Thoenes Research Awards for Alissa Graff, Marleigh Higgins

Alissa Graff 10F and Marleigh Higgins 10F have been awarded Sander Thoenes Research Awards.

The Thoenes Awards support fieldwork and research costs involved in completion of recipients' Division III projects, the senior thesis required of all students for graduation from Hampshire College.

The award, which honors the memory of Sander Thoenes 87F, goes to students working in international relations, peace studies, or journalism.

Preference is given to projects conforming to the spirit of Thoenes' remarkable, if tragically brief, career as a foreign correspondent. At the time of his death in 1999, killed by Indonesian militia while in East Timor reporting on its attempts to become independent, Thoenes was Jakarta correspondent for the Financial Times.

For her Division III project, Higgins traveled to North Dakota to learn about how the current oil boom, enabled by fracking technologies, impacts communities' health and the environment. Higgins conducted interviews and took photographs that she combined with additional research into a book of essays and photographs.

Graff is studying urban anthropology, with a focus on peace and conflict resolution. Graff will conduct field research in Detroit, seeking to gain a better understanding of the how residents, nonprofit organizations, and the city government are dealing with conflicts within the city.