Ekta Shaikh ’24 Receives Fischlowitz Travel Fellowship

Ekta Shaikh, a third-year student from Pakistan majoring in anthropology and gender, women’s, and sexuality studies, was awarded this year’s Fischlowitz Travel Fellowship, which will allow her to explore how South Asian identity is represented remembered, viewed, and visualized through art exhibits in the United States.

The Fischlowitz Travel Fellowship provides an opportunity for international students at Grinnell to pursue independent travel in the United States while focusing on deep exploration of a chosen theme.

This summer, Shaikh will travel to Chicago, New York, Boston, San Francisco, and Los Angeles where she will visit the major museums of the areas to gain a better understanding of the representation of South Asians in these institutions.

“There are a lot of politics around the kind of South Asian art that actually makes it into museums in the United States,” says Shaikh. “There’s a lot of conversation about who will be the voice of that representation, and I thought that this would be a great exploration. Anthropology gives you a sense of what you do in a space as an observer, and gender studies gives you a sense of how power works in the world, so I thought taking those intellectual aspects of my two majors would help me in constructing this trip.”

In addition to large museums in major cities, Shaikh will also visit Berkely, Calif., which has an extensive archive of South Asian art, and explore public installations like Cloud Gate (affectionately known as The Bean) in Chicago, which was made by Indian artist Anish Kapoor.

“I feel like most of the intellectual efforts that I am making in Grinnell are at the HSSC and the library — the two places that I walk to and from regularly,” says Shaikh. “So this opportunity is the exact field experience I need to pair with my liberal arts education. I’ve been to all of my classes, and I know that theory of what is happening, so I think this is a great opportunity to take what I've learned for the past three years and put it out there in the real world and to see what fits and what doesn't.”

In addition to the intellectual and academic aspects of the trip, Shaikh is planning time for some less serious exploration for the sake of fun.

“In each city that I’m going to I’m going to visit one quirky museum,” she explains. “Like a museum of sex, or a museum of leather, or random museums that are really small and not that popular. I’m doing that solely for myself. I don’t hope to learn anything from it. I just hope to have fun with it. I thought would be a good supplement to the trip, and it’s something I’m really looking forward to.”