Introducing MURF Program Coordinator Preston Stewart
By Alexandra Hamilton —
In August 2025, the Mortara Center onboarded Preston Stewart as the new Mortara Undergraduate Research Fellows Program Coordinator. Learn more about Preston and his role as a key member of the Mortara Team!
What are you doing your masters about?
I’m doing my master’s degree in Global Human Development. My studies are focused on building skills for a career at the crossover point between short-term humanitarian aid and long-term development. I’m particularly interested in conflict recovery.
What are some of your general interests? How did you become interested in them?
Related to my studies, I’m interested in considering how we can improve the way we interact with each other on the global stage. There are many people I grew up with, worked alongside, and continue to spend my time with who have been harmed by muscular foreign policy and conflict: refugees, veterans, the children of displaced people. I care deeply about the friends across backgrounds I’ve made, and I think it’s imperative for us to do better. Despite the diminished state of humanitarian cooperation at the moment, the work has to continue, and it has to improve upon the top-down models of old. We have to, in earnest, start treating each other as equals across borders.
Unrelated to my studies, I really enjoy performing arts. I used to play trombone in a couple jazz bands (I was pretty awful personally, but we had some wildly talented musicians in those groups). I also acted in a couple plays and in many improv comedy shows. I wish I had more time for these interests these days, but I still try to find ways to engage with them! There’s a neat performing arts center about a five minute walk from where I live (Atlas Performing Arts Center, on H Street) that I’ve been meaning to check out for months. I actually got into all of these performing arts because my friends on my high school’s speech and debate team basically dragged me to these various club meetings despite my strong protestations. I eventually came around on all of them, and I can’t thank my friends enough.
How have you liked being at the Mortara center? What are some ways you’ve supported the MURF program?
I’ve enjoyed my role with the MURF program! It’s been a lot of fun thinking through research-related challenges with the Fellows. I feel like the big winner of this program a lot of the time: I get to hear about the Fellows’ fascinating projects and chat with the researchers at Mortara without having to do the sausage-making that comes with academic work. We’ve put together some workshops for the program, too, so that there are some opportunities for Fellows to get to know some PhDs who are subject matter experts and excellent contacts to learn from. We’re so fortunate at Mortara to have the research community that we do.
How are you enjoying living in DC? And what would be some of the things you still want to try or do in DC?
I love DC. I live about as far away from Georgetown as possible while still being within the borders of the city, so not many people on campus get out to where I am. Despite its distance from campus, I highly recommend Northeast DC. H Street is a cool spot. Beyond going to a show at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, I’d like to go to a couple gigs at a venue near me called The Pie Shop. You can buy pie downstairs and bring it upstairs, where they often have heavy metal bands playing. It’s pretty awesome.
What is your favorite way to spend your spare time?
“Spare time” and “grad student” are unfortunately not words often said in the same sentence. Nonetheless, I’ve tried to keep in touch with some of my buddies from the Peace Corps and around DC with sessions of table-top RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons and Cyberpunk. Those sessions also scratch my acting itch.