Frederick Franke ’10 and James Morton ’10 will follow their passions to explore, respectively, open-fire cooking methods and large format photography of the shipping industry.
The two are among 40 college seniors nationwide who have been awarded a prestigious Thomas J. Watson Fellowship.
Considered “dream grants,” the Watson offers a one-year stipend of $25,000 to graduating students to study independently outside the United States. Watson Fellows are described as “passionate learners, creative thinkers and motivated self-starters who are encouraged to dream big but demonstrate feasible strategies for achieving their fellowship goals.”
Franke (Rahde to his friends), an interdepartmental history and political science major from Annapolis, Md., will research the intimate connection between food and culture in “Out of the Kitchen and Into the Fire: Exploring the World’s Open-fire Cooking Methods.”
“I can’t get enough of what I call the society of food,” said Franke, a founder of Union’s Culinary House. Apprenticing himself to open-fire cooks around the world, he will study the hangi method of cooking in New Zealand, tandoor in India, braai in South Africa, doner kebap in Turkey and jerk in Jamaica.
“I’ll be visiting marketplaces, butchers, fishmongers, farmers and even tandoor-builders. I want to find out what food means to everyday people by experiencing it and learning to cook in all of these styles myself,” he said.
Morton’s project, “Large Format Cargo: Photographing the Shipping Industry,” will take him to ports and shipyards in Australia, India and South Korea.
“The maritime shipping industry is perhaps the most essential industry in our modern world, yet it is one that operates on its own, with little regulation and out of sight and mind of most of the world,” he said.
A history and environmental science major from Orient Point, L.I., Morton grew up with a love of photography and the sea. His grandfather, a merchant mariner, regaled him with stories of the seas, and his mother, an art lover, set him on a creative course toward capturing images through a lens.
“We are so proud of our winners,” said History Professor Joyce Madancy, chair of the College’s Watson Fellowship Committee. “It’s especially thrilling to have two more Watson Fellows on campus.”
She noted the extraordinarily strong pool of nominees this year. The foundation reduced its roster of affiliated schools from 47 to 40, making the rigorous application process more selective and competitive.
The newest fellows, chosen from 150 finalists, come from 23 states and three foreign countries. For a complete list of winners and their project, click here.
Past Watson winners from Union include Andy Krauss ’08, who researched the development of outrigger canoes and paddles in Tonga, the Cook Islands and the French Polynesia; Noah Eber-Schmid ’06, who investigated punk music and culture in Germany, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Norway and Finland; Adam Grode ’05, who studied long-necked lutes in Central Asia; and Nori Lupfer ’03, who photographed circuses in motion on several continents.