Watson Finalists Named, One Step Closer to Unique Dream Research Project

Emily Simpson, Nathan Bourne, and Jesse Schupack are all one step closer towards the opportunity of a lifetime: receiving the prestigious Watson Fellowship. The fellowship awards $25,000 to college graduates as a stipend to travel the world for a year and explore a topic that "sets their souls on fire." Offered by the Thomas J. Watson Foundation, the fellowship also provides recipients with the chance to "enhance their capacity for resourcefulness, imagination, openness, and leadership and to foster their humane and effective participation in the world community." 

A familiar face in the Sewanee music circuit, Jonathan Moody performs regularly in various venues around campus with Forest Mountain Hymnal, a folk band he formed with his fiancée, Rebecca. Naturally, Moody's Watson proposal incorporates his love of folk music, and he aims to "explore songs that tell stories in a variety of cultural contexts." Moody was inspired by Dark Holler: Old Love Songs and Ballads, a collection of field recordings by John Cohen in the 60's and 70's. These field recordings feature old farmers from an Appalachian community in North Carolina singing about knights in shining armor, sailors, sword fights, and various elements of the British and even Scottish culture that they originated from. "All of these things would be out of place in an Appalachian culture in the 70's, but they were there and the community was still singing about them like they were a part of its culture," comments Moody. In the same way, the music that Moody makes with Forest Mountain Hymnal reflects another culture or time period that is quite different from their own: "We transplant [the music] in our culture and time and thus re-interpret the song's perspective in a new light, many times giving it new meaning for its audience." A Spanish major, Moody hopes to travel to Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and Senegal with his banjo in tow "to find out what stories are being told, whose stories are being told, who is telling the stories, and what is the cultural importance of the songs or the singers." 

Emily Simpson also used her studies at Sewanee to shape her Watson proposal. With a background in psychology, Simpson was motivated by her personal theory of horror film, in which she disagrees with current work in horror film analysis. Rather than having a gender-focused analysis of the films, Simpson thinks that "we like horror movies because they provide this chance for us to vicariously face stuff we're afraid of." Entitled "Monsters as Metaphors: Unmasking Fear in Horror Cinema," Simpson's project will take her to Canada, United Kingdom, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Japan, South Korea, and Australia, places with a large cult following of horror films. She intends "to try to decipher the issues presented in the films at varying levels of analysis" by interviewing directors and writers at various horror film festivals. "The classic example is Dracula, says Simpson. "On the surface, it is a story about a vampire. Underneath, it is this story about Victorian sexual repression and anxiety. After all, he is always after the babes in nightgowns."

A prolific member of the Sewanee community, Nathan Bourne can be found doing countless activities all over campus, from presiding as president over Order of the Gownsmen meetings to conducting flora research and conservation on the Domain. Bourne brought his wide range of interests together in his Watson proposal. Traveling to Ireland, France, Moldova, Romania, Armenia, and Ethiopia, he intends to explore the relationship between Christian monastic communities and the natural world. "I have for years been drawn to places that dissolve the division of the religious and the natural," he comments. Bourne hopes to live within these monastic communities in order to understand the historical as well as the current relationship between Christian monasticism and the natural landscape. He is fascinated with the concept of people living communally under a set of commitments to God and humanity. "I want to discover how the ideas [monks in history] held are embodied in monasteries today, how these traditions approach contemporary environmental problems, and how the simplicity of the monastic life might provide an alternative environmentally aware lifestyle," says Bourne.

"The image of old men at a courtyard picnic table kind of embodies my proposal," says Jesse Schupack. Inspired by memories of old men playing board games at picnic tables, Schupack wants to study the power of both competitive and leisurely board game culture in bridging social divisions and uniting the players of these games. Visiting various tournaments as well as parks, courtyards, and cafes, Schupack is "interested in the culture of board games, specifically with how backwards-looking it often seems." He intends to travel to South Korea, Germany, Ghana, India, Hungary, and Greece to examine games that are primarily 500-2000 years old and have been left virtually unchanged. "Board games seem kind of out of place in the modern world," comments Schupack, "but they continue to thrive."

The Watson Committee at Sewanee includes John Gatta, Martin Knoll, Deborah McGrath, Stephen Raulston, Mae Wallace, and Stephen Miller, the University's liaison to the Watson Foundation. These faculty members helped select the four students, who will be interviewed by a Watson Foundation representative sometime this month. With the chance of a lifetime within their grasp, these four nominees could very well join the ranks of thirty-nine other Sewanee students that have received the fellowship since it was established in 1968.