Two Hamilton College seniors have been awarded Thomas J. Watson Fellowships for 2001-2002. Louisa Smith, an economics and art double major from Duxbury, MA, and Justin Stein, a philosophy major from Larchmont, NY, were selected from among 1,000 students who applied for the awards. This is the third consecutive year that Hamilton students have been among the recipients of a Watson Fellowship.
In a national competition each year, the Watson Foundation selects and provides funds for graduating seniors from America's leading liberal arts institutions to embark on a year of self-directed, independent study while traveling outside the United States after their graduation. This year 60 seniors were selected from 50 of America's top liberal arts colleges.
A candidate for May graduation, Smith has chosen a project titled "A Globalized World: An Analysis of the International Art Market." She proposes to explore the contemporary structure of the international art market for paintings, to see how it has changed, and to understand its place in our globalized economy. She will explore and analyze visual art markets that were significantly active internationally prior to globalization: England, France and the Netherlands, and compare their contemporary operations and dynamics to those of two emerging visual art markets -- Hong Kong and Australia. Using the information she gathers, Smith will contrast the market mechanics within the two groups and trace how globalization has shaped each group's development. Through her project, Smith intends to understand the diversities of major participants and how culture and globalization has influenced it.
Stein, who graduated in December, has titled his project "From Dharma to Dollars: The Commercialization of 'Universal Energy.'" He proposes to conduct a cross-cultural examination of different practices in which the concept of universal energy can be channeled to heal. Examples he will study include acupuncture, hands-on energy work, such as Rei Ki and Therapeutic Touch, and Kundalini yoga. In this comparative study of contemporary practices, he wants to examine how different methods of commodifying and commercializing healing affect the practice. He hopes to ultimately answer how successfully these forms of healing, based on a holistic understanding of health, can be embraced by members of a modern industrialized society with reductionist beliefs that deny spirituality. Stein will interact with people with diverse conceptions of healing and energy, comparing the attitudes toward the phenomena of energy and practice across different cultures and subcultures. He plans to travel to India, Thailand and China.
Watson Fellows are chosen in a two-step process that requires nomination from a participating college, followed by a national competition.
The Watson Fellowship Program was created in 1968 by the children of Thomas J. Watson, Sr., the founder of IBM, and his wife, Jeannette K. Watson, to honor their parents' long-standing interest in education and world affairs. The program identifies prospective leaders and allows them to develop their independence and to become world citizens. Watson Fellows each receive $22,000 for their year of travel and study. The year of travel provides Fellows an unusual opportunity to take stock of themselves, test their aspirations and abilities, pursue their own in-depth study and develop a more informed sense of international concern.
