Amelia Hight ’05 has been awarded a prestigious Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. She joins an elite group of 50 students nationwide selected to conduct independent research projects abroad. Monuments and memorials are institutional embodiments of collective memory and, as such, part of the reconciliation process. Amelia will address this topic in her upcoming project “Genocide and Remembrance: the Politics of Memorialization.”
Beginning this summer, Amelia will travel to Rwanda and Cambodia to study the political motives behind genocide memorials. In the processes of reconciliation and closure after experiencing mass killings, the two countries have begun constructing memorials to honor the victims of the tragic events. Visiting the countries’ public spaces of remembrance, Amelia will assess the political motivation behind the memorials and museums as well as the impact these institutions have on the collective memory of the events.
Amelia, a politics and international relations major from Taos, New Mexico, conceived the idea for her project while studying abroad in South Africa. While exploring museums in the region, she observed a campaign by the new democratic leadership of renovation to incorporate the voices repressed under the apartheid government. Amelia said the Watson Fellowship will enable her to “explore this issue of the politics behind memorialization in other instances of great human suffering where memorials and museums play an important role in remembering of a traumatic event.” She anticipates the opportunity will be challenging. “Not only will I be traveling for a year alone in countries that I have never visited, but I will be researching a very serious and potentially depressing topic.” However, Amelia values the project as an opportunity to help communities with the healing process of remembrance and reconciliation.
The Watson Fellowships were established in 1968 to honor Thomas J. Watson, Sr., founder of the IBM Corporation, who had a longstanding interest in education and world affairs. The mission of the Fellowship Program is to offer exceptionally talented college graduates an opportunity to conduct independent purposeful exploration and travel outside of the United States to foster their humane and effective participation in the world community. Recipients are selected based on several criteria including the capacity for vision and leadership, demonstrated integrity, intelligence, and imagination.