Four Johns Hopkins Ph.D. candidates have been named Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellows for 2018 by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation: Ariella Messing, Onder Celik, Alexander Englert, and Smriti Upadhyay.

The Newcombe Fellowship is the nation’s largest and most prestigious award for Ph.D. candidates in the humanities and social sciences addressing questions of ethical and religious values. Each Fellow will receive a 12-month award of $25,000 to support their final year of dissertation work.

Ariella is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Health Policy and Management. Ariella’s dissertation is titled Hyde and Go Seek Funding: Grassroots Abortion Funds in the United States. Through a study of grassroots abortion funds, she examines how policy restrictions privilege the conscience of those morally opposed to abortion; impose burdens on those committed to reproductive justice; and create a health care system that is dependent on altruism.

Onder is a doctoral candidate in Anthropology whose dissertation, titled Subterranean Dreams: Hunting for Armenian Treasures in the Post-Genocide Landscape, explores the popular practices regarding the search for treasures that were supposedly buried by victims of the Armenian genocide in Turkey’s Kurdistan.

Alexander is completing their dissertation, titled Evolving the Highest Good: A Study of a Kantian Idea, in the Department of Philosophy. It dissertation investigates the connection between ideals and moral action in the philosophy of Immanuel Kant.

Smriti is completing their dissertation, titled Sacrifice, Selflessness, and Struggle: Religious Mobilization and the contemporary Indian Labor Movement, in the Department of Sociology. The project examines Hindu nationalism in India to analyze how within a cross-class movement, both elites and workers can simultaneously wield and be undermined by the double-edged sword of religion.

The press release below provides more details about the program and the 2018 competition. You can also view the release and/or download it as a PDF.