The Current Fellows
The 2026 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.
June Ahleman | Evanston ASPA
BFA 2027 | Painting
June Ahleman is an interdisciplinary artist engaging with themes of objectification, appropriation, and impermanence; she is currently pursuing a BFA in Painting with a concentration in Theory and History of Art and Design at RISD. This summer she will collaborate with Evanston ASPA, a nonprofit supporting the local Asian American community. Evanston ASPA’s mission is to increase visibility and representation of the Asian American diaspora in civic, cultural and community spaces. She will contribute to the Placemaking Project, a community archive that gathers historical research and oral histories. She will also help research and develop educational materials to support the TEAACH (Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History) Act, which requires Asian American history in K–12 curricula.
Through contributions to the TEAACH Initiative, June will work with Evanston ASPA to translate their archival and community-based work into accessible learning tools, ensuring that these stories are preserved, taught, and integrated into future generations’ understanding of America’s history.
BFA 2027 | Painting
June Ahleman is an interdisciplinary artist engaging with themes of objectification, appropriation, and impermanence; she is currently pursuing a BFA in Painting with a concentration in Theory and History of Art and Design at RISD. This summer she will collaborate with Evanston ASPA, a nonprofit supporting the local Asian American community. Evanston ASPA’s mission is to increase visibility and representation of the Asian American diaspora in civic, cultural and community spaces. She will contribute to the Placemaking Project, a community archive that gathers historical research and oral histories. She will also help research and develop educational materials to support the TEAACH (Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History) Act, which requires Asian American history in K–12 curricula.
Through contributions to the TEAACH Initiative, June will work with Evanston ASPA to translate their archival and community-based work into accessible learning tools, ensuring that these stories are preserved, taught, and integrated into future generations’ understanding of America’s history.
Asmaa Amadou | Kokrobitey Institute
MFA 2026 | Textiles
Asmaa Amadou is a Togolese multidisciplinary artist and researcher working across textile, sculpture and installation. Born in Togo and raised between West Africa and the United States, her practice investigates migration, material memory, and systems of exchange — engaging textile traditions as living knowledge systems that carry cultural meaning across geographies and generations. She holds a BA in Anthropology from SUNY New Paltz and is currently completing her MFA in Textiles at the Rhode Island School of Design. This summer, Asmaa will work with Kokrobitey Institute in Kokrobite, Accra/Ghana — a nonprofit dedicated to regenerative design, environmental literacy, and community-based creative education. Collaborating with local artisans, women, and youth, she will support textile workshops and material-based programming while deepening her research into West African textile traditions. Through this fellowship, Asmaa hopes to explore how material knowledge is shared, preserved, and activated within community contexts and how those insights can expand her practice into more socially engaged and collaborative forms and explorations.
MFA 2026 | Textiles
Asmaa Amadou is a Togolese multidisciplinary artist and researcher working across textile, sculpture and installation. Born in Togo and raised between West Africa and the United States, her practice investigates migration, material memory, and systems of exchange — engaging textile traditions as living knowledge systems that carry cultural meaning across geographies and generations. She holds a BA in Anthropology from SUNY New Paltz and is currently completing her MFA in Textiles at the Rhode Island School of Design. This summer, Asmaa will work with Kokrobitey Institute in Kokrobite, Accra/Ghana — a nonprofit dedicated to regenerative design, environmental literacy, and community-based creative education. Collaborating with local artisans, women, and youth, she will support textile workshops and material-based programming while deepening her research into West African textile traditions. Through this fellowship, Asmaa hopes to explore how material knowledge is shared, preserved, and activated within community contexts and how those insights can expand her practice into more socially engaged and collaborative forms and explorations.
Manal Imran Dar | Newtown Creek Alliance
MLA 2026 | Landscape Architecture
Manal Dar is a landscape architect whose research and design work sit at the intersection of environmental justice and the immigrant experience. Having lived in Pakistan, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, and now the United States, Manal brings a deeply rooted curiosity about how people find belonging on unfamiliar ground, and how reciprocity with land can define our relationship to place. This summer, Manal will join the Newtown Creek Alliance in New York City conducting soil health testing and mapping contamination across Industrial Business Zone sites. She will prototype bioremediation strategies and develop an illustrated field guide to urban soil stewardship. Through the Maharam fellowship, Manal aims to translate field research into accessible tools that strengthen public soil literacy and support NCA’s ongoing restoration work along one of the most polluted waterways in the United States.
MLA 2026 | Landscape Architecture
Manal Dar is a landscape architect whose research and design work sit at the intersection of environmental justice and the immigrant experience. Having lived in Pakistan, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, and now the United States, Manal brings a deeply rooted curiosity about how people find belonging on unfamiliar ground, and how reciprocity with land can define our relationship to place. This summer, Manal will join the Newtown Creek Alliance in New York City conducting soil health testing and mapping contamination across Industrial Business Zone sites. She will prototype bioremediation strategies and develop an illustrated field guide to urban soil stewardship. Through the Maharam fellowship, Manal aims to translate field research into accessible tools that strengthen public soil literacy and support NCA’s ongoing restoration work along one of the most polluted waterways in the United States.
Elsa Fishman | Homeboy Industries
BFA 2026 | SculptureElsa Antonia Fishman (b. 2004) is a sculptor from California, currently living and working in Providence Rhode Island. Through casting, carving, drawing, and moldmaking, she builds bodily forms that hold contradictions, the soft and the rigid, the ugly and the divine, the human and the animal, the personal and the ancestral. Her work interrogates texture, opacity, mythology, identity, and visibility, challenging notions of belonging and treating process as a site of emergence and transformation. This summer, Elsa will work with Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, the largest gang intervention, rehabilitation, and reentry program in the world. In collaboration with the Art Academy at Homeboy, Elsa will lead classes and workshops, working directly with the Losa Angeles community to address ways that craft can not only provide skills for job reentry, but also using art as a place for play and expression. Through this Fellowship, Elsa aims to engage directly with issues of mass incarceration while expanding access to creative tools and communal making practices.
BFA 2026 | SculptureElsa Antonia Fishman (b. 2004) is a sculptor from California, currently living and working in Providence Rhode Island. Through casting, carving, drawing, and moldmaking, she builds bodily forms that hold contradictions, the soft and the rigid, the ugly and the divine, the human and the animal, the personal and the ancestral. Her work interrogates texture, opacity, mythology, identity, and visibility, challenging notions of belonging and treating process as a site of emergence and transformation. This summer, Elsa will work with Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, the largest gang intervention, rehabilitation, and reentry program in the world. In collaboration with the Art Academy at Homeboy, Elsa will lead classes and workshops, working directly with the Losa Angeles community to address ways that craft can not only provide skills for job reentry, but also using art as a place for play and expression. Through this Fellowship, Elsa aims to engage directly with issues of mass incarceration while expanding access to creative tools and communal making practices.
Alyssa Gorman | Around the World in 80 Fabrics
BRDD 2028 | Textiles / Sustainable Infrastructure
Alyssa Gorman is a multidisciplinary designer working at the intersection of textiles, ecological conservation, and green infrastructure. As a student in the Brown|RISD Dual Degree Program, she is pursuing degrees in Textile Design at RISD and Sustainable Infrastructure at Brown University. She’s passionate about materials exploration, preserving our ecological surroundings, and learning about sustainable alternatives to synthetic textiles. This summer, she will intern with Around the World in 80 Fabrics, a nonprofit in Carmel, CA dedicated to reducing microplastic pollution by celebrating the diversity of alternatives, whether through indigenous craft practices or cutting-edge recycling technology. During her work with ATW80F, Alyssa will contribute to the development of educational resources that make textile knowledge accessible to broader audiences while supporting the documentation and preservation of diverse fabric traditions. She is particularly interested in how storytelling, science, and craft intersect to promote sustainable alternatives to petroleum-based textiles. Through this fellowship, she hopes to deepen her understanding of global textile ecosystems, build interdisciplinary connections, and contribute to initiatives that bridge environmental advocacy with cultural heritage.
BRDD 2028 | Textiles / Sustainable Infrastructure
Alyssa Gorman is a multidisciplinary designer working at the intersection of textiles, ecological conservation, and green infrastructure. As a student in the Brown|RISD Dual Degree Program, she is pursuing degrees in Textile Design at RISD and Sustainable Infrastructure at Brown University. She’s passionate about materials exploration, preserving our ecological surroundings, and learning about sustainable alternatives to synthetic textiles. This summer, she will intern with Around the World in 80 Fabrics, a nonprofit in Carmel, CA dedicated to reducing microplastic pollution by celebrating the diversity of alternatives, whether through indigenous craft practices or cutting-edge recycling technology. During her work with ATW80F, Alyssa will contribute to the development of educational resources that make textile knowledge accessible to broader audiences while supporting the documentation and preservation of diverse fabric traditions. She is particularly interested in how storytelling, science, and craft intersect to promote sustainable alternatives to petroleum-based textiles. Through this fellowship, she hopes to deepen her understanding of global textile ecosystems, build interdisciplinary connections, and contribute to initiatives that bridge environmental advocacy with cultural heritage.
Karen Hu | Alliance to Mobilize Our Resistance
MFA 2027 | Printmaking
Karen Hu is a Chinese American printmaker, book artist, and user experience designer rooted in social practice. Her work explores how collaboratively produced printed materials, made in and for community, can support shared understanding, unity, and collective vision for a just future. She is committed to a world where tools of visual and textual production are accessible to communities to make and share information on their own terms. Over the past year, Karen has outreached and organized with the Deportation Defense Network (DDN), a Rhode Island–based group defending immigrant neighbors, contributing graphic designs and posters to the DDN. This summer, as a RISD Maharam Fellow, Karen will work with the Alliance to Mobilize Our Resistance (AMOR), a pillar organization of the DDN in Providence, RI, as an organizer and printmaker. She will help develop a series of printmaking workshops for community members, while contributing to AMOR’s broader organizing work. Karen hopes to contribute to the development of a social practice printmaking that is deeply motivated by and made for culturally specific yet interconnected movements.
MFA 2027 | Printmaking
Karen Hu is a Chinese American printmaker, book artist, and user experience designer rooted in social practice. Her work explores how collaboratively produced printed materials, made in and for community, can support shared understanding, unity, and collective vision for a just future. She is committed to a world where tools of visual and textual production are accessible to communities to make and share information on their own terms. Over the past year, Karen has outreached and organized with the Deportation Defense Network (DDN), a Rhode Island–based group defending immigrant neighbors, contributing graphic designs and posters to the DDN. This summer, as a RISD Maharam Fellow, Karen will work with the Alliance to Mobilize Our Resistance (AMOR), a pillar organization of the DDN in Providence, RI, as an organizer and printmaker. She will help develop a series of printmaking workshops for community members, while contributing to AMOR’s broader organizing work. Karen hopes to contribute to the development of a social practice printmaking that is deeply motivated by and made for culturally specific yet interconnected movements.
Jessie Kanji | Taller Leñateros
MFA 2027 | Printmaking
Jessie Kanji is a multidisciplinary artist, researcher, and educator from Aotearoa, New Zealand, currently pursuing an MFA in Print at RISD. Her enquiry involves systematic testing and experimentation into the haptics of the inherently printerly, tracing how the interplay of touch, pressure, resistance and separation catalyse patterns that carry their own visual syntax and semantics. Through colour and pattern, she constructs a visual language that articulates the sensuousness of materials and the rhythmic intimacy of the handmade. This summer, Jessie will collaborate with Taller Leñateros, a Maya-run editorial collective in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico. She will contribute to research, documentation, and the creation of bilingual educational and visual materials to support the organisation’s communication and archival initiatives. Jessie aims to learn how Indigenous-led publishing, material practices, and cooperative structures sustain cultural and ecological knowledge. Through this fellowship, she hopes to inform her own community-based print practice, deepening her understanding of the intersections between handmade processes, cultural preservation, and collaborative storytelling.
MFA 2027 | Printmaking
Jessie Kanji is a multidisciplinary artist, researcher, and educator from Aotearoa, New Zealand, currently pursuing an MFA in Print at RISD. Her enquiry involves systematic testing and experimentation into the haptics of the inherently printerly, tracing how the interplay of touch, pressure, resistance and separation catalyse patterns that carry their own visual syntax and semantics. Through colour and pattern, she constructs a visual language that articulates the sensuousness of materials and the rhythmic intimacy of the handmade. This summer, Jessie will collaborate with Taller Leñateros, a Maya-run editorial collective in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico. She will contribute to research, documentation, and the creation of bilingual educational and visual materials to support the organisation’s communication and archival initiatives. Jessie aims to learn how Indigenous-led publishing, material practices, and cooperative structures sustain cultural and ecological knowledge. Through this fellowship, she hopes to inform her own community-based print practice, deepening her understanding of the intersections between handmade processes, cultural preservation, and collaborative storytelling.
Mahrukh Khizar | Mahwari Justice
MFA 2027 | Printmaking
Mahrukh Khizar is a multidisciplinary artist and graduate student in Printmaking at RISD whose practice is rooted in feminist inquiry, exploration of printed matter, and socially engaged art. Her work investigates systems of gender, labor, and care, often engaging with themes of bodily autonomy and cultural narratives surrounding women. This summer, Mahrukh will collaborate with Mahwari Justice, a Lahore-based organization working to eradicate period poverty in Pakistan. Together with the organization’s team, she will develop disability-inclusive menstrual health resources, including a toolkit and zine designed for accessibility across diverse communities. She will also support community engagement initiatives and fundraising efforts through art-based workshops and visual communication strategies. Through this fellowship, Mahrukh aims to expand her practice beyond the studio by applying art and design thinking within grassroots advocacy. She is particularly interested in how visual language can support education, challenge stigma, and create accessible pathways for dialogue. Ultimately, she hopes to contribute to sustainable, community-centered approaches to menstrual justice while shaping a practice grounded in collaboration and social impact.
MFA 2027 | Printmaking
Mahrukh Khizar is a multidisciplinary artist and graduate student in Printmaking at RISD whose practice is rooted in feminist inquiry, exploration of printed matter, and socially engaged art. Her work investigates systems of gender, labor, and care, often engaging with themes of bodily autonomy and cultural narratives surrounding women. This summer, Mahrukh will collaborate with Mahwari Justice, a Lahore-based organization working to eradicate period poverty in Pakistan. Together with the organization’s team, she will develop disability-inclusive menstrual health resources, including a toolkit and zine designed for accessibility across diverse communities. She will also support community engagement initiatives and fundraising efforts through art-based workshops and visual communication strategies. Through this fellowship, Mahrukh aims to expand her practice beyond the studio by applying art and design thinking within grassroots advocacy. She is particularly interested in how visual language can support education, challenge stigma, and create accessible pathways for dialogue. Ultimately, she hopes to contribute to sustainable, community-centered approaches to menstrual justice while shaping a practice grounded in collaboration and social impact.
Salma Hassaan Mohamed | VeryNile
MFA 2027 | Digital Media
Salma Hassaan is an interdisciplinary artist and designer (b. Cairo, Egypt) who investigates the intersection of technology, natural environments, and human behavior through interactive installations, material experimentation, and responsive design. Her research focuses on shifts in the perception of time and presence, and on the possibilities for connection these shifts can create, whether with oneself or with others. This summer, Salma will work with VeryNile, the first initiative dedicated to cleaning plastic waste from the Nile River in Egypt. Working closely with community members on Qursaya Island and the VeryNile team, she will contribute to the development of products made from regenerative materials, participate in workshops, and take part in collecting and repurposing plastic waste. Through this fellowship, she hopes to deepen her understanding of community-based environmental practice and the circular economy by transforming discarded materials into innovative upcycled products.
MFA 2027 | Digital Media
Salma Hassaan is an interdisciplinary artist and designer (b. Cairo, Egypt) who investigates the intersection of technology, natural environments, and human behavior through interactive installations, material experimentation, and responsive design. Her research focuses on shifts in the perception of time and presence, and on the possibilities for connection these shifts can create, whether with oneself or with others. This summer, Salma will work with VeryNile, the first initiative dedicated to cleaning plastic waste from the Nile River in Egypt. Working closely with community members on Qursaya Island and the VeryNile team, she will contribute to the development of products made from regenerative materials, participate in workshops, and take part in collecting and repurposing plastic waste. Through this fellowship, she hopes to deepen her understanding of community-based environmental practice and the circular economy by transforming discarded materials into innovative upcycled products.
Nawal Urooj | Justice Assistance
MDES 2026 | Interior Architecture
Nawal Urooj is a designer and researcher currently pursuing a Master of Design in Interior Architecture, Adaptive Reuse at the Rhode Island School of Design. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Interior Design from the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture in Karachi, Pakistan. Her work centers on community-driven and user-focused design, with an emphasis on engagement, lived experiences, and cultural context as critical drivers for designing meaningful spaces. She is particularly interested in the intersections of climate-responsive design, vernacular architecture, and adaptive reuse, exploring how these approaches can contribute to more equitable and inclusive built environments. This summer, Nawal will collaborate with Justice Assistance on affordable housing initiatives for justice-impacted communities. Her work will focus on designing spaces that are dignified, accessible, and responsive to residents’ needs, prioritizing both spatial quality and social well-being. Drawing on her background in adaptive reuse and community-centered design, she aims to explore how thoughtful interior interventions can transform under-resourced housing into supportive environments that promote stability, belonging, and opportunity. Through this work, she seeks to position design as a tool for equity—one that not only improves living conditions but also helps foster resilient and connected communities.
MDES 2026 | Interior Architecture
Nawal Urooj is a designer and researcher currently pursuing a Master of Design in Interior Architecture, Adaptive Reuse at the Rhode Island School of Design. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Interior Design from the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture in Karachi, Pakistan. Her work centers on community-driven and user-focused design, with an emphasis on engagement, lived experiences, and cultural context as critical drivers for designing meaningful spaces. She is particularly interested in the intersections of climate-responsive design, vernacular architecture, and adaptive reuse, exploring how these approaches can contribute to more equitable and inclusive built environments. This summer, Nawal will collaborate with Justice Assistance on affordable housing initiatives for justice-impacted communities. Her work will focus on designing spaces that are dignified, accessible, and responsive to residents’ needs, prioritizing both spatial quality and social well-being. Drawing on her background in adaptive reuse and community-centered design, she aims to explore how thoughtful interior interventions can transform under-resourced housing into supportive environments that promote stability, belonging, and opportunity. Through this work, she seeks to position design as a tool for equity—one that not only improves living conditions but also helps foster resilient and connected communities.
Stephanie Van Riet | Biosphere 2
MFA 2026 | Sculpture
Stephanie Van Riet is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice explores ecology, deep time, and the entanglement between human and nonhuman systems. Fascinated by how living beings re-sculpt the contours of our planet and develop a collective intelligence through their movements, she visually organizes her observations through sculpture, printmaking and installation. At RISD, she is a graduate student in Sculpture and a Biomaterials Assistant in the Nature Lab, where she explores the possibilities of interspecies collaboration and new ways of sustainable creation. This summer, Stephanie will be the Artist-in-Residence at Biosphere 2, a climate research facility modeling interconnected ecosystems in Oracle, AZ. Collaborating with the scientists and engineers on the Coral Ark and Media Lab teams, she will design and fabricate biomimetic reef structures for the ocean biome, and develop digital twins of rainforest plants using 3D imaging tools. Through these ecological and material experiments, Stephanie will continue to utilize her artistic practice as a form of scientific inquiry, exploring how humans shape and are shaped by living systems.
MFA 2026 | Sculpture
Stephanie Van Riet is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice explores ecology, deep time, and the entanglement between human and nonhuman systems. Fascinated by how living beings re-sculpt the contours of our planet and develop a collective intelligence through their movements, she visually organizes her observations through sculpture, printmaking and installation. At RISD, she is a graduate student in Sculpture and a Biomaterials Assistant in the Nature Lab, where she explores the possibilities of interspecies collaboration and new ways of sustainable creation. This summer, Stephanie will be the Artist-in-Residence at Biosphere 2, a climate research facility modeling interconnected ecosystems in Oracle, AZ. Collaborating with the scientists and engineers on the Coral Ark and Media Lab teams, she will design and fabricate biomimetic reef structures for the ocean biome, and develop digital twins of rainforest plants using 3D imaging tools. Through these ecological and material experiments, Stephanie will continue to utilize her artistic practice as a form of scientific inquiry, exploring how humans shape and are shaped by living systems.
Serena Yu | The Dennis Conservation Land Trust
BFA 2027 | Illustration
Serena Yu is a sustainability-focused designer from Vancouver, Canada, majoring in Illustration with double concentrations in Nature Culture Sustainability Studies and Theory & History of Art & Design. Her practice is collaborative with the natural world and informed by organic patterns, foraged pigments, environmental topics, and site exploration. She believes in creative exploration for fostering deeper connections with the land and each other. This summer, Serena is working with Dennis Conservation Land Trust in Cape Cod, where the DCLT is restoring over 61 acres of neglected wetland and establishing the first maintained trails in Dennis Port. She will join ecologists and researchers in fieldwork and biological surveys, and will work alongside DCLT’s community partners at the Southern New England Fibershed and Not Enough Acres Farm. Immersion in the land and community will inform educational artworks and creative assets for trail signage, marketing, publications, and grant applications. Through this fellowship, Serena is excited to contribute her passion for natural science and environmental illustration to an active conservation project, and hopes to advocate for the intersection of art and sciences through thoughtful, research-informed educational assets that prioritize community engagement and education as key aspects for long-term preservation of ecological systems.
BFA 2027 | Illustration
Serena Yu is a sustainability-focused designer from Vancouver, Canada, majoring in Illustration with double concentrations in Nature Culture Sustainability Studies and Theory & History of Art & Design. Her practice is collaborative with the natural world and informed by organic patterns, foraged pigments, environmental topics, and site exploration. She believes in creative exploration for fostering deeper connections with the land and each other. This summer, Serena is working with Dennis Conservation Land Trust in Cape Cod, where the DCLT is restoring over 61 acres of neglected wetland and establishing the first maintained trails in Dennis Port. She will join ecologists and researchers in fieldwork and biological surveys, and will work alongside DCLT’s community partners at the Southern New England Fibershed and Not Enough Acres Farm. Immersion in the land and community will inform educational artworks and creative assets for trail signage, marketing, publications, and grant applications. Through this fellowship, Serena is excited to contribute her passion for natural science and environmental illustration to an active conservation project, and hopes to advocate for the intersection of art and sciences through thoughtful, research-informed educational assets that prioritize community engagement and education as key aspects for long-term preservation of ecological systems.