UW graduate from Renton receives prestigious travel fellowship

Alaska McGann, a 2012 University of Washington graduate from Renton, is one of 14 UW students who have been awarded Bonderman Travel Fellowships. Students traveling with this $20,000 fellowship set off on solo journeys that are at least eight months long and take them to at least two regions of the world. While traveling, students may not pursue academic study, projects, or research. UW graduate students, undergraduate students in the Honors Program and in UW Tacoma’s Global Honors Program are eligible to apply.    

Collectively, the 2012 Bonderman Fellows will travel to the Balkans, Bhutan, Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, China, Congo-Brazzaville, Costa Rica,  Egypt, Fiji, Gabon, Greece, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos,  Lebanon, Madagascar, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, New Caledonia, Nicaragua, Norway, Peru, Rwanda, Russia, Sicily, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, South Africa, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vietnam, Zambia, Zimbabwe and many other countries and regions. Their interests include exploring how people educate their children, how they cook and eat together, how they interact with their natural environments, how they grapple with intergenerational tensions and how they preserve local customs and traditions.

While traveling on her Bonderman Fellowship, McGann is interested in “unpacking notions of global feminism and grappling with what it means to be feminist in diverse, postcolonial places.” 

She plans to start her journey in Puerto Rico and make her way down to Venezuela, Peru, Argentina and Chile. Then she plans to fly to Southeast Asia, visiting Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand, before ending her travels in India 

McGann majored in English and was a student in the UW Honors Program.