Five From Bennington Awarded 2015 Fulbright Grants
Two students, two alumni, and a faculty member have been awarded 2015 Fulbright grants to support their academic and professional work abroad.
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program offers fellowships for graduating college seniors, graduate students, young professionals, and artists to study, research, or teach abroad for one academic year.
Sheridan Baker '15 will travel to Taiwan as an English Teaching Assistant. In addition to working with English language learners, Sheridan will continue to develop her fluency in Mandarin and engage with her community by exploring urban sustainability (including rooftop and balcony gardening) and volunteering in retirement homes.
Jaymee Weaver '15 will travel to Ecuador, where she previously visited and learned from women in the Andes Mountains and the Amazon rainforest. She plans to create a performance art piece that examines the impact of "modernization" on their communities and natural environments.
Jeff Peer ‘06 will study a form of literary journalism called the crónica urbana in Mexico City. He will be focusing on the decades following the revolution (1920-1950) when Mexico City went through a drastic period of modernization, and the 1970s and 80s, which, following the Tlatelolco Massacre and a series of economic shocks, were years of crisis.
Anthropology faculty member Noah Coburn was granted a Senior Scholar Multi-Country Research Fulbright—one of only two offered every year— to conduct a study of the effects of contracting and intervention in Nepal and India. He is looking particularly at a group of Nepalese security contractors who fought in Afghanistan and how this has shaped their views on conflict.
Kimberly Hart ’89 has also been awarded a Senior Scholar Research Fellowship for her project Istanbul Street Cats and Expressions of Human Kindness and Neglect. Kimberly will study the spaces where the cats live and the political and spiritual dimensions of human interest in their welfare.