Washington, DC - On Tuesday, June 30, the inaugural group of Fulbright-National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellows will share their experiences at a public panel discussion at National Geographic Society headquarters. Recently returned from conducting research abroad, the fellows will present the results of their projects and speak about how they used digital tools to expand knowledge of pressing transnational issues and how they developed cross-cultural ties during their fellowships.

The five fellows from across the United States include:

  • Ann Chen, an artist and researcher from New York, mapped the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline in Canada using collective storytelling and citizen science.
  • Daniel Koehler, a filmmaker from New York captured footage for a documentary to examine culture change among the San people of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana.
  • Erin Moriarty Harrelson, an anthropologist from Washington, D.C., tapped into her own experience as a deaf person to explore the emergence of deaf culture in post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia.
  • Mimi Onuoha, an artist and educator from New York, traveled to the United Kingdom to explore the chasms and intersections between the real and online lives of a diverse group of Londoners.
  • Michael Waldrep, a documentary filmmaker from Los Angeles, California, examined the people and neighborhoods of a changing and developing Mexico City.

The Fulbright-National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellowship was launched in 2013 as a new component of the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. The fellowship provides opportunities for U.S. citizens to participate in an academic year of overseas travel, research, and digital storytelling in up to three countries on a globally significant theme. The Fellowship is made possible through a partnership between the U.S. Department of State and the National Geographic Society.