The Braden Storytelling Grant is one of the ways that the Stanford Storytelling Project helps students become audio storytellers.

 

Congratulations to our 2023 Braden Grant Winners!

Our 2023 cohort completed research in India, Europe, Mexico, Cambodia, and the United States. You can hear their reflections on their grant experience here:

Navya Mukesh Agarwal

Navya Agarwal (she/her) is a rising sophomore studying International Relations and Art. She is curious about the way oral narratives help document perspectives that are otherwise excluded from the pages of history. Her Braden Project applies this curiosity to a deeply personal context, examining the ways in which women’s bodies have been commercialized and imputed following the 1947 Pakistan-India Partition. 

Project Title: Shades of Gray: Ancestral Prostitution in Rajasthan
Location: India


Alice Lola Grace

Alice Grace is a Junior passionate about combining various modes of creative expression such as sound, fine arts, and creative writing into mixed media creations.  Inspired by what she learned traveling and volunteering on permaculture farms, her podcast will explore the interconnected lives of humans and nature on regenerative farming communities.


Project Title: Regeneration Pilgrimage
Location: Western Europe


Kevi Johnson

Kevi Johnson (she/her) is a rising senior studying English & Creative Writing who hopes to pursue a career in journalism. Her project is focused on the experiences of the Filipino caregiving community during the pandemic — a community that has remained heavily impacted by COVID, but is seldom included in media coverage of the impact of the pandemic on healthcare workers. 

Project Title: Back to the Philippines
Location: California


Lizbeth Luevano

Lizbeth Luevano is a junior from Indio, California. She is the granddaughter of a bracero (a Mexican laborer working seasonally in the United States) and the daughter of Mexican immigrants. She is double majoring in environmental anthropology and comparative studies in race and ethnicity. 


Project Title: La Fiesta and Cosmovisions in Oaxaca
Location: Oaxaca, Mexico


Anna McNulty

Anna McNulty (she/her) is a rising senior majoring in International Relations and minoring in Digital Humanities. Her interests are in writing, multimedia storytelling, and investigative reporting as a means to spread environmental awareness and justice. Her podcast explores the forces that motivate people to live sustainably, particularly if climate change isn’t a factor or considered real. Ultimately, her podcast attempts to understand the complexity of nature’s unwavering power on the paths we chart as humans.

Project Title: Back to the Garden
Location: New York & Wyoming
 

Marissa Mengheang

Marissa is a sophomore studying Psychology and Asian American Studies. Her project is centered around her family’s experiences living through the Khmer Rouge from 1975-1979 and how they coped with the aftermath of the genocide.

 

Project Title: We Are the Voice
Location: Cambodia

Anastasia Sotiropoulos

Anastasia studies Psychology and Creative Writing. Her freshman year, she joined the Prison Renaissance Project, which connects incarcerated artists/activists and Stanford students to collaborate on art and publish zines. Through the project, she met Adamu. They shared their first phone call in March 2020: She was in her home state of Texas as colleges had just shut down; he was at San Quentin State Prison, which would soon face one of the nation’s worst COVID outbreaks. While they were paired to create a film together, the outbreak halted that. What emerged instead were months of recorded phone calls and a friendship. Friends in Liminal Spaces follows the story of that year, and what it means to build connection across space and time.

Project Title: Friends in Liminal Spaces
Location: California

Shameeka Wilson

Shameeka Wilson (she/her) is a doctoral candidate in education. Her research interest spans multiple topics within education. Shameeka was born and raised in North Carolina and is very proud of her Southern roots. She readily allows these roots to shine through while she produces audio stories. When she isn’t consumed with doctoral work and audio producing, she enjoys the simple things in life. Nature walks, trying new recipes, and binge-watching reality TV are among her favorite pastimes. She also enjoys traveling, cross-stitching, and shenanigating with her immediate and extended family.

Project Title: The Power of Banter
Location: California

Listen to previous Branden grant projects

Details about applying here. 


Questions? Contact SSP Managing Editor Laura Joyce Davis: laurajd@stanford.edu.