Fellow Focus: Abigail Brown
In this conversation with Pathways Fellow Brooke Luokkala, 2025-26 Undergraduate Humanities Honors Fellow Abigail Brown discusses her thesis project on the impact of capital punishment on communities and what she has enjoyed about being a Fox Fellow so far.
Brooke Luokkala: Hi, Abby. Thank you for joining me. Can you tell me about your project?
Abigail Brown: I am doing a creative nonfiction thesis in the English and Creative Writing department. It is a series of profiles on people who have loved ones either formerly executed or currently incarcerated on death row in Georgia. The idea behind the project is to illuminate how capital punishment and the carceral system impact communities. There's oftentimes a lot of focus, specifically when talking about death row, on the individual, the crime, and the death penalty. Those things are very important and will be aspects of my pieces, but, in the long run, what does this look like for the mother? The sister? The pen pal? Or even the friend, to have someone in this space?
BL: So how does your project fit the 2025-26 theme of “Life/Story”? And what does “Life/Story,” as a research theme, mean to you?
AB: I was really excited when I found out that the research theme for the Fox Center’s 2025-26 Undergraduate Honors Fellowship was “Life/Story.” Not only is my project a collection of stories, but the actual thesis is just going to be me telling these people's stories as honestly as I can because I think that these people's lives and their stories have a lot of value. So, this theme is very well-suited to the project that I'm doing, because the project that I'm doing is storytelling.
BL: What is your favorite part about being a Fox Fellow?
AB: My favorite part thus far has been meeting the other Fellows! I am amazed by the array of projects that we have going on. People are doing such different things. Every single person I've met in the Center has been so lovely. Just having this space to come to, and be a part of, especially because my project is a heavier topic, has been so nice. When you are working on a thesis, people struggle in different ways. We're able to share that with each other and lean on each other.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.