Servus! Hi! My name is Sophie Sundaram, but please call me Sophie! I am 22 years old and come from Concord, Massachusetts. You might know it as the town where the America Revolution started. Growing up in Concord, I was always interested in the arts, exploring the many museums in the nearby city of Boston, making art, playing piano and singing in several choirs. I stayed in Massachusetts for college, where I studied Studio Art and Art History at College of the Holy Cross. I spent a lot of time making my own art, and also learning about the stories of people who had made art before me.
I come from a pretty international family: my mother is Polish, and my dad’s family is originally from India, and they lived in England and Austria before I was born. They still have friends in Austria, and when I visited them one time as a kid, I just fell in love with all the museums and the German language. My senior year of college, I created a thesis project, during which I made portraits of people from diverse immigrant backgrounds in Worcester--the city where I studied. I was really interested in exploring how all the emotions these people held were made visible in their faces and bodies. This project got me interested in the work of Maria Lassnig, who was a famous Austrian painter who was also very interested in how emotions express in our bodies.
I applied to, and was grateful to receive a Fulbright grant to study Maria Lassnig's paintings in Vienna. A Fulbright grant helps support young people like me who want to carry out research abroad. As part of my grant, I will also taking art history classes at the University of Vienna and teaching English at a school for people studying visual arts and design. I am excited to study Maria Lassnig’s work, learn more about Austrian art and culture in general and share my adventure in Austria with you. And I cannot wait to hear in turn about your journeys throughout this year!
Want to learn how you could be a Fulbright Scholar like me? The Fulbright Program is the United States government's flagship international exchange program. Fulbrighters foster mutual understanding between the United States and partner nations, share knowledge across communities, and improve lives around the world. Learn more by clicking here!
