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Each year Carleton’s fellowships make it possible for a number of students to engage in independent research, explore their passions, or embark on an adventure.  All of these opportunities are made possible by the generosity of Carleton alumni, parents and friends of the college; they are completed over a summer or during Carleton’s winter break.  The following is a summary of Carleton’s 2019-20 fellowship awards. Unless otherwise stated, awardees were able to pursue their fellowship activities as planned.

Chang-Lan Fellowship

  • Marianne Gunnarson ’22 was awarded a fellowship to shadow doctors in China.  She hopes to pursue this project in 2021.
  • Pierce McDonnell ’21 was awarded a fellowship to trace the voyages of Zheng He, largely through work in Chinese archives, but was unable to pursue this project due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.
  • Sally Sirothphiphat ’21 was awarded a fellowship to study the use of Feng Shui in Chinese vernacular architecture.  She will carry out her project during early 2021.
  • Yixin Song ’21 was awarded a fellowship to explore the real places depicted in Chinese landscape paintings. 
  • Changlan Wang ’21 was awarded a fellowship to compare emotional experiences of European -American and Mainland Chinese young people.

Class of 1963 Fellowships

  • Jessalyn Ayars ’21 was awarded a fellowship to extend her research on Magellanic woodpeckers in Chile’s Patagonia National Park. Working with park rangers to locate and set cameras to monitor active nests, Jessalyn planned to study the woodpeckers’ foraging habits, home ranges, behaviors and movements.  Because international travel was restricted, Jessalyn instead pursued an ecology research project in the US.
  • Zoe Goldenberg-Hart ’21 was awarded a fellowship to research the shaping and negotiation of identity among Jewish communities in Buenos Aires, Argentina, examining in particular how secularism plays a role in identity negotiation, and what that looks like in terms of assimilation to Argentine culture and dissociation from Jewish identity. Because international travel was restricted, Zoe pursued this project through remote interviews with subjects in Argentina and elsewhere.
  • Spencer Lekki ’21 was awarded a fellowship to travel to Ireland and extend work done on a paper entitled “Stripped and Cast Out: Decoding Violence in County Offaly During the Rising of 1641,” but was unable to pursue this project due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.
  • Owen Pasley ’21 was awarded a fellowship to conduct research at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library in Atlanta, Georgia and at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California to investigate the policy responses within each administration to inflation and stagflation in the late 1970s and early 1980s.  Because federal facilities were closed in response to the pandemic, Owen shifted his focus to research on the problem of African-American unemployment and fiscal policy during the same period.

David C. Donelson ’77 Fund Fellowships

  • Fiona Casey ’21 was awarded a fellowship to explore the power of urban smellscapes by conducting “Smellwalks” in Chicago and San Francisco.
  • Kou Okada ’22 was awarded a fellowship to immerse himself in the New York City jazz scene by attending performances and studying with artists to experientially understand what it means to improvise, while examining the ways in which jazz improvisation provides a model for discourse and intercultural understanding. Kou will carry out the in-person component of this project in 2021.

Professor Roy Grow Fellowships

  • Sagal Ahmed ’22 was awarded a fellowship to work in Cambodia with a Marine Harvesting Network Project to research and monitor the effects of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and the dumping of toxic waste on Cambodia’s oceanic ecosystem and local community members.  Sagal hopes to carry out this project in 2021.
  • Bat-Orgil Batjargal ’21 was awarded a fellowship to undertake a comparative study of Central Asian democracies, using interviews and literature reviews to understand the challenges those societies have faced since the end of the Soviet Era.
  • Klara Heuchert ’22 was awarded a fellowship to travel to Mongolia to the Darhad region of northern Mongolia to conduct salamander population and habitat preference surveys in wooded areas with the support and advice of the national park management. Klara hopes to carry out this project in 2021.
  • Reese McMillan ’21 was awarded a fellowship to examine and analyze the tattoo aesthetics of the rising techno counter-culture in Taiwan, and understand its significance to a new generation of mixed-race and queer circles in a homogeneous Taipei.
  • Santi Rico ’22 was awarded a fellowship to document and explore the influence of Shinto and Buddhist beliefs and worship on the daily economic activity and financial attitudes of Japanese people through a combination of experiential research, journaling, and interviews. Santi hopes to carry out this project in 2021.
  • Mehdi Shahid ’22 was awarded a fellowship to explore Uzbek culture and society and develop an understanding of the forces that shape the broader region of Central Asia.  Mehdi hopes to carry out this project in 2021. (Instagram photos).
  • Ben Wightman ‘21 was awarded a fellowship to travel to Japan and examine the various ways that the Emperor of Japan was perceived during the Nanbolu-cha period (1336-92), but was unable to pursue this project due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.
  • Yuanhao Zou ’22 was awarded a fellowship to explore Uzbek culture and society of and develop an understanding of the forces that shape the broader region of Central Asia, including people have formed cultural and national identities from the time of the Silk Road through the post-Soviet Era. Yuanhao hopes to carry out this project in 2021. (Instagram photos).

Dale and Elizabeth Hanson Fellowship in Ethics

  • Maya Donovan ’23 was awarded a fellowship to research resource scarcity as it affects the ethical implementation of quarantine.
  • ZhaoBin Li ’21 was awarded a fellowship to research Machine Liberation through the lens of Rawlsian Ethics.

Independent Research Fellowships

  • Miles Allen ’21 was awarded a fellowship to investigate how organizations in Turkey promote cohesion between refugees and host-communities and adapt to contextual factors, such as linguistic barriers and limited participation from the government.  Because of restrictions on international travel, Miles has shifted his project to work with organizations serving refugees in Chicago.
  • Cindy Guo ’21 was awarded a fellowship to undertake a mixed-method, cross-sectional study into the differing spatial distributions of South African townships during apartheid and their effects on economic development there today, with a focus on Cape Town and Johannesburg.  Cindy hopes to undertake this project in 2021. 
  • Brennan Johnson ’21 was awarded a fellowship to travel to the Arctic shores of Canada, drawing natural life along the way, to explore the relationship between a wild land and the people who live there, by contrasting depictions of the landscape with drawings of the people and places where humanity briefly interrupts the boreal forest. Because international travel was restricted, Brennan shifted this project to create artistic work focused on the idea of a mythology of the mundane in Northfield.
  • Maddie Kyhl ’21 planned to shadow Ágnes Mócsy at the Pratt Institute in New York City, interview professionals at Vogue Business, and explore other art-science fusions in the city during winter break 2020. Because of restrictions on travel, Maddie shifted this project to showcase sustainable, STEM-inflected fashion created at Carleton in 2021.
  • Venecia Mitchell ’21 was awarded a fellowship to study how the environmental disruption of Hurricane Katrina was used to transform public schools in New Orleans and how these transformations have affected Black youth, especially in terms of the relationship between school discipline and incarceration.
  • Sophie Rogers ’21 was awarded a fellowship to explore the relationship between family memories and person-hood through travel to Berlin, including work in three different community workshops dedicated to screen printing, lithography and letterpress.  Because international travel was restricted, Sophie shifted this project to develop a ‘postal art’ network and create large-scale pieces at home.
  • David Rubin ’21 was awarded a fellowship to analyze the relationship in Gerard Manley Hopkins’ original manuscripts between spirituality, nature, and the self, using archival materials in the UK and Ireland. David was unable to pursue this project due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.
  • Annie Seefeldt ’21 was awarded a fellowship to explore and illuminate the histories complicating government-community relations in Louisianan relocation projects and compare the efficacy of current public participation policies across two different contexts of government resettlement. Because of restrictions on travel, Annie shifted this project to involve remote interviews and broader research on the experience of vulnerable coastal communities in the context of climate change.
  • Martha Sudderth ’21 was awarded a fellowship to work in a pottery studio in San Francisco, CA, and observe what tensions exist between San Francisco’s independent craft community and the Silicon Valley tech community.
  • Abi Sutcliffe ‘22 was awarded a fellowship to explore how Muslim Sharia law, Greek philosophy, and the influence of Common Law legal code have contributed to the prevalence and conception of gender-based violence in contemporary Egypt.  Abi hopes to carry out a version of this project in 2021.
  • Matt Zacharski ’21 was awarded a fellowship to study Shanghai’s fake markets that sell allegedly authentic designer goods at ‘cheap’ prices to learn more about the bargaining process.  Matt hopes to carry out a version of this project in the US in 2021.

Kelley International Fellowship

  • Corrah Gonzales-Lipham ’21 was awarded a fellowship for travel to Greece to explore the interaction between religion and theater within ancient Greek culture—a practice called “theoria” by Ancient Greeks.  Corrah hopes to carry out a similar project in North Macedonia during early 2021. 
  • Elias Levey-Swain ’21 was awarded a fellowship to study the current controversies surrounding African artifacts in European museums, particularly those in three former colonial powers, by analyzing their public displays of African artifacts by imagining each museum as a public archive.  Because of restrictions on international travel, Eli has pursued this project virturally. 

Larson International Fellowships

  • Alec Leonetti ’22 was awarded a fellowship to explore Uzbek culture and society of and develop an understanding of the forces that shape the broader region of Central Asia, including people have formed cultural and national identities from the time of the Silk Road through the post-Soviet Era. Alec hopes to carry out this project in 2021. (Instagram photos).
  • Hana Mensendiek ’22 will travel to Japan to study the Korean-Japanese (Zainichi) community and their ongoing struggle to secure rights.
  • Luke Norquist ’21 was awarded a fellowship for travel to Costa Rica to examine the social and cultural implications of a growing focus on English education for Costa Rican youth. Luke was unable to pursue this project due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.
  • Becky Shapiro ’22 was awarded a fellowship to explore female empowerment in Guatemala, where a history of gender-based-violence and machismo culture has restricted women’s rights and opportunities.  Becky hopes to carry out this project in 2021.
  • Julian White-Davis ’23 was awarded a fellowship to document a Kichwa community in Ecuador called Manzanapamba—about whom there is very little record.  Julian hopes to make a photo book of their daily lives with photos and journalistic interviews with the elders of the community, carrying out this project in 2021 or 2022.

Paglia Post-Bac Research Fellowship

  • Sarah Finstuen-Magro ’20 will conduct research in the field of childhood cancer at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard for two years.
  • Berit Hudson-Rasmussen ’20 will conduct geological research in critical zone science at the University of Maryland for two years.
  • Alex Kiral ’20 will conduct research in nuclear physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for two years.

Nancy Wilkie Fellowship for Archaeological Field Experience

  • Sam Anderson ’21 was awarded a a fellowship to travel to Ireland and the UK for two archeological programs administered by the Institute for Field Research. Sam was unable to pursue these field studies due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.


Winter 2019 Senior Comps Research Recipients:

  • Guapo Banuelos ’20 (History and Religion)
  • Zane Grinde ’20 (Cinema and Media Studies)
  • Sarah Lieberman ’20 (American Studies and Art History)
  • Yadari Nunez-Marquez ’20 (Sociology/Anthropology)
  • Emika Otsuka ’20 (Political Science)
  • Hannah Parrott ’20 (Linguistics)
  • Fernando Saldivia Yanez ’20 (Cinema and Media Studies)
  • Carl Schmidt ’20 (Asian Studies)
  • Luke Westawker ’20 (German)
  • Joe White ’20 (History)