduct a seroepidemiological study of Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpes virus in children living in Saudi Arabia; Devon Porpora -- Contrast the stock markets of capitalist and reforming nations by working on the floor of the Chinese market in Beijing; Sherri Sharma -- Study flamenco song and dance in Spain as an expression of the evolution of gypsy culture and identity in Madrid; Sarah Silverman -- Research civil rights issues in Israeli law, paying particular attention to why the secular government has done little to protect the rights of its citizens against the domination of the Orthodox Jews; Jeffrey Sprague -- Analyze two shopping malls in downtown Buenos Aires with respect to various methods of urban planning, in order to understand how the mall can function in an urban setting; Levi Zimmerman -- Travel to Japan in order to study the Japanese method of combining traditional Oriental medicine with more modern Western medical techniques, and to assess the effectiveness of this type of treatment.