Each year Carleton’s fellowships make it possible for a number of students to engage in 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. The following is a summary of fellowships awarded during the 2024-2025 Academic Year for use during Winter Break 2024 or summer 2025; the list also includes this year’s Paglia Post-Bac Research Fellows, who will pursue research for the two years following their graduation from Carleton. Visit our Instagram @carletonfellowships to learn more about fellowship experiences!

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Chang-Lan Fellowship

  • Sebass Cherian ‘26, Megan Roessler’26, and Claire Sniffen ‘26 will explore the phenomenon of ‘sponge cities’ in China as a strategy to address the increased risk of flooding that comes along with climate instability.
  • Cynthia Leng ’25 and Masyn Rykhus ’25 explored the aspects of digital tools that preserve Chinese culture by examining three of China’s major cultural centers (Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou) over Winter Break 2024.
  • Lucky Beulla Muhoza ’26 traveled to Shanghai, China, during Winter Break 2024 to explore the city’s rapidly evolving tech environment and see how technologies are shaping urban life.

Class of 1963 Fellowship

  • Zoe Pinto ‘27 will continue an exploration of mask-making practices, incorporating mixed media techniques and gathering inspiration from folk art practices and Twin Cities artists’ groups.
  • Ellie Simon ’26 traveled to the United Kingdom over Winter Break 2024 to research the memories of Partition, decolonization, and migration that prevail among British South Asian diasporic communities.

David C. Donelson ’77 Fellowship

  • Peter Berganross ‘26, Eva Leikikh ‘26, and Alex Pochan ‘26 will return from southwestern Pennsylvania to Carleton for academic year 2025-26 via bicycle, connecting with people and places along the route and reflecting on what is missed when it is treated as a simple trip from point A to point B.
  • Nina Wakabayashi ‘28 will explore the Driftless region of southwestern Wisconsin and southeastern Minnesota through attendance at the Driftless Field School


Professor Roy Grow Fellowships

  • Rachel Azan ‘26, Palmy Klangsathorn ‘26, and Kritika Pandit ‘26 will spend Winter Break 2025 exploring the way that culture, community, and nature are woven together through urban planning in Singapore.
  • Adriel Barham ’26 traveled to Japan during Winter Break 2024 to experience traditional craft, focusing specifically on woodworking, metalsmithing, ceramics, and garden design, and gain knowledge and inspiration.
  • London Bettman ‘26 will travel to Japan during Winter Break 2025 to explore Japanese metalwork and traditional craft, primarily the practice of metal raising that he also pursues at Carleton.
  • Benjamin Garcia ’26 will complete a 500km segment of the Shikoku Pilgrimage and produce a series of pen, colored pencil, and watercolor images to document and share his experience.
  • Gabriel Kaplan ’25 and Noel Wang ’25 served as short-term teaching assistants at Technos College in Tokyo over Winter Break 2024.
  • Angelina (Lenn) Kong ‘27 will visit local markets, agricultural farms, and culinary kitchens in Chiang Mai and Bangkok, Thailand to investigate how Thai cuisine reflects its regional origins.
  • Joshua Lee ’26, Nathaniel Li ’25, Ryosuke Mega ’26, and Changwoo Yu ’26 spent Winter Break 2024 immersing themselves in Japanese indie-rock music culture by emulating the activities of a typical Japanese indie band, including performing, rehearsing, composing, networking with local musicians, musical exploration, and attending performances. 
  • Pah Na ‘26 will investigate the experience of Karen people along the Thai-Myanmar border, using a combination of academic and experiential approaches.
  • Anika Rajbhandary ‘27 and Alison Tran ‘27 will travel to Japan during Winter Break 2025 to examine the role of technology in addressing the country’s workforce shortage, with a particular focus on meeting the needs of Japan’s aging population.
  • Eliana (Ellie) Simon ‘26 will visit Singapore to uncover archival and other traces of low-caste Tamil women who were part of South Asian labor migration there during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
  • Margaret Walker ‘27 will explore Singapore’s green architecture as an approach to climate resilience, through academic study and photographic and other documentation.

Dale and Elizabeth Hanson Fellowship in Ethics

  • David Fulguera ’26 will examine ethical challenges, impartiality, accountability, and transparency during elections in Venezuela and Bolivia.
  • Eric Lail ’26 will evaluate the potential of a humanistic approach to the clinical treatment of addiction to help resolve ethical issues that arise in existential psychotherapy.
  • Justin Rodriguez ’27 will consider various ethical questions related to veganism.

Independent Research Fellowship

  • Jonah Barer ‘26 will study urban adaptation strategies for a warming future through the lens of municipalities in the San Francisco Bay area.
  • Owen Berg ‘26 will explore the economic, environmental, and social history of the Grand Encampment Mining District in Wyoming.
  • Ava Blaufuss ‘26 will explore how the concept of ‘love of the land’ shapes the realities of unhoused people in Hawai’i.
  • Aiden Cunningham ‘26 will engage in archival research in the US and Taiwan on the topic of Chinese proposals for the post-war order in Asia at the Atlantic City Conferences of 1943.
  • David Fulguera ‘26 will travel to Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile to explore the relationship among memory, justice, and accountability in the wake of Operation Condor.
  • Jack Gronholz ‘26 will explore religious scandal, Orientalism, and popular print culture in Enlightenment France through archival research at multiple Parisian institutions.
  • Rahim Hamid ‘26 will explore the theme of alienation through a combination of academic research and artistic practice.
  • Anna Larson-Cheng ‘26 will participate in a bookbinding workshop at Ox-Bow School of Art as preparation for her Comps in Book Arts.
  • Yunan Liu ‘26 will experiment with constructing an efficient cyclic resonance particle accelerator using permanent magnets.
  • Xiaoying Qu ’25 traveled to China, Nepal, and Bhutan over Winter Break 2024 to try to understand—and make a film about—how larger historical events in history intersect with personal stories by joining her Grandfather’s pilgrimage to Lumbini, Nepal.
  • Sylvie Reiners ‘26 will combine artistic practice and biological research by creating an illustrated book of marine invertebrates around southern Vancouver Island.
  • Alex Tananbaum ’25 explored her familial relationship with Hawaii over Winter Break 2024 through filling a handmade sketchbook with paintings and drawings of places she grew up visiting with her mother.
  • Xi (Cici) Wang ‘26 will explore how Chinese people of Kazakh origin and Kazakh people whose experiences include repatriation to Kazakhstan by the Chinese state navigate their complex national identities.
  • Sara Wang ‘26 will use participant observation and interviews to explore how gender fluidity is navigated in Shanghai’s nightlife scene.

Kelley International Fellowships

  • Frida Bajic ‘26 will explore interethnic relations in post-conflict Serbia through the lens of psychology, using qualitative techniques.
  • Amber Galaviz ’26 will explore Gothic landmarks in the United Kingdom to provide a comparative perspective for her research on “Mestiza Gothic” novels.


Larson International Fellowships

  • Brewer Atocha ’25, David Lee ’25, and James Bowers ’25 created a short, documentary-style film over Winter Break 2024, focusing on the porters who carry equipment year-round on arduous Machu Picchu expeditions.
  • Claire Burbery ’26 traveled over Winter Break 2024 to Panama City, Panama, with Global Vet Experience (GVE) to volunteer at a spay and neuter clinic, learning about community outreach strategies to provide education opportunities for pet owners and non-pet owners alike.
  • Yoel Izaguirre ‘26 will travel to Mexico to create a documentary film about Mexican street food vendors.
  • Quinn Lander ’26 examined the modern cultural reverberations of Berlin, Germany’s historical divide through writing over Winter Break 2024.
  • Lejla Mehmedovic ‘27 will intern at Bosnia’s Post-Conflict Research Center, to deepen her understanding of peace and conflict resolution techniques and explore her own family background.
  • Dexter Pakula ’26 visited Berlin, Germany, over Winter Break 2024 to learn about the urban landscape and how it affects inhabitants, specifically studying the citywide diversity in architecture and planning.
  • Ezra Praitis Hill ‘27 will study the linguistic phenomenon of double definiteness through the Bornholmsk dialect of Danish.
  • Iris Steiner-Manning ‘26 will study the dynamics of secular and sacred space on the Danish island of Bornholm, which is home to many Christian and pre-Christian sites.

Emily T. Montgomery ‘00 Memorial Fellowship

  • Rocio Avila ‘26, Christine Gichimu ‘26, Trinity Hanif ‘26, and Hermela Samuel ‘26 will travel to Brazil over Winter Break 2025 to explore community and identity formation through the Afro-Brazilian dance form of Samba.
  • Suwannee Conroy-Baarsch ‘26 will explore perceptions of democracy, populism, and polarization among young Argentines through interviews in Buenos Aires and other cities.

Paglia Post-Bac Research Fellowship

  • Aiden Lesneski ‘25 will join the research group of E. James Petersson at the University of Pennsylvania.
  • Audrey Parrott ‘25 will join the research group of Professor Filippo Mancia at Columbia University.
  • Elias Tannira ‘25 will join the research group of Professor Luis Bettencourt at the University of Chicago.

Allen & Irene Salisbury Fellowship

  • Nhi Luong ’25 documented modernist architecture in Vietnam over Winter Break 2024, with the aim of reflecting on how different countries harmonize Western architectural language with their own aesthetics and how that process informs their identity.

Nancy Wilkie Fellowship for Archaeological Field Experience

  • Calla James Ruff ‘27 will participate in the “Ireland Archeology: Castles in Community” field school and research program in Ireland.

Winter 2024 Senior Comps Research Fellowship Recipients

  • Taylor Canas (Cinema and Media Studies)
  • Kate Fair (Cinema and Media Studies)
  • Myles Fisher (History)
  • Layevska Jimenez-Hernandez (Cognitive Science)
  • Marta Kondratiuk (Cinema and Media Studies)
  • Kunwu Lyu (Mathematics, Philosophy)
  • Jivana Nagpal (Economics, Statistics)
  • Jonathan Nguyen (Biology, Cinema and Media Studies)
  • Sarah Raman (French, Linguistics)
  • Grace Rogers (Environmental Studies)
  • Elsa Snowbeck (Spanish)
  • Yanmiao Wang (Asian Studies, Religion)