Carolina senior gets the Marshall Scholarship to research in the British isles

Patrick Clinch, a senior studying historical past and political science in the College of Arts & Sciences, has been named Carolina’s 21st Marshall Scholar. The prestigious Marshall Scholarship money graduate experiments in any subject at up to two institutions in the United Kingdom.

The Marshall Scholarship covers university service fees, cost of living fees, yearly reserve grants, thesis grant, exploration and everyday journey grants, and fares to and from the United States.

Founded in 1953, the scholarship finances the option for youthful People in america of outstanding ability to research for a diploma in the United Kingdom. The Marshall Scholarships honor the ideals of the Marshall Strategy and are named immediately after U.S. Secretary of Point out George C. Marshall. Marshall Scholarship selectors hugely need candidates who “have the opportunity to excel as scholars, leaders and contributors to make improvements to U.K.-U.S. knowledge.”

“Patrick is an exceptional university student whose investigation all around the approaches comedy and especially political satire can profit and support democratic values is significantly pertinent in our globe currently,” Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz mentioned. “The Marshall Scholarship is 1 of the optimum honors bestowed upon our college students, and it is a testomony to Patrick’s creativeness, challenging perform and enthusiasm at Carolina. I congratulate him on this chance to pursue his desires at Oxford.”

A native of Dunwoody, Ga, Clinch is a Robertson Scholar, a member of Phi Beta Kappa, an Honors Carolina pupil, the co-founder of FAIRolina — a student business that encourages voting legal rights reform in North Carolina — and a member of the Chapel Hill Gamers improv and sketch comedy group.

Growing up, Clinch went back again and forth concerning seeking to be the secretary of condition and a well-known comedian. Soon after establishing an interest in political science as a higher schooler and at Carolina, he has considering that landed somewhere in the middle of people two occupations.

A history training course at Carolina on American pop culture showcased how politics and comedy can intersect in a effective way and established Clinch on a route to being familiar with that link on a further amount.

“I feel that laughter and silliness are genuinely crucial to daily life,” he mentioned. “We reside in a world wherever a whole lot of individuals immediately change to comedy for data about politics. I consider it’s essential to understand what position comedy plays in fashionable political discourse. I’m intrigued in comprehending how it can be made use of as a tool for great since I believe that it has a lot of power — if for no other rationale than the simple fact that it reaches a a great deal greater audience than plan briefs or political news.”

Clinch dove further into the intersection of entertainment and politics in his senior thesis on P.T. Barnum, the founder of the Barnum & Bailey Circus. This thesis traced the political repercussions of Barnum’s use of racial stereotypes in a number of of his exhibits, highlighting how pop tradition can immediately influence democracy.

Clinch’s enthusiasm for politics led him to Washington, D.C., to serve as a legislative intern for Property Vast majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer. He then labored as a communications intern with the Liberal Democrats in the course of a review abroad semester in London. These firsthand experiences further fueled his interest in a political career.

“You do get a feeling that Capitol Hill, for all its flaws, is a community house and a community hall, and that’s a incredibly inspiring practical experience,” he reported. “You see how folks from all walks of everyday living, in one particular way or yet another, have their finger on the levers of energy in a pretty serious way. It is challenging to see that and not want to be associated.”

But before returning to politics, Clinch will be generating a two-12 months prevent in England exactly where he will continue on studying pop culture and politics, significantly analyzing the marriage involving the rise of the printing press and the British Empire’s enlargement. He options on finding out at Oxford University.

“It’s a large steppingstone due to the fact of the character of this scholarship,” he stated. “It will give some credibility to my passions due to the fact I think from time to time it can be tricky to persuade folks that well known tradition or communications are crucial to fixing important plan troubles.

“It is also an justification to invest some a lot more time getting curious for the sake of it, to give me additional time to discover places that I’m intrigued in.”