Miles Sanford ’24 and Madeline Yap ’25 will receive financial support to attend graduate school abroad.
By Bennett Campbell Ferguson
October 15, 2025
Prior to his death in 2021, Professor Edward Segel [history 1973-2011] said, “I’m always happy if my students go on to become thoughtful thinkers, PhDs, and academics. But what I really want them to do is go out and take over the world.”
That dream endures through the Edward B. Segel Fellowship for International Study, which allows up to two applicants each year to attend one year of a graduate school program.
This year, those applicants are Miles Sanford ’24 and Madeline Yap ’25. Miles will be studying sociocultural analysis of knowledge and communication at Universidad Complutense Madrid, while Madeline will be studying economic and social history at the University of Cambridge.
The Segel Fellowship (which provides $50,000 to students studying any of the disciplines represented in the Division of History and Social Sciences at ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅ) was established in Professor Segel’s will in 2021. The first recipient of the fellowship was Lili Valencich '24, who joined a political science PhD program at Umass Amherst.
According to Peter Goodman ’89, Segel encouraged students to ask “the biggest questions that could be asked—questions about justice, tradition, and social progress.” Thanks to his enduring legacy, those questions continue to be asked by students like Miles and Madeline.