Eighteen Fulbright alumni have been selected for the Guggenheim Foundation’s 100th class of fellows, joining a distinguished cohort of visionary artists, authors, and innovators in 53 disciplines. Guggenheim Fellows are selected based on outstanding career achievements and exceptional contributions in their respective fields. They shift our perspectives on the world through their work—as photographers, storytellers, poets, and researchers—on subjects as wide-ranging as quantum physics, the rise of pre-planned “instant cities” in South Africa, and challenging stereotypes about cultural life in the American South.
Fulbrighters make up a notable portion of Guggenheim Fellows each year, highlighting the impact of the Fulbright Program and its role in advancing American excellence, innovation, and leadership. The President of the Guggenheim Foundation, award-winning poet Edward Hirsch, said of the Fellows, “We believe that these creative thinkers can take on the challenges we all face today and guide our society towards a better and more hopeful future.”
Fulbrighters in the 2025 Guggenheim cohort demonstrated artistic achievement, including nine who were recognized for their work in fields such as photography, fiction writing, film, theater, and music composition, each building off themes and skills they developed as participants in the Fulbright Program.
As an American Fulbright Scholar, Guggenheim fellow and photographer Marzen Abrahamik captured photos of the lives of Poland’s coal miners through a visual project titled Underground. Abrahamik stated that she had “decided to apply for a Fulbright grant because my project continues to grow in ambition and opportunities…. Coal continues to be a significant energy source and mining has always been an honorable job that provides a good income for women and their families.” Her photographs from this project, featuring women coal miners, were exhibited in Poland in 2023.
American composer Dr. Peter Shin, PhD, received a Fulbright award for his master’s research in South Korea; he says he is “drawn to understanding how his music folds into the broader conversations about human connection.” Shin premiered his work “Slant” at Carnegie Hall to reviews that called him a “a composer to watch.” He contributes to a collaborative arts project that engages with Korean pop music, or K-Pop, as the genre becomes more popular in the United States and around the world, and his vocal work, “Bits torn form words,” can be heard on Roomful of Teeth’s Grammy Award-winning album, Rough Magic.
Dr. Dianne Stewart, PhD, a professor of religion, conducted archival and field research as a Fulbright Scholar in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where she focused on the history of religions in Central Africa both past and present. She is writing a book based on her Fulbright research to “explore how 18th-century Kongolese Catholicism inspired the formation of Afro-Protestant institutions among African descendants in the wider 18th- and 19th-century Atlantic world.”
Dr. Stewart reflects that her “Fulbright experience was a turning point in my scholarly trajectory that afforded me rare opportunities to encounter the rich and dynamic stories of religious subjects and communities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and compare them with those of the African Diaspora. Cherished exchanges and collaborations with faculty and students enhanced our knowledges of one another’s backgrounds, disciplines, and intellectual and social cultures.”
Together, the broad impact of the 18 Fulbright alumni recognized across a range of professional and artistic fields reflects the Fulbright Program’s role in offering an unrivaled opportunity for participants to develop and hone their skills.
18 Fulbright Alumni selected as 2025 Guggenheim Fellows
Creative Arts
Marzena Abrahamik, photographer, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Fulbright U.S. Scholar to Poland
Lynne Allen, photographer and printmaker, Boston University
Fulbright U.S. Scholar to the Soviet Union and Jordan
Matthew Isaac Cohen, professor of dramatic arts, University of Connecticut
Fulbright U.S. Student to Indonesia
Tania Rachel James, novelist, George Mason University
Fulbright U.S. Student to India
Mihaela Diana Moscaliuc, poet, Monmouth University
Fulbright U.S. Student to Romania
Accra Shepp, photographer and visual artist, School of Visual Arts
Fulbright U.S. Scholar to Indonesia
Nadia Shihab, filmmaker and artist, Simon Fraser University
Fulbright U.S. Student to Turkey
Peter Seajong Shin, musician and composer, Princeton University
Fulbright U.S. Student to Korea
Antonio Tibaldi, film writer and director, CUNY City College
Fulbright Foreign Student from Italy
Humanities, Social Sciences, and Sciences
Dominic Boyer, anthropologist, Rice University
Fulbright Specialist to Morocco and to New Zealand
Benjamin Brose, professor Buddhism and Chinese studies, University of Michigan
Fulbright Seminar Program to Taiwan
Thomas Conlan, professor of Asian studies, Princeton University
Fulbright U.S. Scholar to Japan
Karen Graubart, professor of African studies, University of Notre Dame
Fulbright U.S. Student to Peru
Kristin Hoganson, historian, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Fulbright U.S. Scholar to Germany
Martin Julius Murray, sociologist and urban planner, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
Fulbright U.S. Scholar to South Africa
Bruce Schulman, historian, Boston University
Fulbright U.S. Scholar to Japan
Anders W. Sandvik, physicist, Boston University
Fulbright Foreign Student from Finland to the United States
Dianne Marie Stewart, professor of religion, Emory University
Fulbright U.S. Scholar to Democratic Republic of Congo