August 9, 2006
Anton Fellow uses funding to assist refugees in Ghana
Worcester, Mass. - Brooks Marmon of Arrington, Virginia, is one of ten Clark University undergraduates who is pursuing independent scholarly and creative activities this summer and during the upcoming academic year with support from the Anton and Steinbrecher Fellowship Program.
An Anton Fellowship enabled Marmon to spend the summer in the Republic of Ghana working as a volunteer at the Buduburam Refugee Camp outside Accra, organizing and running education and recreation programs for youth aged 6-14, whose families fled civil wars and unrest in Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Ivory Coast and other countries. He also conducted research on Pan-Africanism at the Du Bois Centre, the Padmore Library and the University of Ghana. Marmon will draw on this research for his Senior Honors thesis on Pan-Africanism and E. Franklin Frazier, the renowned black sociologist, who received a master's degree in sociology from Clark University in 1920.
Visit Anton Fellows 2006 for more information about his project and to read his online diary entries.
Marmon is spending his final days in Ghana observing Emancipation Day festivities (commemorating the abolition of slavery in the British Empire and the United States), exploring Ghana's coastal UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and visiting museums and libraries in Accra.
Marmon has prior experience working on refugee concerns. He spent the fall of 2005 in Namibia as a participant in Clark's study abroad program there, during which time he interned with the National Society of Human Rights. There he assisted with issues pertaining to the Osire Refugee Camp in Namibia and the Dukwe Refugee Camp in neighboring Botswana.
Marmon is a member of the Class of 2007 at Clark. He majors in history and minors in government. He is the son of Lee Marmon and Phoebe Anne Tucker of Arrington. He is a graduate of Nelson County High School in Lovingston.
The Anton Fellowship Program was established six years ago by a gift from Clark alumni Barbara '56 and Thomas '56 Anton. The Steinbrecher Fellowship Program was created earlier this year by Phyllis and Stephen '55 Steinbrecher in memory of their son David C. Steinbrecher '81. Both Fellowships are designed to spark students' excitement about the pursuit of intellectual ideas and public service and to stimulate discussions within the Clark community. The Anton and Steinbrecher Fellowship Program is directed by Professor Sharon Krefetz, a faculty member in the Government Department and former Dean of the College at Clark.