2003 Fulbright Winners

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For Immediate Release: May 14, 2003
Contact: Tom Krattenmaker
610-328-8534
tkratte1@swarthmore.edu
http://www.swarthmore.edu/news/

Five Swarthmore Seniors Win Fulbright Fellowships

Five Swarthmore College seniors are winners of Fulbright Fellowships for 2003. Both Mary Campbell of Fayetteville, N.C., and Erica Cartmill of Durham, N.C., plan to use their award to conduct research in Poland. Karly Ford of Essex Junction, Vt., will use hers to study in Sri Lanka, Lindsey Newbold of Cochranville, Pa., will travel to Panama, and Robin Smith of West Chester, Pa., will study in France.

Mary Campbell, a comparative literature major with a minor in German, will use the award to study the representation of female bodies in Polish women's magazines from 1946 to the present. She plans to examine "how representations of women intersect with changes in political and social ideologies," she says. "How does the rise, development, and ultimate demise of communism affect these representations? How do the changes in the magazines relate to women's experiences and their changing sense of identity in communist and post-communist Poland?"

Campbell is the daughter of Rebecca and Frank Campbell and a 1999 graduate of Leavenworth High School in Leavenworth, Kan. At Swarthmore, Campbell, a Thomas B. McCabe Scholar, was active with The Phoenix, the weekly student newspaper, and the Writing Associates Program. After she returns from Poland, Campbell will pursue a Ph.D. in German literature at Princeton University.

Erica Cartmill, a linguistics major with a double minor in biology and theater, will use the award to study the evolving art form of dance theater in Poland. Her research is a continuation of work she began during her semester abroad in Poland last year.

"Dance theater is part modern dance, part avant-garde physical theatre," Cartmill says. "I'm interested in it as a newly emerging national political art form and a unique representation of Poland's culture at the moment."

Cartmill is the daughter of Kaye Brown and Matt Cartmill and a 1999 graduate of Carolina Friends School in Durham. She hopes her work, which will include collecting information from individual dance companies and consolidating them into a single source, will facilitate the study of Polish dance theater.

Karly S.T. Ford, an education and sociology and anthropology major with a minor in religion, will use the award to study in Sri Lanka, where she plans to live and meditate with Buddhist nuns to better understand why women renounce the world.

Ford, the daughter of Kathleen and John Ford, is a 1999 graduate of Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Conn. She also attended Essex Community High School in Essex Junction, Vt.

At Swarthmore, Ford co-founded Multi, the school's group for students of mixed race, and participated for four years in the improv troupe Vertigo-go.

Lindsey Newbold, an honors linguistics major with a minor in sociology and anthropology, will use the award to continue her work with the indigenous people in Kuna Yala, Panama. Newbold is currently in Panama filming and transcribing traditional Kuna lullabies, a project she began as a Lang Opportunity Scholar.

Newbold is the daughter of Denis Newbold and Gail Foster Newbold, both members of the Class of 1971, and is a 1998 graduate of Wilmington Friends School in Wilmington, Del.

Last June, Newbold presented research at the Athabaskan Language Conference at the University of Alaska, becoming the Swarthmore student to be published as part of the conference's proceedings. Outside of her studies at Swarthmore, Newbold participated in Cantarix, an a capella women's singing group, tango, Scottish country and contra dancing, the Living Wage Campaign, and the School of the Americas Watch.

Robin L. Smith, an honors physics major with a minor in mathematics, will use the award to conduct experimental quantum optics physics research at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Cachan, France.

Smith's award allows her to return to the school where she spent last July conducting research on single-molecule fluorescence of organic dyes with Jean-François Roch and François Treussart, both collaborators of Associate Professor of Physics Carl Grossman, her physics research adviser. "It was intense," she says. "In two weeks I learned confocal microscopy techniques to study dyes, all while speaking French!" Her upcoming work will include optical detection of individual spins in single nitrogen vacancy color centers of diamond nanocrystals.

Smith is the daughter Deborah and Roger Smith and a 1999 graduate of West Chester East High School. At Swarthmore, she founded SWAP (Swarthmore Women in Astronomy and Physics), a mentoring and support organization for students interested in physics and astronomy. Smith also coordinates Swarthmore's Physics and Astronomy Clinic and has been active as a cellist in the Swarthmore College Orchestra, Baroque Ensemble, and String Quartet. She was also principal cellist of and soloist with the Philadelphia Sinfonia Youth Orchestra. After returning from France, Smith hopes to study applied mathematics at Cambridge University and eventually pursue a Ph.D. in physics.

Administered by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars, the Fulbright Scholar Program awards full research fellowships to graduating seniors after an extensive application process. Recipients receive free housing and a stipend to cover living expenses.