The Current Fellows
The 2024 Maharam Fellows are working in arenas not typically associated with art and design students. They have the opportunity to effect real change in sustainability and social justice through internships with local and global organizations and communities. As part of the program, fellows blog about their experiences throughout the summer and make a final report to Maharam about what they discovered through their internships.
Denzel Amoah | Ghana Youth Environmental Movement
MLA 2024 | Landscape Architecture
Born and raised in Worcester, Massachusetts, Denzel is an interdisciplinary artist and landscape designer who is interested in decolonial environmental epistemologies and ecological restoration. While at RISD, Denzel has focused his art practice on environmental ways of knowing through an Afro-diasporic lens. As a making-based line of research, his practice centers rethinking the modern day and ideations of the future through Indigenous African technologies. With a background in urban planning and administration, Denzel has explored modes of community development that aim to subvert western hegemonic relationships to labor and industrialization. This summer, Denzel will be working with the Ghanaian Youth Environmental Movement in Accra, Ghana as a community landscape design intern. Together with the GYEM team, Denzel will aid in their on-going grassroots operations advocacy through the development of a landscape-based curriculum that encourages communal agency in shaping space through art installations and environmentally responsive agroforestry design. Through this Fellowship, Denzel is hoping to contribute towards fostering sustainable and culturally resonant approaches to environmental stewardship, rooted in local knowledge and community empowerment.
MLA 2024 | Landscape Architecture
Born and raised in Worcester, Massachusetts, Denzel is an interdisciplinary artist and landscape designer who is interested in decolonial environmental epistemologies and ecological restoration. While at RISD, Denzel has focused his art practice on environmental ways of knowing through an Afro-diasporic lens. As a making-based line of research, his practice centers rethinking the modern day and ideations of the future through Indigenous African technologies. With a background in urban planning and administration, Denzel has explored modes of community development that aim to subvert western hegemonic relationships to labor and industrialization. This summer, Denzel will be working with the Ghanaian Youth Environmental Movement in Accra, Ghana as a community landscape design intern. Together with the GYEM team, Denzel will aid in their on-going grassroots operations advocacy through the development of a landscape-based curriculum that encourages communal agency in shaping space through art installations and environmentally responsive agroforestry design. Through this Fellowship, Denzel is hoping to contribute towards fostering sustainable and culturally resonant approaches to environmental stewardship, rooted in local knowledge and community empowerment.
Alexandra Hogue | The Grand Adventure
BRDD 2026 | Illustration
Alexandra Hogue, or Alex, is a designer and scientist exploring the intersection between visual communication and healthcare. She is a Brown|RISD Dual-Degree student studying Illustration at RISD and Computer Science at Brown, which enables her to explore the interdisciplinary links between art and science. Alex has previously pursued these interests working as a Medical Illustration intern at UNC Hospital in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where she collaborated with Neurosurgeons to translate complex medical concepts into accessible visualizations. Her dedication to making complex information accessible to others underscores her commitment inclusivity and accessibility in visual communication and exploring new avenues for design. This summer, she will continue exploring the ways in which design can be used to benefit the healthcare field while working with The Grand Adventure, a nonprofit organization that supports cancer patients’ recovery amidst the natural beauty of Yellowstone National Park in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Through this experience, Alex aims to employ her design skills to enhance the well-being and healing experiences of cancer survivors.
BRDD 2026 | Illustration
Alexandra Hogue, or Alex, is a designer and scientist exploring the intersection between visual communication and healthcare. She is a Brown|RISD Dual-Degree student studying Illustration at RISD and Computer Science at Brown, which enables her to explore the interdisciplinary links between art and science. Alex has previously pursued these interests working as a Medical Illustration intern at UNC Hospital in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where she collaborated with Neurosurgeons to translate complex medical concepts into accessible visualizations. Her dedication to making complex information accessible to others underscores her commitment inclusivity and accessibility in visual communication and exploring new avenues for design. This summer, she will continue exploring the ways in which design can be used to benefit the healthcare field while working with The Grand Adventure, a nonprofit organization that supports cancer patients’ recovery amidst the natural beauty of Yellowstone National Park in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Through this experience, Alex aims to employ her design skills to enhance the well-being and healing experiences of cancer survivors.
Zoe Lee | Dark Matter Labs
BFA 2024 | Industrial Design
Zoe Lee is an interdisciplinary strategic design, researcher, and filmmaker from Massachusetts. She has explored this intersection of design and research with MIT Media Lab, the Center for Complexity, the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation, The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and more. Her filmmaking practice explores themes of relationships to land, climate and social justice, and community-based narratives. As a 3rd generation Korean-Japanese-Chinese-American, she has a particular interest in transcending boundaries, exploring the innovation of fusion, and expanding on the “traditional”. This summer, Zoe will be working with Dark Matter Labs in London to develop a docu-series. This body of film work will explore the future of design in the climate crisis, governance, and pattern finding in poly-crisis. Through the fellowship, she hopes to use this platform to create work that empowers individuals in the face of the climate crisis.
BFA 2024 | Industrial Design
Zoe Lee is an interdisciplinary strategic design, researcher, and filmmaker from Massachusetts. She has explored this intersection of design and research with MIT Media Lab, the Center for Complexity, the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation, The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and more. Her filmmaking practice explores themes of relationships to land, climate and social justice, and community-based narratives. As a 3rd generation Korean-Japanese-Chinese-American, she has a particular interest in transcending boundaries, exploring the innovation of fusion, and expanding on the “traditional”. This summer, Zoe will be working with Dark Matter Labs in London to develop a docu-series. This body of film work will explore the future of design in the climate crisis, governance, and pattern finding in poly-crisis. Through the fellowship, she hopes to use this platform to create work that empowers individuals in the face of the climate crisis.
Yiming Lei | Bazi Botanical Garden
MLA 2024 | Landscape Architecture
Lei is a landscape architect and artist born in southern China. As a Shē ethnic minority (畲族), Lei has always been interested in the traditional Shē knowledge of plants, and the vernacular landscape where he grew up. As a young landscape architect who focuses a lot on diversity, Lei’s past work in RISD has been intensively focused on telling the stories of different social groups through plants. This summer, Lei will work with Bazi Botanical Garden, a queer-owned NGO focusing on providing accessible knowledge of plants for the local community, and his family members to find ways to document, digitalize, and pass down the traditional plant knowledge of Shē people. With his skills as a landscape architect, Lei will work with Bazi Botanical Garden to find ways to tell the stories of the Shē people through various plant-based community engagements, such as herbarium-making workshops, seeds-collecting ceremonies, food-sharing events… Lei will also help to develop new natural education curriculums for the local communities based on the knowledge he will gather and produce.
MLA 2024 | Landscape Architecture
Lei is a landscape architect and artist born in southern China. As a Shē ethnic minority (畲族), Lei has always been interested in the traditional Shē knowledge of plants, and the vernacular landscape where he grew up. As a young landscape architect who focuses a lot on diversity, Lei’s past work in RISD has been intensively focused on telling the stories of different social groups through plants. This summer, Lei will work with Bazi Botanical Garden, a queer-owned NGO focusing on providing accessible knowledge of plants for the local community, and his family members to find ways to document, digitalize, and pass down the traditional plant knowledge of Shē people. With his skills as a landscape architect, Lei will work with Bazi Botanical Garden to find ways to tell the stories of the Shē people through various plant-based community engagements, such as herbarium-making workshops, seeds-collecting ceremonies, food-sharing events… Lei will also help to develop new natural education curriculums for the local communities based on the knowledge he will gather and produce.
Maria Lopez Vazquez | Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve
MLA 2025 | Landscape Architecture
Maria is a multicultural designer from the binational region Tijuana-San Diego. Her interests are in the intersection of design and ecology. Her writing and multi-media projects explore social justice, ecological justice, land rights, water processes, healing nature, landscape as poetry, and landscape as a revolution. At her graduate studio, she is exploring the hydrological cycles and how they are disturbed by urban sprawl, causing pollution, flooding, and landslides. As she explores these topics, she becomes interested in representation and the critical choices made when creating maps and other drawings. She will work with a multidisciplinary team in her internship with the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve (TRNERR). She will get input from community members in implementing Nature Base Solutions in previously used concrete infrastructure situations. She is eventually building a collaborative typology of forms and materials suitable for the region.
MLA 2025 | Landscape Architecture
Maria is a multicultural designer from the binational region Tijuana-San Diego. Her interests are in the intersection of design and ecology. Her writing and multi-media projects explore social justice, ecological justice, land rights, water processes, healing nature, landscape as poetry, and landscape as a revolution. At her graduate studio, she is exploring the hydrological cycles and how they are disturbed by urban sprawl, causing pollution, flooding, and landslides. As she explores these topics, she becomes interested in representation and the critical choices made when creating maps and other drawings. She will work with a multidisciplinary team in her internship with the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve (TRNERR). She will get input from community members in implementing Nature Base Solutions in previously used concrete infrastructure situations. She is eventually building a collaborative typology of forms and materials suitable for the region.
Jo Ouyang | Asian American Advocacy Fund
BRDD 2026 | Painting / Ethnic Studies
Jo Ouyang is an interdisciplinary artist and organizer from Atlanta, Georgia. Majoring in Painting and Ethnic Studies, they are interested in archiving as an act of resistance. On campus, Jo coordinates with Brown Asian Sisters Empowered to build sisterhood, political education programming, and mutual aid with transgender, genderqueer, and femme Asian students. This summer, in Atlanta, they will be interning with the Asian American Advocacy Fund (AAAF) to collaborate on an oral history and visual art archive of Asian American organizing in Atlanta. Through interviews and ethnographic research, Jo will document AAAF’s organizing strategies to build community in both urban and suburban areas of Atlanta. The resulting archive of photographs, artwork, and transcripts will be used for social media, press, and outreach strategies as well as serve as an educational toolkit for future campaigns. Through this experience, Jo is hoping to understand the nuances in political identity formation with Atlanta’s Asian American communities and highlight the experiences of Asian American organizers in the South.
BRDD 2026 | Painting / Ethnic Studies
Jo Ouyang is an interdisciplinary artist and organizer from Atlanta, Georgia. Majoring in Painting and Ethnic Studies, they are interested in archiving as an act of resistance. On campus, Jo coordinates with Brown Asian Sisters Empowered to build sisterhood, political education programming, and mutual aid with transgender, genderqueer, and femme Asian students. This summer, in Atlanta, they will be interning with the Asian American Advocacy Fund (AAAF) to collaborate on an oral history and visual art archive of Asian American organizing in Atlanta. Through interviews and ethnographic research, Jo will document AAAF’s organizing strategies to build community in both urban and suburban areas of Atlanta. The resulting archive of photographs, artwork, and transcripts will be used for social media, press, and outreach strategies as well as serve as an educational toolkit for future campaigns. Through this experience, Jo is hoping to understand the nuances in political identity formation with Atlanta’s Asian American communities and highlight the experiences of Asian American organizers in the South.
Upasana Pandey | Let’s Be The Change
MID 2025 | Industrial Design
Upasana Pandey is an Industrial Design student at RISD. She will be interning with Let’s Be The Change (LBTC) in Bengaluru, India, supported by the Maharam Fellowship. LBTC aims to uplift the waste picker community and works towards the goal of Solid Waste Management. Her experience ranges from parametric architecture to graphic design, working with government to healthcare. She is driven to make a positive difference through her work, which has led her to explore the fields of sustainable product development, social innovation, technology, and art. She has won recognition and awards from organizations like the Chief Minister’s Office of Rajasthan (India), Governor’s Office of Maharashtra (India), and DNA Paris Design Award Competition (France). When she’s not designing, you can find her exploring offbeat places, walking to the beach, or taking photos of candid objects. She loves physics, zodiacs, flowers and illustrations.
MID 2025 | Industrial Design
Upasana Pandey is an Industrial Design student at RISD. She will be interning with Let’s Be The Change (LBTC) in Bengaluru, India, supported by the Maharam Fellowship. LBTC aims to uplift the waste picker community and works towards the goal of Solid Waste Management. Her experience ranges from parametric architecture to graphic design, working with government to healthcare. She is driven to make a positive difference through her work, which has led her to explore the fields of sustainable product development, social innovation, technology, and art. She has won recognition and awards from organizations like the Chief Minister’s Office of Rajasthan (India), Governor’s Office of Maharashtra (India), and DNA Paris Design Award Competition (France). When she’s not designing, you can find her exploring offbeat places, walking to the beach, or taking photos of candid objects. She loves physics, zodiacs, flowers and illustrations.
Maureen Scally | Arte Con Voz
MFA 2024 | Textiles
Born and raised in Argentina, Maureen is an architect currently pursuing a masters of Fine Arts in Textiles at RISD. Her work explores the intersection of art, architecture and textiles through the use of color, scale and texture. Maureen considers fabrics to be architectural elements capable of transforming the way we live and interact with the world. This summer she will be working with Arte con Voz, an Argentine non-profit organization that provides art workshops to elementary public schools and community centers in Buenos Aires. Together they will work on the Cobijo project, which will take place in the province of Rio Negro. By developing a relationship with native communities, educators, and locals, the goal is to build a self-sustaining structure made of felt, wood, bamboo, and fabric. Cobijo is a sustainable prototype that seeks to address the housing crisis at large all while providing a learning experience for the community and Arte con Voz. Back in Buenos Aires, the experience and outcomes will be shared in different academic institutions.
MFA 2024 | Textiles
Born and raised in Argentina, Maureen is an architect currently pursuing a masters of Fine Arts in Textiles at RISD. Her work explores the intersection of art, architecture and textiles through the use of color, scale and texture. Maureen considers fabrics to be architectural elements capable of transforming the way we live and interact with the world. This summer she will be working with Arte con Voz, an Argentine non-profit organization that provides art workshops to elementary public schools and community centers in Buenos Aires. Together they will work on the Cobijo project, which will take place in the province of Rio Negro. By developing a relationship with native communities, educators, and locals, the goal is to build a self-sustaining structure made of felt, wood, bamboo, and fabric. Cobijo is a sustainable prototype that seeks to address the housing crisis at large all while providing a learning experience for the community and Arte con Voz. Back in Buenos Aires, the experience and outcomes will be shared in different academic institutions.
Mary Seol | Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking
BARCH 2024 | Architecture
Mary Seol is an avid papermaking enthusiast and recent RISD Architecture graduate. This summer, she will be returning to her home state to collaborate with the Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking at the Georgia Institute of Technology. There she will assist museum staff in restoring their collections while investigating regional histories of papermaking traditions. Community engagement through public tours and workshops will aim to inform audiences on the potential of paper as a sustainable and renewable resource in a circular material economy. Applying her architectural knowledge, she will develop models of the gallery space to aid future museum exhibition design. Through the Fellowship, she looks forward to exploring intersections between papermaking, education, and curation—particularly through the lens of her architectural background and material sustainability.
BARCH 2024 | Architecture
Mary Seol is an avid papermaking enthusiast and recent RISD Architecture graduate. This summer, she will be returning to her home state to collaborate with the Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking at the Georgia Institute of Technology. There she will assist museum staff in restoring their collections while investigating regional histories of papermaking traditions. Community engagement through public tours and workshops will aim to inform audiences on the potential of paper as a sustainable and renewable resource in a circular material economy. Applying her architectural knowledge, she will develop models of the gallery space to aid future museum exhibition design. Through the Fellowship, she looks forward to exploring intersections between papermaking, education, and curation—particularly through the lens of her architectural background and material sustainability.