Featured Alumni

Austin Bell 2006 is a senior at Davidson College, a nationally recognized and highly selective liberal arts college near Charlotte, NC, founded in 1837. Known for his mismatched suit and tie combinations around campus, Austin has made his face well known on campus. Beyond his mere dress, however, Austin has made a long-lasting footprint on Davidson's campus as the founding reporter, writer, director, and producer of the popular variety newscast, The Davidson Show.

Austin began his entreprenurial quest at Asheville School, when he revived The Omphaloskeptic, an underground newspaper for the School. He brings his understanding of the importance of community to The Davidson Show, as it is premiered in the college's Student Union before being available to the public on the Internet.

Austin is majoring in Psychology with a concentration in Communications Studies. He is one of the first students at Davidson to declare this concentration. "If you don't read literature, if you don't understand the culture, if you don't understand how the mind works, you're not going to be able to do anything with the camera once you know how to use it," said Austin. View Davidson's student focus page to read more about what Austin is doing for the college.

Dr. Frederick F. Wherry 1990 is currently an Assistant Professor of sociology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He received his Ph.D. in sociology from Princeton University in 2004.

Fred recently published "Global Markets and Local Crafts: Thailand and Costa Rica Compared," a book about the handicraft industries of Thailand and Costa Rica that articulates how local cultural industries break into global markets and how global markets affect the ways in which artisans understand, adapt and utilize their cultural traditions. His book has developed a new framework for studying globalization by considering the phenomenon from the perspective of the supplier instead of the market.

Over the years, Fred has traveled extensively for volunteer and professional work to Australia, Costa Rica, Russia, England, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, South Africa, the Kingdom of Swaziland, the Kingdom of Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Tibet, China, the Philippines and the People's Democratic Republic of Laos.

Fred entered the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a Morehead Scholar, and graduated with degrees in public policy and creative writing.