Four seniors at Bates College have been named finalists for the Watson Fellowship, a program that supports recent graduates in pursuing independent research projects abroad. The fellowship provides $40,000, health insurance, and student loan payments for a year of travel outside the United States.
Robert Strong, director of national fellowships at Bates, described the opportunity: “This is some version of heaven. The Watson allows Batesies to spend a year traveling the earth constrained only by the limits of their curiosities, which Watson believes should be limitless.”
Bates is among 41 institutions eligible to nominate up to four students each year. The last time Bates students were awarded the fellowship was in 2023.
The current nominees are Poppy Marsh from San Francisco; John Harun-DeLong from Fairbanks, Alaska; Brett Karpf from Ridgewood, New Jersey; and Linh Hoang from Hanoi, Vietnam. If selected, their travels could cover as many as 19 countries across several continents.
Marsh’s project focuses on identity and community among groups affected by political borders in five countries. She previously spent time in Italy studying climate change through an Otis Fellowship and has academic interests spanning English and politics. Marsh explained her approach: “I’m curious about individual and communal conceptions of identity as it relates to the invention of the modern state through, around, and between communities whose presence on this land predates the state’s modern borders. So my project is thinking about this through distinct methods of cultural, linguistic, and social preservations of these communal identities as they relate to the land that they’ve remained on.” Marsh emphasized her open-ended approach: “I’m not really after a specific political or social definition. I’m not interested in proving a rightful belonging to land or affirming a rightful belonging to land. That’s so far from my place. What I want is structured around open-ended curiosity. I want it to be stretchy. I want it to be bent and folded and contradicted. I want it to be able to hold water and leak as well, depending on where I am.”
Marsh credited her advisor Senem Aslan for supporting her interest in these questions.
Harun-DeLong’s proposed project centers on comparing power grids worldwide with an eye toward sustainable solutions for U.S. infrastructure resilience against climate change threats—a concern he links closely with his personal connection to Alaska: “Climate change is what really drives me. I need to think of it. For me, my life isn’t just my own body. It’s like my entire community of Alaska and my hometown. And so the destruction of that is fundamental. Everything that shaped you, if those are being destroyed, that’s the most complete destruction of the self that can exist, really.” He plans to visit countries with decentralized power systems managed locally: “allow [citizens] to have truly democratic control over the grid because the people in the village are supposed to maintain and decide what the best grid policy is.”
Previously Harun-DeLong worked with cancer researchers in Spain after reaching out directly for opportunities.
Hoang’s project addresses how cultures shape attitudes toward work amid uncertainty—an idea sparked by meeting someone who had re-evaluated his life path while she was traveling in Norway: “From my Watson, I will learn how people across cultures navigate the same tensions I’ve felt: between ambition and meaning, belonging and freedom, expectation and reality. I will return with a deeper understanding of how systems and emotions intertwine, and with the humility to know that both matter.” Hoang intends for her travels through nine countries to inform both philosophical reflection on work culture differences as well as future studies combining math and finance.“What I’ve found,” Hoang says,”is that when I talk to more people,I learn more about myself.“
Karpf’s proposal investigates movement—particularly walking—as a means for finding purpose across various cultures.“Why is it that moving,w alking especially ,can enable us tog ain abetter sense offaith or understanding or contentedness?” His plan includes exploring traditions tiedto movement,suchas religious pilgrimagesand nomadic lifestyles.“I’m lookingfor similaritiesand oppositions betweendifferent groups.You can findso much culturalsimilaritybetween placesthat are thousands ormiles apart…and whoare using motiontos ortof reach similar ends.” Karpf said,“I am seekinghow others experiencepurposeand understandingwhenit feels deeply entangledwith movement :Can their experience helpme understandmy own?”
Final decisions regarding this year’s Watson Fellows are expected later this spring.
