Stephanie Madden 2008-09 Traveling Fellow
Stephanie Madden from Wichita, Kansas is the 2008 recipient of the Michael B. Keegan Traveling Fellowship. Stephanie graduated in May 2008 from the College of Arts & Sciences with a major in Communication Studies and a minor in European Studies. Her project, entitled “International Conceptions of Freedom,” seeks to discover what freedom means on an international, regional, country, community, and individual level. Throughout her year of travel, her approach to discovering what freedom means in an international context will involve independent travel and observation, interviewing and shadowing individuals in academic, non-profit, religious, journalistic, corporate, and governmental sectors, and working with organizations concerned with issues such as democracy, women’s rights, human rights, the environment, economics, international development, free press, and free speech. She will observe how factors such as rural and urban environments, socio-economic differences, views of immigrants, gender, and occupation affect conceptions of freedom. By approaching the subject of freedom holistically, she hopes to learn how freedom is conceptualized, to learn how freedom is promoted and what pressing concerns about freedom exist around the globe.
On December 10, 2008, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is celebrating its 60th anniversary, making 2008 an important year to explore how far our world has come in ensuring the freedoms and rights guaranteed to its global citizenship in this landmark document. As stated in the preamble, UDHR was established as “a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms…” It is in this spirit Stephanie wants to travel across the world to observe the ways individuals and social institutions are indeed educating and promoting the idea of freedom internationally.
Through a comparative analysis of international conceptions of freedom, she hopes to expand her own perspective of what freedom means, as well as the perspectives of others who will be following her progress. Her goal is not to spread American ideals of freedom to foreign lands, but to instead learn what different countries and cultures have to say about freedom. Her long-term interest lies in working for a non-profit organization in the field of international human rights.
Stephanie will develop a web site and keep an on-line journal at www.vanderbilt.edu/travelfellowship/stephanie. We invite the Vanderbilt community and all those interested in sustainable design to keep up with Stephanie's travel and architectural adventures during this next year.
The fellowship is administered and supervised by Sandy Stahl, Associate Dean of Students. Dr. Stahl can be contacted at 615-322-6400 or sandy.stahl@vanderbilt.edu for further information.
