Comegys Bight Fellowships
Comegys Bight Fellows Program
Since 2003, the Comegys Bight Fellowships have let Washington
College undergraduates pursue self-designed summer research projects that
illuminate varied aspects of the American experience.
Conceived and generously sustained by Drs. Thomas and Virginia Collier and their family, and administered by the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, the Fellowships recognize students’ “intellect, curiosity, and resourcefulness.” Between three and five Comegys Bight Fellows are selected each spring by a faculty committee from among a pool of applicants, and are awarded research grants that have ranged from $500 to $3000. Recipients can use their grants to fund research travel, to support their living expenses while they work on unpaid summer internships, or to replace wages from summer jobs while they conduct supervised research.
Each recipient works with a faculty mentor who will help to guide him or her in the project. The faculty mentor receives an honorarium of up to $500, depending on the amount of the student's grant.
Topics covered have ranged from the writings of H.L. Mencken, to the history of an Eastern Shore farming community, to the origins of the state of Tennessee. Grants have taken Fellows as far afield as Colorado and Paris, and to research institutions from the Library of Congress to the New York Public Library. Many fellows have continued their summer research as senior thesis projects. One past Fellow has already gone on to pursue graduate work in American Studies, and several others to careers in teaching, public service, and journalism. (A full list of past Comegys Bight Fellows and their topics is below.)
By uniting students from many disciplines, the Fellowship seeks to foster an awareness of the American past in its fullness and complexity as the common experience of artists, businessmen, economists, philosophers, poets, laborers, and statesmen. More than just than a research grant, the Comegys Bight program is designed as a bridge between Washington College and the local Chestertown community, or the world beyond. Throughout their projects, Comegys Bight Fellows have access to resources at the C.V. Starr Center. Each fall, students submit final reports and present their findings at a celebratory gathering hosted by the Collier family.
A Comegys Bight Fellow might choose to spend the summer in Florida, studying Ted Williams's philosophy of fishing. Or, he might participate in a local archaeologist's marine excavation of an Eastern Shore river. Past fellows (see below) have studied topics ranging from the Civil Rights Movement in Montgomery Alabama to the Civil War history of Franklin County, Tennessee.
Comegys Bight itself, for which the Fellowships are named, is a two-mile body of water along the Chester River surrounded by farms and woodlands. The place has a rich history. For four hundred years, Algonquin Indians and Quakers, freed slaves and gentlemen farmers, among others have left their traces on these local lands. Today, Georgian homes and wind-battered goose blinds convey a sense of this heritage to keen-eyed onlookers.
Eligibility
Sophomores and juniors are encouraged to apply from pertinent Washington
College departments. The prerequisite is that research proposals relate
to the American past. Preference will be given to juniors interested in
writing honors theses.
**Students with topics relating to local, Eastern Shore or Maryland history are strongly encouraged to apply.
The Selection Committee looks for:
- Exceptional ability and commitment, demonstrated intellectual appetite,
and resourcefulness. - Thoughtfulness and detail of research proposal.
Demonstrated academic success, while important, is less essential to the selection committee than student initiative and zeal for the research proposal.
Applications are due on March 31, 2008
Application
- Complete Basic Application Form (PDF)
- Personal Statement and Fellowship Research Proposal In approximately 1000 words (typed, double spaced), describe the fellowship experience you propose and cite evidence for why you believe you should be selected as a Fellow. Please also list, if applicable, any contacts you have with institutions or individuals in your place of research.
- Budget. Please outline your anticipated budget. Wherever possible, these should be actual expenses rather than estimates.
- Obtain the name and signature of a faculty member who would help to guide your project. You should plan to keep in touch regularly with your mentor over the course of the project, keeping him or her apprised of your progress by phone, email, or in meetings. Your application must be signed by the proposed faculty mentor.
- Briefly list up to five of your most meaningful academic or extracurricular activities as well as your personal hobbies.
Contact
For more information about the Comegys Bight Fellows Program, please contact:
Jill Ogline
Associate Director
Phone: 410-810-7157
E-mail: jogline2@washcoll.edu
The Comegys Bight Fellows
Years after students’ names are their Washington College class years.
2003
Matthew J. Burnham ‘04: “JoAnn Robinson and
the Montgomery Bus
Boycott of 1955-56.”
Faculty mentor: Professor Ted Widmer, Department of History.
Colleen Costello ’04: “Intellectual Influences
on the Authors of the U.S. Constitution.”
Faculty mentors: Professor John Taylor, Professor Melissa Deckman.
Justin Gunn ’05: Cataloguing and preserving four
centuries’ worth of historical documents from Poplar Grove, Queen
Anne’s County.
Faculty mentors: Professor Ted Widmer, Professor Adam Goodheart.
Gina Ralston ’04: “Dr. Peregrine Wroth, George
Alfred Townsend, and the Literary Life of 19th-Century Chestertown.”
Faculty mentor: Professor Adam Goodheart.
2004
John R. Bohrer ’06: “The Development of the
Presidential Nominating Process.”
Faculty mentors: Professor Michael Harvey, Professor Andrew Oros.
Beth Ann Hargraves ’05: “The Political Failure
of the Equal Rights Amendment.”
Faculty mentors: Professor Janet Sorrentino, Professor Robert Fallaw.
Charles A. Hohman ’05: “H.L. Mencken: A Fading
Legacy.”
Faculty mentor: Professor Ted Widmer.
Leslie Meredith ’06: “John Sevier and the ‘Lost’ State of Franklin.”
Mary Elizabeth Smith ’05: “Samuel Huntington and the ‘War of Ideology.’ ”
2005
Cynthia Brown ’06: “Henry Miller, an American
in Paris.”
Faculty mentors: Professor Erin Murphy, Professor Pamela Pears.
Peter Knox ’06: “Hunter S. Thompson’s
Funeral: A Journey to Woody Creek.”
Faculty mentors: Professor Robert Day and professor Robert Gillin.
Brandon Righi ’07: “The Civil War on the Eastern
Shore of Maryland.”
Faculty mentors: Professor Ted Widmer and Professor Clayton Black.
Jeremy Rothwell ’07: “The Farming Community
at Turner’s Creek, 1658-Present.”
Faculty mentors: Professor Wayne Bell and Professor Adam Goodheart
Mark Stevens ’07: “African-American Conservatives,
from Booker T.
Washington to J.C. Watts.”
Faculty mentors: Professor Alisha Knight and Professor Christine Wade.
2006
Kaitlin E. Edwards ’07: “Historic Fabrics
and Textiles, 1750-1790.”
Faculty mentors: Professor John Seidel and Professor Michael Chiarappa.
Erin Koster ’07: “Irish Female Domestic Servants
in America, 1870-1910.”
Faculty mentors: Professor Carol Wilson and Professor Clayton Black.
Amy Elizabeth Uebel ’07: “Watermen on the
Middle Eastern Shore.”
Faculty mentors: Professor Michael Chiarappa and Professor Carol Wilson.
2007
Aundra Weissert '08: "The Revolutionary Activism of Margaret Sanger."
Faculty mentor:
Professor Carol Wilson, Department of History.
Carimanda Baynard's '08: "Effects of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast Educational System."
Faculty mentors: Professor Erin Anderson, Department of Sociology and Professor Michele Volansky, Department of Drama.
Brenna Bychowski '09: Interning at the
Chicago History Museum and researching the 1893 World's Fair.
Faculty mentor: Professor Richard Striner, Department of History.
Ethan Criss '08: "Folk Music of the Civil War."
Faculty mentor: Professor Ken Miller, Department of History.
Jan Van Ewijk's '09: "Social Mobility in the 17th
and 18th century Chesapeake Region."
Faculty mentor: Professor Adam Goodheart, Director, C.V. Starr Center.
