Name: Alex Masi
Areas of study: Modern dance and religion (with a minor in English)
Hometown: Deerfield Beach, Fla.

With my Fulbright grant, I will be: With a Fulbright-Nehru Research Grant to India, I plan to live, practice and conduct research at Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi. My work will focus on clarifying the role of dance and religious environmentalism in developing a culture of ecological responsibility. For the past three years, I have dedicated myself to developing as a dancer, choreographer and scholar and have built a body of research documenting the ways dance and religious environmentalism — specifically Hinduism in India — can help human beings heal their relationship with themselves, other beings and the planet.

I’m excited about this because: Living and dancing in India, which has such a vibrant culture with beautifully expressive people, is a dream come true. I am also excited because the environmental crisis requires a profound shift in our understanding of human existence, and I truly believe this research grant will promote mandatory cultural exchange and cross-disciplinary dialogue to create new methodologies that can help promote a culture of ecological responsibility.

TCU prepared me for this because: TCU’s mission statement states an intention to educate individuals to think and act as ethical leaders within the global community and that is exactly what I am doing. My education and the unbelievable professors I have encountered on this campus not only increased my intellectual abilities but also taught me how to think critically about how I am moving through and acting upon the world. TCU cultivated my passion to live my life trying to make our world a better place for current and future generations and helped me to find the confidence, compassion and strength to live this out.