The Robert L. Gaudino Memorial Fund is a unique educational resource inspired by the work of a gifted professor, Robert Gaudino.

His educational and profound moral visions had a lasting impact on the lives of generations of Williams students. At the heart of that vision were experiential education, rigorous scholarship, and a respect for the different perspectives people bring to a question or problem. With insight, discipline, and an unfailing insistence on civility in discussion, Professor Gaudino brought students into contact with uncomfortable differences between their accustomed views of the world and alternative ways to see it. His work was done in the classroom and outside it, placing high value on improving the openness and quality of intellectual discourse throughout the campus.

Please feel free to explore the links in the left hand menu, on the Fund’s past and present activities.

Spotlight: The 2011 Winter Study Projects

Desiree Daring, 2011 Gaudino Fellow

Gaudino Fellow Goes to Guatemala – January 2011   This winter study I was fortunate enough to be named a Gaudino Fellow.  As a Gaudino Fellow I went to study Spanish in a Guatemalan school.  As part of my Spanish Immersion Program at the Pop Wuj Spanish School, I did community service and lived with more »

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Mina Dinh, 2011 Gaudino Fellow

Emigration and Family Dynamics in Laos My project is a case study of the effects of open adoptions on family dynamics. My host family, which happens to be the subject of my study, lives in Laos, and has placed their three eldest children up for adoption. The majority of the month was spent getting to more »

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Veronique Hob-Hob, 2011 Gaudino Fellow

Kigali, Rwanda I- Synopsis My project aimed at studying the consequences of Rwandese women’s empowerment through the case studies of women’s soaring employment opportunities in the beading and weaving industries. I wanted to explore the social, economic and cultural impacts subsequent to this trend, focusing on the challenges that such changes had brought not only more »

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Kelsey Ham, 2011 Gaudino Fellow

Synopsis: How does healthcare work in conjunction with religion and culture to prevent and treat leprosy?  How do Ethiopians use religion as a frame for understanding and managing disease?  During my two weeks spent in ALERT leprosy hospital in Korah village of the capital city Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, questions of this variety helped me more »

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Mo Lotif, 2011 Gaudino Fellow

  Mathir Ghaan (Music of the Earth): A Critical Exploration of the Social Functions of Baul Songs in Rural Sylhet, Bangladesh During my Gaudino month, I set out to explore the social functions of Baul music, Bengali folk music, in the rural communities of Sylhet, Bangladesh. Specifically, I had a two-fold objective: 1) to recover more »

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Emily Levy, 2011 Gaudino Fellow

For Winter Study, I went to Ghana to research the stigma of mental disability there and how, if at all, people with mental disabilities are treated differently from people with physical disabilities.  I am very interested in the education and enrichment programs for the mentally disabled, and since I only had experience in my home-town, more »

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Abdullah Awad, 2011 Gaudino Fellow

At the secular American University in Beirut in Lebanon and in the Coptic Christian community of Garbage City in Egypt, I undertook an analysis of religious and secular rituals.  My intention was to provide a theory for the way in which means of recognizability can be traced to particular religious and secular rituals. Thus, in more »

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Jeff Thaler’s TED Talk

  Watch Jeff Thaler – board member of the Gaudino Fund – give a TED talk on “Immersion in the Unfamiliar: An Education.”  Enlightening and enjoyable....

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