Two Lawrence University Seniors Awarded $22,000 Fellowships for "Wanderjahr"

APPLETON, WIS. -- The physical and spiritual connections to land and animals enjoyed by female hunters and the craft and context of traditional jewelry in postcolonial India and Niger will be examined in two year-long studies by a pair of Lawrence University seniors who have been awarded $22,000 Watson Fellowships.

Sally Schonfeld, a geology and biology major from Reedsburg, and Caroline Bowles, an anthropology major from Englewood, Colo., were named two of the 60 fellowship recipients announced this week by the Providence, R.I.-based Thomas J. Watson Foundation. The fellowship supports a "wanderjahr" -- a year of independent travel and exploration outside the United States -- on a topic of the student's choosing.

Schonfeld and Bowles were selected from nearly 1,000 students representing 50 of the nation's leading liberal arts colleges and universities who applied for the fellowship. Since the program's inception in 1969, Lawrence has had 58 students awarded a Watson Fellowship.

Beginning in August, Schonfeld will spend approximately four months each in Tierra del Fuego at the southern-most tip of Chile, the savannah region of Tanzania and the Inuit community of Iqaluit, in Nunavut, Canada, living with, observing and participating in hunts with women who rely on hunting for their subsistence.

"Because females traditionally have not held the hunter role, gender is an important aspect in my investigation," said Schonfeld, who traces her personal interest in hunting to a goose hunt with her father as an eight-year old. "I want to explore women's connections to the land and resources and see how those connections manifest themselves in the rest of their lives, through writing, story-telling, music, art, and even child-rearing.

"As a hunter, woman, canoeist, biologist, geologist, explorer and world citizen, I've always been passionate and curious about the natural world and the human connection to it. Science is not purely discovery of laws of truth, it is inextricably linked with people and their times. My wanderjahr would examine cultural frames of reference -- social, religious, political, economic, historical -- and eventually shape my and others 'doing' of earth science education and efforts of conservation as citizens of a worldly diverse culture."

Bowles plans to split her fellowship year evenly between India and Niger, working as an apprentice with local artisans and jewelry makers in both countries.

"By working in each country, I'll have the opportunity to learn a wide variety of techniques, including casting, knitting wire, engraving, filigree, stone setting and fusing," said Bowles, who is pursuing a minor in art at Lawrence. "Those are all techniques with which I've had little or no experience."

In addition to learning jewelry-making skills, Bowles intends to explore the impact of cross-cultural contacts on traditional jewelry and ornament, including how contact with neighboring ethnic groups has influenced traditional jewelry and how urbanization has changed the place of jewelers in the community.

"As an anthropologist, India and Niger are intriguing destinations to me because they are sites of major cross-cultural contact," said Bowles, who spent five months in Africa in 2000 as part of an off-campus study program in Tanzania. "The British and French imperialists brought their own cultures to these areas, including their sense of the aesthetic.

"I want to see how the jewelry reflects the countries' colonial pasts. If Western influence has been minimal, why did jewelry escape the influence that is so prevalent in other aspects of those countries, such as architecture and dress?"

The Watson Fellowship Program was established by the children of Thomas J. Watson Sr., the founder of IBM Corporation, and his wife, Jeannette, to honor their parents' long-standing interest in education and world affairs. Watson Fellows are selected on the basis of the nominee's character, academic record, leadership potential, willingness to delve into another culture and the personal significance of the project proposal.