2023–2024 Kenneth I. Juster Fellows
The Weatherhead Center is pleased to announce its 2023–2024 class of Juster Fellows. Now in its thirteenth year, this grant initiative is made possible by the generosity of the Honorable Kenneth I. Juster, Harvard and Weatherhead Center alum, member of the Center’s Advisory Committee, and former United States Ambassador to India. Juster has devoted much of his education, professional activities, public service, and nonprofit endeavors to international affairs, and is deeply engaged in promoting international understanding and advancing international relations. Juster grants support undergraduates whose projects may be related to thesis research but may have broader experiential components as well. These newly named Juster Fellows will be undertaking their international experiences this winter or spring.
Jay Hong Chew ’25 (Economics and Government) will travel to Rwanda to explore the diplomacy, conduct, and policies of smaller states in East Africa as they relate to great power influence in the continent.
Charlotte Grace Duesing ’25 (Organismic & Evolutionary Biology) will travel to Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines to investigate the socio-political, cultural, and economic roles and management of coastal ecosystems in Southeast Asia.
Justin Hu ’24 (Romance Languages & Literatures and History) will travel to Martinique to research the country’s Lycee Schoelcher-educated anticolonial luminary, Aime Cesaire.
Jacky Huang ’25 (East Asian Studies and Sociology) will travel to China to research the state of US-China tech relations, specifically on the impact of American technology trade policies on Chinese companies in technology sectors.
Isabelle Grace King ’25 (Government) will travel to France and Senegal to analyze the impact of French-led military operations in the Sahel region on the level of violence due to local intolerance of the occupying force.
Tomoki Matsuno ’25 (Environmental Science & Public Policy) will travel to Australia to conduct a study that delves into regional disparities in green energy access.
Alexandra Margarita Purcell ’24 (Environmental Science & Public Policy) will travel to the Pilcomayo River Basin in Bolivia to study water pollution as it impacts the health and well-being of local communities and the environment.
Shane Michael Rice ’25 (Anthropology) will travel to Samarkand, Uzbekistan to examine how memory, identity, heritage, and values are promoted or suppressed in post-Soviet Central Asia.
Jolly Rop ’24 (Government) will travel to Kenya to assess the effect automation had on the social and political attitudes of tea pickers who were displaced by a machine and those currently employed.
Aidan Walker Wrenn-Walz ’24 (Government) will travel to Rome to assess whether the consumption of political misinformation has contributed to lower levels of democratic engagement in Italy.