The Committee on Graduate Fellowships has awarded five students $14,000 as recipients of the James B. Reynolds Scholars for study abroad during the coming academic year. The five winners -- Michael Cohen '00, Steven Fox '00, Shialing Kwa '01, Harry Muniz '99 and Brigitta Wagner '00 -- expect to undertake vastly different projects set at various points in the world.
The grant money awarded will support the scholars' projects for the next year. The awards will be given in installments beginning this July.
This year, there were between 25 to 30 applicants, 20 of whom were invited for an interview.
"Every year the Reynolds winners are very unique ... it's hard to compare one winner with another," Monika Otter, chair of the Committee on Graduate Fellowships for the past two years, said. "What is interesting about this year, however, is that all of our winners ... are involved in projects in the humanities. This is a little unusual."
Cohen will pursue a two years masters program in English literature at Wolfson College, of Oxford University, and the scholarship money will be allocated for tuition. While studying English poetry, 1870-present, Cohen's main focus will be on the poetry and plays of William Butler Yeats specifically.
Cohen expressed that he was interested in the poet for a while, and had applied for Rhodes Scholarship in the fall term in the effort to get sufficient funding for the Oxford tuition. After making it to the semifinal rounds of Rhodes, Cohen began to work on his proposal for the Reynolds Scholarship early this past Winter term.
Fox will both produce and conduct two concerts of 18th century music in St. Petersburg, Russia. The two concerts will be performed on instruments that are either actually built in the 18th century, or modeled after such.
In addition, the concerts are expected to be performed according to recent discoveries on the manner by which such instruments were played in the time context.
The program for the two concerts include musical selections by Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven. The orchestra that Fox will work with will be comprised mostly of Russian musicians, with few Western musicians. The orchestra will be assembled by Fox himself, with the help of violinist Yuval Waldman, soprano Nadezhda Hodsheva, conductor Valery Borisov and conductor and opera coach Olga Kapanina. Fox's orchestra is expected to be St. Petersburg's first full period orchestra.
Kwa, although a junior, will be graduating from Dartmouth one year early this June with the '00s, and excitedly awaits her first year out of college in Madrid, Spain. Kwa is currently writing a senior honors thesis on the portrayal of women in medieval Spanish literature, focusing on the witch Celestina.
Kwa will explore how Celestina has been represented visually in comparison to her literary delineation. In addition, Kwa will explore how the various interpretations define Celestina as a character through history, and specifically in the feminist perspective -- how the Spanish views of women have evolved can be explored by tracking one of Spain's most significant female figures.
Muniz will pursue more in-depth his current studies of Tibetan Buddhist painting in temples and monasteries across Eastern Tibet, by actually observing the methods of Tibetan scroll (thangka) painting in China next year. Since graduating from Dartmouth, Muniz has been to India to actively pursue his interest in Tibetan painting, which he independently began to study.
In China, Muniz will study Eastern Tibetan art, especially those of the Amdo region, as it demonstrates a crucial overlap of Tibetan and Chinese painting traditions. His studies will be put together in a visual diary, as a body of paintings to be exhibited in China. He expects to depart for China toward the end of this summer, and is currently working at the College's Studio Arts department and making Tibetologists and other contacts in China concerning places to visit.
Wagner will be in Berlin, Germany, to examine representations of Berlin in post 1989 German films. The images of the city in the 20th century --particularly in the Nazi era and the Cold War -- have aroused the consciousness of people around the world. After the reunification of the country and a reunited capital, Berlin is a chaotic juxtaposition of various architecture, construction sites, and spatial voids.
Wagner will study the role of this new environment on current German films. Her LSA in Berlin last winter triggered her interest in the project that she will undertake. She expressed her delight at winning the scholarship, as she said she would not have been able to pursue her interest in her project without the necessary funding.
The Committee on Graduate Fellowships consists of two faculty members each from Humanities, Social Sciences, and Sciences with Ursula Olender acting as adviser, coordinator, and executive secretary. According to Otter, the committee chair this year, the committee stresses that potential candidates seek information and advice early, as a good fellowship application is not something that can be dashed the night before the due date.
The Reynolds Scholarship for Foreign Study are open to any field of study in any foreign country, usually in affiliation with a recognized educational institution, and in conformity with a definite project or program of study that is approved by the Committee on Graduate Fellowships. It is named after James B. Reynolds, Class of 1890. It was first inaugurated in 1950.
