Richard Altieri Wins Thomas J. Watson Fellowship

Scarsdale's Richard Atieri has been awarded a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship to explore how other cultures deal with laughter. Now a senior at Amherst College, Altieri '15 will spend 2015–2016 abroad, learning about world styles of standup comedy.

Altieri, who grew up in Scarsdale and attended Scarsdale Schools and Regis High School, majors in philosophy and is fluent in Chinese and Spanish. During his Fellowship year, he will challenge the idea that jokes don't translate.

"As a cross-cultural humorist, I intend to re-conceive comedic forms and bring people together through laughter," he wrote in his Watson application. He plans to pursue an advanced degree in philosophy of humor, and eventually build a career as a writer, performer and teacher.

For his Watson year, Altieri intends to immerse himself in the comedic traditions of four cities: Santiago de Chile, Taipei, Singapore and London. He plans to attend stand-up comedy open-mics and other shows, while staying with a host family to "see what makes a family laugh at the dinner table." Then he will take to the microphone himself, with local comedians as guides. The intended result is to "reinterpret regional styles and reimagine American forms of comedy," said Altieri, currently a member of Mr. Gad's House of Improv, a student improv comedy troupe at Amherst.

The Thomas J. Watson Foundation was created in 1961 in honor of the founder of International Business Machines (IBM). Each Watson Fellow receives $25,000 for 12 months of travel, college loan assistance as needed and an insurance allowance.

This year, close to 700 candidates at select private liberal arts colleges and universities submitted proposals for Watson Fellowships. Of that number, 150 finalists were nominated to compete on the national level. Altieri was among 50 fellows selected from 19 states and eight countries.

Amherst has had 89 Watson Fellows during the program's history.