Watson Fellowship Proposals Push the Bounds of Imagination
Davidson’s 2004 Watson nominees Gray R. Lyons (kneeling), and (standing l-r) Susannah Powell, Jodi McQuillen, and Hannah Fuhr.
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1/14/2004
Contact: Bill Giduz 704/894-2244 or bigiduz@davidson.edu
by Timothy Cook ‘04
Can subway behavior give us clues to better understanding human sociology? What’s the most popular bread baking method in Hungary? What are the differences in Irish and Paraguayan harp technique? Does music make a positive difference in lives of children in ethnic conflicts?
Just when you thought every thought-provoking question had been posed, four Davidson College seniors are reminding us that the world is not yet that small. These are the questions being posed by the college’s four nominees for this year’s Thomas J. Watson Fellowships — Hannah M. Fuhr of Bad Kreuznach, Germany, Gray R. Lyons of Birmingham, Ala., Susannah D. Powell of Richmond, Va., and Jodi L. McQuillen of South Burlington, Vt.
The Watson Fellowship program gives sixty exceptional seniors each year a $22,000 post-graduate grant for independent study and travel abroad. Each of fifty colleges and universities selected by the foundation may send four student proposals to the national level, where winners are selected.
Fuhr, a psychology major, has designed a project to study the effects music can have as therapy for children growing up in countries involved in ethnic struggle. She plans to do her research in Bosnia-Herzegovina, South Africa and Northern Ireland.
“I would visit projects that bring together children from different ethnic communities to make music,” she said. “Music can be a vehicle - an instrument, if you will - to promote understanding and tolerance among the children and in their larger communities.”
Fuhr plays piano herself, and plans to “shadow” music teachers and music therapists during lessons and workshops in each of the countries to investigate whether their methods are effective.
McQuillen is also basing her Watson proposal around music in different cultures. A Spanish major, she hopes to be able to study cultural differences between the harp in Paraguay and Ireland, two countries which both claim it as the national instrument. The harp has been in Paraguay since the sixteenth century, and it has been a part of Celtic history in Ireland since the twelfth century. McQuillen will seek out people who still play the harp in its traditional form. “Luckily, many individuals dedicate their lives to preserving the presence of the Paraguayan and Celtic harps in their societies,” she said. “I will interact with these individuals in order to learn about their music as an expression of cultural identity.”
She will spend the first half of the year in Paraguay, and intends to build a Paraguayan harp and attend music festivals all over the country. Several months later she will relocate to Ireland to build a Celtic harp and attend music festivals all over the island.
McQuillen’s fourteen years of lever and classical harp playing will serve as a basis for the exploration. “I will use the language of harp music to communicate with Paraguayan and Irish musicians and harp builders whose vocation is to preserve and perpetuate their art form,” she said.
Lyons, a biology major, hopes to study bread-baking methods in France, Hungary, India, Vietnam, and Trinidad. He has been baking bread as a hobby for several years, and his love for southern style breads like biscuits and cornbread has piqued his interest in other breads throughout the world. “By learning from accomplished bakers and observing the cultural uses of bread in different countries,” he said, “I will have the unique opportunity to study bread in a context not available to the United States.”
The fourth Davidson proposal comes from Susannah Powell, who wants to dedicate herself to the underground. Her project, “A Mole in a Fishbowl,” will involve sociological surveys of subway riders in cities around the world to gain insights about human interaction. “Few people speak,” she said, “but variations in body language, non-verbal communication, and seating choices reveal societal values concerning personal space, gender roles, and even race relations.”
Powell spent a semester in Russia recently, and commuted ninety minutes each way on the Moscow subway from her domicile to her classes. She hopes to conduct her research in the tubes of Brussels, Budapest, Glasgow, Kiev, Stockholm, Tashkent, and Tokyo.
The nominees will be notified in March whether they will get the chance to execute their proposals.
Mrs. Thomas J. Watson, Sr., founded the Thomas J. Watson Foundation in 1961 as a charitable trust in honor of her late husband. In 1968, in recognition of Mr. and Mrs. Watson's long-standing interest in education and world affairs, their children decided that the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship Program should constitute the major activity of the foundation. Since that date, the Fellowship Program has granted more than 2,000 Watson Fellowship awards with stipends totaling to approximately $23-million. About 60 Davidson students have received Watson Fellowships.
Davidson is a highly selective independent liberal arts college for 1,600 students. Since its establishment in 1837, the college has graduated 23 Rhodes Scholars and is consistently ranked in the top ten liberal arts colleges in the country by U.S. News and World Report magazine. Davidson is engaged in “Let Learning Be Cherished,” a $250 million campaign in support of student financial assistance, academic resources, and community life.
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