Over winter break, eight students traveled abroad and created new media projects about their destinations. The students were funded by the Watson Institute for International Studies' AT&T New Media Fellowship, part of a larger program called the Global Conversation — an online platform allowing students and faculty to discuss international issues — that gives students the opportunity to upload video, photo, audio or text to the website.
Though similar to other fellowships offered by Watson and the University that fund unpaid internships, the New Media Fellowship is unique because of its media requirements and its involvement with the Global Conversation site, said Geoffrey Kirkman '91, deputy director of the Watson Institute and founder and director of the fellowship.
Fellows are required to blog on the site and to produce a new media project, which many turn into an independent study upon returning to Brown, Kirkman said.
Winter fellow Jonah David '13 did just that.
David was already planning to go to San Juan Del Sur — he had visited his sister there five years ago and returned three years ago with his high school — when he heard about the fellowship.
Over a span of four weeks, David filmed a documentary during his trip to San Juan Del Sur and Balgue — two Nicaraguan villages — interviewing Nicaraguans, tourists, restaurant owners and hotel employees about the impact of recent globalization in Nicaragua, with a focus on San Juan Del Sur.
The film does not present a positive or negative opinion of globalization, but tries to "let the interviewees speak," he said. David conducted all interviews in his subjects' native languages — either Spanish or English — and the film will be subtitled in both.
David has turned the editing of the film into an independent study, hoping to have a finished project that he can present by the end of the semester.
Elias Scheer '12 also chose to use film for his project but went with a more organized program called the Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions, which conducts walking journeys in rural areas of India. During his winter break, Scheer traveled to a province in the Northeast called Meghalaya. He said he will be posting his raw footage on the Global Conversation site and hopes to put out a final edited film in the future.
Scheer said the fellowship stood out because it was offered during winter break and provided all the necessary equipment for his project.
The fellowships can take the form of formal trips, like Scheer's, or informal ones, like David's, according to Kirkman. But summer fellowships are often more formal.
"The Global Conversation will represent the best of what Brown does in a globalized world," Kirkman said. The site is also used by students who are not New Media fellows, including those studying abroad and those participating in other Watson fellowships. One student used the site to pursue a Global Independent Study Project with Kirkman as her faculty sponsor.
Media fellows from the past have been getting outside recognition and support to continue their projects, including summer 2010 fellow Chantal Berman '10.5 who received an additional $3,500 from the Clinton Global Initiative University. Summer 2010 fellow Sarah Gibson '10.5 raised $10,000 to continue her project in the Eurasian state of Georgia, according to an e-mail from Karen Lynch, communications director for the Watson Institute.
Summer fellows can get up to $3,500 of funding while winter fellows were granted up to $1,500, Lynch said.
Both the site and the fellowship were funded by grants from AT&T, Kirkman said, though the institute is looking for new funding to support future fellowships beyond the summer of 2011.
