Illango Bogschutz
"I spent my summer traveling through India, Nepal, Mongolia, and China, exploring how Buddhism is practiced across different cultures and communities. I visited the four holy sites of Buddha’s life, spoke to monks and lay practitioners, and deepened my own Buddhist practice by meditating in temples and listening to teachings. I was fortunate to have my family join me in Tibet, where we did a grueling three-day trek around Mount Kailash, an important pilgrimage site in Tibetan Buddhism. The short stories I wrote use the form of the traditional Buddhist teaching story to explore my own experiences and realizations."
Lia Che
"For my Appel project, I followed the lives that form around cats. In Athens, Beijing, and Vancouver, I had conversations, visited shelters and feeding routes, gathered written accounts, and took photographs. I wrote a collection of narrative nonfiction about cats in homes, courtyards, migration, illness, adoption, and public space. I also considered the human arrangements around cats: who notices and feeds and names them, who claims ownership, and who becomes responsible when there’s no one else. I came to understand care as mutual rather than one-directional, and saw how responsibility changes when a life moves within and between public spaces."
Katherine Haggard
"Natural landscapes shape the folklore, culture, and music of any given area. For my Appel project, I traveled to Iceland, visiting the cities of Reykjavik, Akureyri, and Isafjordur to immerse myself in the local music scenes and glorious natural surroundings. My goal was to understand how Icelandic landscapes provide inspiration for local and visiting musicians, all while continuing to develop my songwriting skills through artist collaboration, attending live performances, and exploring the unique natural landmarks of Iceland. For my project, I produced three songs that I wrote while abroad, alongside an essay, artist interviews, journal entries, and a photo gallery."
Hannah Langford
"What does imagination owe to what survives? A museum label is rarely more than a hundred words, just enough to name an object, date it, and place it behind glass. I went to England and Japan this summer, writing stories that imagine what museum labels leave out: the hands that made the object, the household that surrounded it, the ordinary days a case cannot display. Told through invented voices, including a fukusawaiting in a drawer, a swordsmith outliving his trade, and an anonymous lacquer painter perfecting someone else’s crest, these stories don't correct the historical record so much as keep it company."
Evan Lichtblau
"More than 2,200 years ago, Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca embarked on one of the most ambitious and consequential military campaigns in human history. For my fellowship, I followed the route of Hannibal’s army from Spain, through France, and across Italy. I consulted primary historical sources, mainly Polybius and Livy, to supplement my travels. At each site, I sought to understand how the topography influenced the historical events, and noted how my travels mapped onto the ancient descriptions. Through a series of journal entries and historical narration, I reconstructed the journey and character of Hannibal, envisioning him through a modern lens."
Arthur Lopes Constant
"This summer I backpacked around seven countries in Europe to learn how people think about luck, merit, and inequality. Through research and conversations with specialists and non-specialists, I compared these ideas across different political and economic contexts. I began with a working answer in mind, then discovered that I had gotten both the answer and the question wrong. Fortunately, and to my surprise, I found that universalism can survive as a value, even when fear and distrust prevent people from acting on it. My final report explores the gap between believing that everyone deserves to be cared for and building the institutions capable of doing so."
Gibson McIntosh
"Tourette syndrome affects an estimated one percent of the population, yet access to care often varies dramatically depending on geography, resources, and support networks. Traveling throughout the United Kingdom and Europe, I investigated how people with Tourette syndrome navigate diagnosis, treatment, and daily life. Through interviews with clinicians, advocates, patients, and families, as well as observations at conferences, clinics, and support groups, I explored the factors that shape access to care. What began as a study of healthcare systems became an exploration of support, belonging, and community. My project culminated in a narrative research paper examining what meaningful Tourette care looks like beyond diagnosis and treatment alone."
Nicolas McKee
"My project will be a collection of epistolary essays written to my neighborhood both before and after traveling to Cochabamba, Bolivia. Cochabamba is the heart of Indigenous organizing in the country and carries a vibrant anti-colonial legacy of 500 years. I will spend time in these communities, learning from Indigenous organizers and everyday people and gathering the wisdom that they share with me. My written project will discuss how my neighborhood, Mount Pleasant, and the greater Washington, D.C. community can more effectively support our friends, loved ones, and fellow human beings in the face of I.C.E. attacks."
Nour Qarmout
"I traveled to Greece, Mexico and Germany for my Appel project, gathering testimonies about health care and migration from communities and doctors. The collection of essays that comes from this experience, The Quiet Courage to Care, serves as a record of the passion required to practice medicine with unwavering empathy. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, claimed, “Wherever the art of Medicine is loved, there is also a love of Humanity.” My project explores the shared joys and frustrations of being a doctor, and the responsibility that doctors take on. Simply, it's an oath doctors follow everyday: to help or, at least, do no harm."
Mariama Sow
"As someone who is both African and Muslim, I've found that these communities sometimes turn to religious or communal approaches to mental health rather than clinical ones. Rather than framing this as a "disparity," I wanted to understand these approaches on their own terms, exploring how culture and psychology impact different needs and forms of care. I traveled to Morocco and Guinea, my family's home country, and compared findings with the diasporic community in France, interviewing religious leaders, traditional healers, mental health professionals, and community members. Thematic analysis revealed patterns around stigma, trust, gender, and access across all three communities."
Shelby Tang
"My project, 'Who Writes When No One Listens?' is a six-week creative and ethnographic exploration of Taiwan's unofficial public discourse. The project takes the form of a digital archive made up of sets, each containing a photograph of a text-based artwork, a direct translation and contextual note, and a literary analysis, an original poem written from the imagined perspective of the anonymous creator, or both. Starting in Taipei, I moved around the island to Hualien, Tainan, Kaohsiung, Taichung, and Keelung. This itinerary allowed for a comparative analysis of geographic identity through the messages left on walls, utility boxes, temple pillars, and more."
Tara Wei
"Located in the Malay Archipelago, the Peranakan people are a little-known community within the colorful and multiethnic history of Southeast Asia. In their language, clothing, and cuisine, the Peranakans embody interwoven stories of migration, memory, and imagination. These stories began with their migration from mainland China in the 14th century and continue to the present day. Through a photo journal combining images and narratives from my travels and from conversations with the people I meet, I plan to bring to light and preserve narratives of the Peranakan people, who are also an important part of my own heritage."