Illango Bogschutz
"My life is strongly influenced by Buddhist philosophies and stories. This summer, I will make a pilgrimage to the locations where many of these stories are set, like the place of Buddha's birth, enlightenment, first teaching, and passing in India and Nepal. Beyond this, I will compare and contrast different lineages of Buddhism by travelling to China and Mongolia and learning about how these differ from Tibetan Buddhism, which is the line that stands closest to me. My final project will be a collection of travel notes and spiritual reflections, communicated in plain language that is accessible to anyone."
Lia Che
"For my Appel project, I will travel to Athens, Vancouver, and Beijing. I will explore how ordinary forms of nonhuman life in each of these places—animals, plants, and microbes—intersect with human daily experience and reflect social change. People’s relationships with these often-ignored life forms can reveal cultural values, habits, and ideas of belonging, and responsibility. Through dialogue, research, photography, and art, I will immerse myself in the study of human communities living alongside these nonhuman beings. I will then write fables that reveal how cultural beliefs about care, control, and coexistence take shape in ordinary life."
Katherine Haggard
"Natural landscapes shape the folklore, culture, and music of any given area. For my Appel project, I plan on traveling to Iceland and visiting the cities of Reykjavik and Akureyri to immerse myself in the local music scene and glorious natural surroundings. I want to understand how the Icelandic landscape inspires its local songwriters, and I want to develop my own songwriting skills by attending live performances, meeting fellow musicians, and visiting the unique natural landmarks of the country. For my written project, I will produce a studio-quality album of songs inspired by my time in Iceland."
Hannah Langford
"I want to explore how museums shape our memory of the past through the stories they tell, and how museums choose to tell those stories. My project is a series of short stories and audiobooks inspired by Japanese artifacts in museums across the UK. For each piece, I aim to develop a character connected to an artifact, reflecting on the preservation and presentation of their stories, and the ways these narratives are framed, experienced, and carried into the present. I will then travel to Japan to think about and record audio in the landscapes from which those artworks come."
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 will follow the route of Hannibal’s army from Spain, through France, and across Italy. I will consult primary historical sources, mainly Polybius and Livy, to supplement my travels. At each site I will note the topography, its interplay with history, and what the ancient authors could have missed. In a series of journal entries, I will imaginatively reconstruct the figure of Hannibal, envisioning him through a modern yet historically accurate lens."
Arthur Lopes Constant
"I am utilizing the Appel Fellowship to investigate the “meta-perception” of luck and meritocracy—the ways different cultures understand luck and merit. Over six weeks, I will travel through Portugal, Spain, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, and Hungary, engaging with locals to explore how personal narratives shape views on wealth redistribution. This fieldwork culminates in six crônicas, a Brazilian literary genre blending factual reporting with social commentary, one for each nation visited. By bridging anthropology and economics, observation and creative writing, I aim to humanize the data behind discourses about social mobility, fairness, and political disagreement."
Gibson McIntosh
"Despite Tourette Syndrome affecting millions of people worldwide, few are diagnosed, and fewer receive treatment. This summer, I plan to draw on my experience living with Tourette Syndrome to explore how access to care, understanding, and policy shape the lives of people with Tourette globally. Through interviews, attendance at the annual ESSTS conference, and policy analysis, I will investigate healthcare systems and the impact of Tourette on people in the U.K., Netherlands, and Slovenia. My project combines long-form reported writing with an advocacy video aiming to highlight disparities, translate systemic barriers into accessible insights, and advocate for equitable care worldwide."
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
"Summer 2026 will be the start of my journey of compiling stories and testimonies from physicians in contrasting healthcare systems around the world. In Greece, I will meet with physicians serving the Orthodox Christian community, learning how religion can play a role in choosing medicine. In Mexico and Germany, I will talk to doctors who serve a range of international patients with very different resources and privileges. My project, “When Medicine Becomes Mercy: The Quiet Courage of the Global Doctor,” will serve as a record of the fearless persistence required to practice medicine in every system, in every setting."
Mariama Sow
"In U.S. colleges I notice students often having excellent access to mental health resources like counseling and therapy. However, this access is not equally embraced across all communities. As someone who is both African and Muslim, I have found that these communities sometimes discourage seeking formal mental health support. Why is that? To better understand, I plan to travel to Morocco and to Guinea (where my own family comes from) to explore how individuals there perceive mental health and these resources. I will interview religious leaders, traditional healers, mental health experts and everyday people, writing an essay on my findings."
Shelby Tang
"Who Writes When No One Listens? My project, “Decoding Taiwan's Street Art,” documents the messages hiding in plain sight across Taiwan: political slogans on overpasses, questions carved into bathroom doors, notes left on café tables for strangers. Over six weeks, I will travel to the cities of Taipei, Hualien, Tainan, Kaohsiung, Taichung, and Keelung, photographing and translating at least sixty text-based works. For each piece, I will write a poem from the imagined perspective of its anonymous author. Together, these photo/translation/poem sets will form an unofficial emotional map of contemporary Taiwan, made from voices no one was supposed to hear."
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."