Adam Grode '05, who used his Watson Fellowship to study long-necked lutes in Central Asia, will talk about his fascinating Silk Road journey at Perspectives at the Nott, Tuesday, Oct. 24 at 7:30 p.m.
A native of Philadelphia who created his own Eurasian Studies major, Grode was the 44th Union student to receive the prestigious travel-study grant from the Thomas J. Watson Foundation. The $22,000 fellowship funded his study, “Long-necked Lutes from Baku to Bishkek: A Musical Journey in Central Asia.”
At the Nott, Grode will discuss his travels in the former Soviet republics of Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, a route not only of commerce but of musical styles and instruments developed from centuries of cultural syncretism.
Grode is near-fluent in French and Russian and also speaks Chinese and Arabic. At Union, he hosted weekly WRUC radio shows featuring one language each term in Russian, Chinese and French. A former co-president of Coffeehouse and passionate musician, he was a regular organizer and performer, often singing songs in a language other than English.
Some 200 graduating seniors apply each year to the Watson Foundation, which awards some 50 fellowships of $25,000 each for a year-long project abroad. Last week, Union's Watson committee, chaired by Davide Cervone, announced the 2007 finalists: seniors Adeyemi Adenrele, Charles Holiday, Doris Lo and Mandeep Moondi. The 2006 Union Watson Fellow was Noah Eber-Schmid, with a project on punk culture.
Grode's talk is free and open to the public. For more information, call 388-6131.