CONWAY, Ark. (March 14, 2014) – Hendrix seniors Alison
Harrington and McKenna Raney were awarded the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship.
Harrington, a biology major from New Orleans, La., will
pursue her project titled “Partnering with Fungi to Improve the Human Landscape
through Transformative Decomposition,” and travel to Thailand, Cambodia, South
Africa, Namibia, Ecuador and Costa Rica.
“In the midst of a global waste crisis, I propose to
explore the potential of fungi to solve global problems,” she writes. Working
with the people who study and use fungus, I hope to understand the basis for
cultural dispositions towards fungi and the decomposition they represent. I aim
to study the paradoxical application of transformative decay towards
constructive ends while promoting mutualism between humans and fungi.”
Raney, a sociology and anthropology major from Oxford,
Miss., will pursue her project titled “Uncovering Emotional Connections in
Human-Equine Partnerships,” and travel to Argentina, France, Iceland, Ireland,
South Africa, Kyrgyzstan and Australia.
“I will explore the relationships of humans and horses
through farming, ranching, therapy, and sports worldwide,” she writes. “I will
work to discover how relationship, discipline, and culture affect a working
partnership between horse and human. My specific objectives are to understand
different lived experiences, to identify broader cultural implications, and
discover if others' identities are contingent on their relationship with
horses. To achieve these goals, I will shadow equine workers, work alongside
them, stay in their homes, and conduct informal snowball interviews with
members of cross-cultural groups who work with horses daily.”
“This year, from over 700 candidates, 150 finalists were
nominated to compete on the national level from which 43 fellows were selected,”
wrote Chris Kasabach, director of the Thomas J. Watson Foundation. “Our 2014
class of TJW fellows comes from 21 states and six countries and exhibits a
broad range of academic specialty, socio-economic background and life
experience. As the 46th class of Watson Fellows, they’ll traverse 81
countries exploring topics ranging from global hacking to poetry; from adaptive
theater to decomposition; from body part commodification to butterfly ranching;
from climate change to community radio.”
Founded in 1876, Hendrix College is a national leader in
engaged liberal arts and sciences education. For the sixth consecutive year,
Hendrix was named one of the country’s “Up and Coming” liberal arts colleges by
U.S. News and World Report. Hendrix is featured in the latest edition of Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change
the Way You Think about Colleges,
as well as the 2014 Princeton Review’s The Best 378 Colleges, Forbes magazine's list of America's Top Colleges, and
the 2014 Fiske Guide to Colleges. Hendrix has been affiliated with the United
Methodist Church since 1884. For more information, visit www.hendrix.edu.