Congratulations to Sarah Craycraft (Comparative Studies) who was awarded a Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Theme Graduate Team Fellowship for the 2021-2022 academic year! This program brings together eight graduate students whose projects match with our focus areas and awards EACH student a yearlong fellowship. This Fellowship is an opportunity for you to gain valuable cross-disciplinary mentorship and will also help you identify and apply for additional sources of extramural support as your scholarship develops.

Sarah will focus on wrapping up her dissertation about revitalization practices in rural Bulgaria. "Can imagination counteract extinction? In rapidly depopulating rural Bulgaria, young urbanites think so and are experimenting with alternative lifestyles and artistic methods for village revitalization. As villages disappear from the map each year, the younger generation’s "return" to these places requires layers of ingenuity and resourcefulness to address the lack of schools, intercity transport, modern sewage, peers, and cultural life. Both the grand visions and the practical adaptations of return can disrupt existing social hierarchies or necessitate a rescripting of what “village” means. My dissertation investigates village-based residencies that seek to bridge the growing divide between urban practices and village lifeways, in response to demographic shift."