Roman Belton, C’26, Awarded Watson Fellowship
April 12, 2026
Roman Belton, C’26, an art and theatre double major from Indianola, Mississippi, has been awarded a prestigious Thomas J. Watson Fellowship for 2026-27. Belton is Sewanee’s 54th Watson Fellow.
Belton is one of 39 students who comprise this year’s class of Watson Fellows. Selected from colleges and universities across the United States, winners of the fellowship receive a stipend of $40,000 for 12 months of independent study and travel outside of the United States. Read the full press release here.
For their project, titled “Puppets as Gender-Neutral Storytellers,” Belton will explore puppetry as a vessel for storytelling across cultures, engaging them as a medium for challenging gender standards. Over the course of their project year, Belton plans to travel to England, the Czech Republic, Japan, and Thailand.
“The countries I chose for my project all have a rich history of puppetry. I plan to volunteer with puppetry organizations, take workshops in performance and puppet-making, and see as many puppet shows as I can,” says Belton.
At Sewanee, Belton has had extensive involvement in the theatre and art programs. This year, they created the puppets for Theatre Sewanee’s production of A Puppet Play in the fall and served as the costume designer for The Moors in the spring. Click here to watch Belton discuss their creative process and designs. Currently, Belton has several works on display in the University Art Gallery as part of the senior art majors’ installation, Weight of Fragility, which will be on view through May 9.
“I want to thank Professor Maha Jafri for her support as Sewanee's Watson liaison, Professor Jennifer Matthews for mentoring me the last four years, and Professor Jessica Wohl for always encouraging me to be as colorful as possible,” says Belton. “I also want to thank all of my lovely close friends in Sewanee. I depend on their support and I would not have had the confidence to apply for the Watson Fellowship at all without them.”
The Watson Foundation was created in the name of Thomas J. Watson Sr., best known for building IBM. Through one-of-a-kind programs, and more than 100 global partnerships, the foundation works with students to expand their vision, develop their potential, and build the confidence and perspective to be more humane and effective leaders in the world community.
Since 1985, when Sewanee was selected as one of the Watson institutions, the University has produced 54 fellowship recipients, including most recently Olivier Mbabazi and Angus Pritchard, both C’22. The Watson Foundation selects fellows based on qualities of leadership, imagination, independence, integrity, resourcefulness, and responsibility.
