Nine outstanding juniors have been named the 2018 cohort of PIIRS Undergraduate Fellows. Photo by Mark Czajkowski.
Nine Princeton Undergraduates Receive Fellowships to Fund International Senior Thesis Research
Nine outstanding juniors have been named the 2018 cohort of PIIRS Undergraduate Fellows, three of whom are History concentrators.
The Undergraduate Fellows Program provides juniors with support to undertake international research for their senior theses. Those accepted into the program work with a PIIRS faculty member during the spring semester of their junior year to develop a proposal for summer research towards the senior thesis. Upon successful completion of the program — including attendance at required meetings in which students sharpen their research questions and methodology, learn more about various aspects of international research and develop a budget for their project — students are awarded funds for summer research.
“The PIIRS Undergraduate Fellows Program provides highly motivated undergraduates with the time, training and guidance to develop a sophisticated and successful senior thesis based on international research,” said Julia Elyachar, an associate professor of anthropology and adviser of the fellowship program. “The students work at a level that is more typically associated with graduate students. Their research shows that substantive theoretical and methodological contributions in the social sciences are often made through experiential knowledge of region and place.”
More about the new group of PIIRS Undergraduate Fellows and their proposed research:
Majida Halawah is a history major. During her fellowship summer in Dana, Jordan, she will study natural resource management in the Middle East, and how colonialism, foreign intervention and regional war have influenced countries’ management choices.
Alexandra Kersley is a history major. She will travel to Rio de Janeiro to interview Brazilians on their views of dictatorship, the impact of the post-military dictatorship amnesty process on Brazilian democracy and the current political situation.
Katharine Reed is majoring in history and earning certificates in Spanish language and culture and Latin American studies. During her fellowship summer in the Mexico City, Reed will access archival documents to piece together an understanding of how Luis Echeverría’s presidency was perceived by Mexicans while he was in office.