2023 Project Proposals

Art

Elizabeth Lastra (Art)

2023 Ford Scholars Program

While today mainstream history holds that Iceland was settled by the Vikings in the late ninth century, several medieval sources suggest earlier settlement by Christians from the British Isles. Writing in the early ninth century, monk and geographer Dicuil describes priests who lived on a northern island where “it does not grow dark even for the shortest space of time,” and Icelandic sagas, written post-Viking settlement, refer to Christians who arrived before them that “people think came from the west over the sea.” Nonetheless, these and other medieval sources have been largely dismissed as myth rather than historical evidence. Little-explored artificial caves across southern Iceland may provide additional evidence to complement the medieval sources, which together have the potential to alter the settlement history of Iceland.

The project is interdisciplinary, led by Art History (Liz Lastra) and Earth Science (Laura Haynes) professors and undertaken by Vassar students, both during summer research and in a travel intensive in Fall 2023 (“Histories of Art, Ritual, and the Earth: Ethical Research Practice and Exploration”). On the art history side, the project will study the morphology of the caves as well as the markings inside, which include several crosses and potentially writing in the ancient Ogham alphabet. To undertake onsite research, significant foundational research must be conducted first. The Ford Scholar will work closely with Prof Lastra to investigate cave monasteries and settlements in Scotland and Ireland and develop profiles for these caves (assessing whether they are natural or artificial, investigating their forms and uses, collecting examples of cave markings as comparanda, and, for artificial caves, studying any tool marks from excavation).

Anticipated Project Activities

The project will conduct initial research for an interdisciplinary investigation of southern Iceland’s mysterious artificial caves. The main goal of the Ford Scholar’s summer research will be to build a reference set of caves in the early medieval British Isles, to which we can then compare the Icelandic examples during our fieldwork in Fall 2023 (a slot will be held in the travel intensive for the Ford Scholar). The Ford Scholar will research both natural and artificial caves, paying particular attention to the excavation processes of artificial caves (since caves are subterranean, we refer to ‘excavation’ rather than ‘construction’). The student will investigate discussions of their forms and uses in both primary and secondary sources, and will document any surviving markings. The student will also help develop course materials for the 2023 intensive.

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

Experience with humanities research and art historical methodologies, ideally with some prior study of medieval art history. The student should have a record of high academic achievement.

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

The student will continue the research project during Fall 2023 as a participant in the intensive Art 369: Histories of Art, Ritual, and the Earth: Ethical Research Practice and Exploration and will conduct fieldwork at a cave site (Hella) in Iceland.

Project Location

Hybrid: I am open to whatever the student prefers

Project Duration

Six weeks

Project Start Date

06/13/2023

Project End Date

07/21/2023

Drama

Peter Gil-Sheridan (Drama)

2023 Ford Scholars Program

For the last couple of months I’ve been pitching this idea at dinner parties to great effect. I’ve been saying, “What if Medea never killed her sons and they grew up to be the most insufferable queens?” And “What if Jason and his princess Glauce (not melted down by poisoned vestments) lived just down the road in a nicer house with central air and she had to run into those assholes all the time at the Stop N Shop?”

Because she never did get around to killing those kids and that princess back in the day nor did she get to fly off with their corpses in a dragon-drawn chariot, my Medea is too through with all of it. My Medea stayed. Like so many of the women that raised me, she stayed. She withstood the humiliation of being abandoned after sacrificing so much of her own life for Jason’s glory. She lived on in a place where she was scorned for being a foreigner. (The darkest part of my soul wants her to be running an illegal day care in her living room like my Tia Barbara did. But that’s too dark, right? It’s too dark, yes.) Anyway, her boys did grow up. Mermerus, maybe not a queen, but her straight boy, is a lot like his Dad and Mom. He’s intense and proud and willing to use whoever serves him most. He wants his father’s glory but of course Glauce has other ideas. And Pherus, Medea’s younger gay boy, is the real killer and not to be crossed. He has his mother’s fiery soul deep within him and he hates his father and stepmother.

I'd like to write this play during my upcoming sabbatical in the Spring of 2024. But I need to do quite a bit of reading in advance of approaching the writing of this play. I'm familiar with Medea. I've taught it. I've read a few versions. But if I'm to take this on, I need to more deeply understand the mythological origin stories that inform countless adaptations, the differences between prominent adaptations, and scholarly and performance criticism around these adaptations. I'm also deeply interested in exploring real-life ""Medea"" stories: tales of women who have been compared to the tragic heroine or, more, tales of women who have avoided that fate.

Anticipated Project Activities

1. A close study of 8-10 adaptations of the play, to be identified
2. Research around various translator/playwright approaches to the work
3. Research of scholarly and performance criticism around various adaptations
4. Recent current events research wherein Medea is invoked by the media
5. The creation of a dramaturgical handbook of sorts that I might use in writing and developing the play beyond the initial research.
6. Weekly conversations about findings, brainstorming for creative project, etc.
7. Presentation of research to discuss findings and how we will apply these finding to a new piece created for the theatre.

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

1. As I'm a playwright by trade, not a scholar, a student who has some prior training in research methods would be a real asset to me.
2. A student in Drama, Greek and Roman Studies, English, or Women, Feminist, and Queer Studies would be great. But I'm open to all majors.
3. Classical play, Adaptation, and new plays literacy is preferred.
4. Highly organized, self-directed, and willing to brainstorm paths to take on the project is required.

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

If the student were interested, I do feel the student would be the logical choice to be the dramaturg on the play through the development process of the play. New play development is a years-long process so of course the student may not stay with the play for the lifespan of the play through to its first production, but it's certainly a possibility. This would expose the student to industry professionals of all stripes and help them to launch a career in this area.
Certainly even if a career in dramaturgy is not in the future, the work will be valuable to future scholars, writers, teachers, and directors.

I think this is a unique opportunity for a student to see how a play comes together. Doing a contemporary adaptation is very particular. But they'll certainly get a glimpse into my process and be a vital part of the development of the play.

Project Location

I travel to Greece in the summers so I will probably want to use a hybrid model. While I'm in Poughkeepsie though, it would be terrific to meet in person. If the student needs to be elsewhere though, I'm completely open to working remotely. I think the question will be whether they can access the materials they need from wherever they are.

Project Duration

Eight weeks

Project Start Date

05/30/2023

Project End Date

07/21/2023

Economics

Esteban Argudo (Economics)

2023 Ford Scholars Program

The project has two goals. First, to study the evolution of the differences in labor market outcomes between natives, authorized immigrants, and unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. We will (1) document the trends in these gaps over the last three decades, (2) investigate which factors have been responsible for shaping these trends, and (3) document the business cycle properties of these gaps (how do these gaps change during economic expansions/contractions?).

The second goal is analogous to the first one, but in the context of the differences in wealth between natives, authorized immigrants, and unauthorized immigrants. We will (1) document the trends in these wealth gaps over the last three decades, and (2) investigate which factors have been responsible for shaping these trends. Given the frequency of the wealth data (it is only available at a yearly frequency), we won’t document the business cycle properties of the wealth gaps.

Anticipated Project Activities

The project will focus on data summary and analysis. The project is based on data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). The main tasks include (1) computing basic summary statistics to illustrate the differences in earnings and wealth between natives, authorized immigrants, and unauthorized immigrants, (2) implementing microeconometric methods to quantify how much of these gaps can be explained over time by differences in demographic characteristics, educational attainment, occupational choices, health status, and other observable factors, and (3) implementing macroeconometric methods to quantify the effect of business cycles on these gaps. The student will need to learn some basic programing in Python and Stata (or R) to effectively complete these tasks.

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

The necessary qualifications include an interest in inequality, economic policy, economic modeling, mathematical maturity, ability to work independently, critical thinking, and basic knowledge of computer programming (in any language but preferably in Python and Stata). Other qualifications that would be extremely useful but are not necessary include a background on Statistics and/or Econometrics (from previous classes taken at Vassar or elsewhere).

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

The student will present the findings at the Ford symposium in the 2023 fall semester. Depending on the progress from the summer, the student might be invited to continue working on the project as a research assistant. It is also possible for the student to buildup on this experience to develop their own related research project for a course or senior thesis. The opportunity to analyze data provides valuable experience for internships or full-time jobs. Furthermore, the econometric techniques that students will use during the project are not only useful for those students seeking full-time jobs, but also to those considering graduate school.

Project Location

I will be in-person, but I am open to the students being in-person or remote. The in-person experience works better for developing a closer bond with students (which facilitates the mentoring aspect), and it also enhances the students' experience in the weekly workshops that we (the economics faculty working on a ford’s project) organize over the summer. However, I don’t want to deprive students from this opportunity just because their specific circumstances don’t allow them to be on campus.

Project Duration

Eight weeks

Project Start Date

05/30/2023

Project End Date

07/21/2023

Qi Ge (Economics)

2023 Ford Scholars Program

I am looking for research help on several projects related to airline economics, including 1) how airlines navigate the tradeoff between cost minimization and adaption via their firm boundary decisions in the form of outsourcing, integration, or a mixture of the two strategies when facing unexpected policy shocks; 2) how the dispersion of one-way and round-trip airfares may be explained by pricing asymmetry based on the direction of travel; or 3) how airlines may have exploited a potential loophole in the Fee Disclosure Law and gained an unfair advantage in airfare competition. I will work with the scholar to find a good match between the topic and the student’s interest/background.

Anticipated Project Activities

Data collection, data processing, literature search, literature review, and preliminary descriptive analyses.

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

Prior coursework in statistics (and/or econometrics) and microeconomic theory; prior experience with Stata, Python, or R; excellent time management skills and ability to multitask; attention to detail.

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

The scholar will share his/her summer research experience in my future ECON 102 Introduction to Economics class. The summer collaboration may also potentially lead to future co-authoring opportunity on the project.

Project Location

In-person

Project Duration

Eight weeks

Project Start Date

06/05/2023

Project End Date

07/28/2023

Ben Ho (Economics)

2023 Ford Scholars Program

Help develop a new behavioral economics project. Will work with scholar to find a good match between my current projects and the interests of the student. Current high priority projects include:

understanding the role of trust in healthcare
understanding the relationship between altruism and risk
understanding support for immigration
understanding the economics of favors
understanding the relationship between medical testing and fear
understanding how well apologies work after celebrity scandals
understanding the relationship between income, mobility and pro-social behavior

See http://www.benho.org for other recent projects.

Anticipated Project Activities

Every part of a research project, from hypothesis generation to lit review to experimental design to execution to statistical analysis, to publication and presentation. The goal is to find a project that the student can make their own and eventually lead to publication.

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

Able to independently learn simple programming (e.g. use python to download tweets and/or web design)
Ability to run a regression in Stata (maybe also python, understanding Stata loops and macros a plus)
An ability to read and consolidate diverse literatures (psychology, philosophy, political science, anthropology, computer science, etc.)
An interest in continuing behavioral econ research as a senior thesis

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

Typically I work with interested students to make the summer project into a co-authored paper to be submitted to an academic journal. Past Ford scholars have presented their work at national conferences (e.g. at Harvard and at Miami) and published in professional journals and undergraduate focused research journals.

Project Location

Flexible (To be worked out with the scholar. I will be around but work can be done remotely.)

Project Duration

Eight weeks

Project Start Date

05/30/2023

Project End Date

07/25/2023

Sarah Pearlman (Economics)

2023 Ford Scholars Program

Since the Great Recession in 2008 migration from Mexico to the U.S. has fallen dramatically, with average migration rates falling by approximately 80%. More than 10 years later migration has yet to return to its previous levels, indicating the declines may be permanent rather than temporary. This raises questions about which type of migration has declined and if the profile of migrants has changed. For example, is the decline mostly in migrants who came temporarily to work or in those who planned to stay? Are migrants still largely made up of young, men with a high school education? Are the locations of and work done by migrants in the U.S. similar or different than before? This project aims to answer these questions by examining numerous Mexican and U.S. datasets that contain information on migration.

Anticipated Project Activities

The project has a data, literature review, writing and presentation component. The data component will involve looking at datasets from the U.S. and Mexico with information on migration. Through this work the student will become familiar with some of the key datasets used by policymakers and researchers to analyze Mexican migration to the U.S. The student also will learn how to present data in an interesting and meaningful way using tables and graphs.

The literature review component will involve finding papers on historic and current migration trends in the economics and sociology literature. The writing component will involve writing up commentary on the datasets analyzed, the summary statistics created from them, and a literature review. The goal is for students to gain experience writing in economics and to end the project with a written document that synthesizes the work they did during the summer.

Finally, the student will present preliminary results of the literature review and data analysis in a brown bag held in the Economics department over the summer. We have done this over the past several years, and participants include professors in Economics and their Ford Scholars. The environment is very collegial, and this is a good way to practice workshopping ideas in front of an audience.

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

The student needs to have taken Introduction to Econometrics (at Vassar or elsewhere). It is important that the student have some exposure to analyzing data in a statistical package like STATA.

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

The economics department has organized a weekly brownbag over the summer, in which Ford Scholars and faculty present work in progress. We have done this for several years, and its been a wonderful opportunity for students to learn about each other’s projects, share common challenges and successes, and generally see how projects evolve. It also is a good way for students to practice presenting in front of an audience.

Project Location

In person

Project Duration

Eight weeks

Project Start Date

05/30/2023

Project End Date

07/25/2023

Education

Jaime Del Razo (Education)

2023 Ford Scholars Program

Since the end of the U.S. mandatory military draft in 1973, the U.S. has significantly increased its military recruiting efforts to ensure that it’s All-Volunteer Force (AVF) is sufficiently staffed with military service-members. A large amount of those recruits come directly out of high school and are recruited while they are still in high school. Some have called this “The School-to-Military Pipeline”, which is defined as the intentional recruitment of high school students into the U.S. Military by the U.S. Department of Defense. This pipeline is facilitated by the cooperation of K-12 schools that receive federal funds and that must adhere to federal policy like NCLB (No Child Left Behind) Act and ESEA (Elementary and Secondary Education Act) which, notwithstanding special exemptions, requires schools receiving federal funding to “provide, on a request made by military recruiters or an institution of higher education, access to secondary school students names, addresses, and telephone listings.” [§9528(a)(1), NCLB] [§8528, ESEA].

Given the 50th anniversary of the end of the U.S. military draft and subsequent significant rise of the “The School-to-Military Pipeline”, this project will review prominent literature for the past 50 years that directly addresses “The School-to-Military Pipeline”. An end-product for this project will be a written draft of a literature review that examines key facets of this complicated topic across various political, educational, and economic perspectives. The Ford scholar for this project will receive training on how to conduct a literature review and will co-write a draft of a literature review alongside the supervising faculty member, who is a professor of education and U.S. Army combat veteran.

Anticipated Project Activities

1. Literature Review Training at Vassar College
2. Regular weekly meetings between Ford scholar and faculty member
3. Research training with Vassar Research Librarian at Vassar Library
4. Substantial time searching, reviewing, and annotating literature from journals and books at the Vassar Library and Vassar Library website
5. Substantial time writing and/or editing the Literature Review
6. Trips to the United States Military Academy, West Point located about 35 miles from Vassar College
7. Developing and submitting proposals for conferences and/or journals.

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

• Upper division students (Juniors and Seniors)
• Experience writing literature reviews
• Some knowledge of and/or experience with the U.S. military
• Willingness to share and edit rough drafts with others
• Timeliness on writing deadlines and meeting times
• Responds succinctly, accurately, and timely to emails, texts, and phone calls
• Open to study and dialogue about sensitive topics from different points of views

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

Academic presentations and workshops at conferences, events, and/or classes on either or both of two related but separate topics:
1. Prominent literature on The School-to-Military Pipeline
2. Development and Writing a Literature Review

Project Location

In-person

Project Duration

Eight weeks

Project Start Date

05/30/2023

Project End Date

07/21/2023

Kimberly Williams Brown (Education)

2023 Ford Scholars Program

This eight week project contributes to my larger research and writing on Afro-Caribbean women recruited to teach in “failing” schools in the U.S. This particular research project will allow us to better understand the Southern U.S. as a geo-political space for new arrival immigrants. I ask questions about what it means for Afro-Caribbean teachers to teach in rural “failing” school districts? How do they survive and organize? I am also interested in learning how they make sense of the place and how the place makes sense of them. Students will be doing research on the history and economy of the Southern U.S. and will engage in conducting interviews with teachers currently teaching in that space.

Anticipated Project Activities

I will ask the students to:
- research the history of the Southern US especially as it relates to new arrival immigrants
- Interview Afro-Caribbean teachers located in rural U.S. schools
- Interview teacher recruiters located in rural U.S. schools
- Enter data from interviews
- Write annotated bibliographies of articles and books read

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

- Attention to detail
- Impeccable research skills
- Someone who is a good communicator with me and possible participants

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

Students will be invited to present with me at a national conference. Specifically, in Spring 2024, I will invite them to attend the American Educational Research Association conference where we will share our findings. There may also be an opportunity to publish a paper with me.

Project Location

Full Remote (if student needs to be here - hybrid is ok)

Project Duration

Eight weeks

Project Start Date

06/12/2023

Project End Date

08/4/2023

English

Eve Dunbar (English)

2023 Ford Scholars Program

From sewing circles to gardens, the small-scale arts and crafts of women are part of the fabric of many people's everyday life. While increased attention has been given to craft in the formal art world, the focus of this project is in quotidian and community-focused practices. This project invites a Ford scholar to explore and annotate scholarly writing from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds on the topic of craft arts (non-professional arts) by women of color in the United States. A related research area will be developing an annotated bibliography that covers the history of community building and maintenance through craft arts among women of color.

Anticipated Project Activities

Research scholarship related to crafting and outsider artwork among women of color in the United States. The student researcher will create an extensive annotated bibliography detailing the materials found on the topic and collect relevant texts into an organized and easily accessible e-file system.

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

Advanced database research skills (or willingness to learn); organizational sensibility; time management needed to meet deadlines; capacity to create an easy to access system for sharing electronic files.

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

I may have the student lead a research session for my first-year writing course in the fall of 2023.

Project Location

Full Remote

Project Duration

Six weeks

Project Start Date

05/30/2023

Project End Date

07/07/2023

Environmental Studies

Jeff Seidman (Environmental Studies and Philosophy)

2023 Ford Scholars Program

The Ford Scholar will work with me to add to and build out a website, https://climatesolutions-careers.org, which began as a Ford project in summer of 2022. The website serves both as a resource for my course, ENST 162, “Climate Solutions and Climate Careers: Finding your Place in the Climate Fight” and as a resource for the general public. It provides an analytic map of the landscape of current and future climate solutions, from industrial technologies to agricultural practices, and also of career paths that can help to develop, implement or accelerate these solutions. When it is complete, each page of the site will contain an essay providing background and context for the curated resources on that page. (Right now, most of the pages on the “Solutions” side of the site are complete, but others require further research and writing. All of the essays on the “Careers” side of the site remain to be researched and written.) The site will also host an interactive, analytic database of start-ups and non-profits working on climate solutions.

Anticipated Project Activities

The Ford Scholar will be involved both in researching content for the site and in designing and building out features of the website.

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

The candidate will have strong research skills, comfort handling STEM content, and ideally web-design or coding experience. However, I expect that the candidate will have to develop some of these skills during the course of the project.

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

All going well, I will offer the Ford Scholar the opportunity to continue as my research assistant in Fall of 2023, when I will teach ENST 162. In this role, the student could also choose to serve in a role something like a teaching assistant, helping other students to find resources relevant to their research interests. If the Scholar is interested, I could also support their participation in conferences in climate technology, climate entrepreneurship, and climate policy.

Project Location

The student may work remotely or on campus.

Project Duration

Eight weeks

Project Start Date

06/05/2023

Project End Date

07/28/2023

Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center

John Murphy (Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center)

2023 Ford Scholars Program

Working with 2022 Ford Scholar / Pindyck Fellow Carissa Kolcun (’25) last summer was an incredibly rewarding and enriching experience. They did a brilliant job organizing the exhibition :Redefining Feminism: The Women’s Studio Workshop"" for the Loeb’s Spotlight Gallery, which involved original research, a publication, and a public program fall semester. It was gratifying to see Carissa’s efforts rewarded with an article in Vassar News: Larry Hertz, “Student Becomes Art Curator as a Ford Scholar,” Vassar News (Aug. 8, 2022).

This summer presents equally exciting opportunities for collaborative research with a Ford Scholar at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center. I will be developing a course for fall semester on exhibition design which would benefit immensely from a Ford Scholar to assist with researching relevant works in the Loeb’s collection, selecting course readings, and developing impactful themes and frameworks for discussion. I would invite the Ford Scholar to present their findings to the course and lead a classroom discussion on a topic of their choosing along with readings selected by the Fellow.Beyond course preparation, the Ford Scholar would have opportunities to acquire experience in professional museum practice.

Anticipated Project Activities

• Develop checklist / programming for a small exhibition in the Spotlight Gallery in partnership with a community organization. A Ford Scholar could play an active role making selections, researching individual works, writing labels and didactics, and developing relevant programming in the Fall. This initiative would carry on Carissa’s great work from last year and possibly institute an annual Ford Scholar curatorial collaboration.

• Acquire work for the collection: As part of the project, I would invite the Fellow to propose prints for acquisition by the Loeb. This would give the Fellow insight into a key part of museum practice: how works are selected to become part of a museum’s permanent collection. The Fellow would identity possible candidates, conduct extensive research, develop a proposal, and present it to the Loeb’s curatorial team. A successful proposal would argue convincingly for the work’s relevance to the collection, how it could meet interdisciplinary curricular needs, and possible uses in future exhibitions.

• Virtual Exhibition: The Ford Scholar would develop a curated selection of objects from the collections on a theme of the Fellow’s choosing that would feature prominently on the Collections page of the Loeb’s website, with full credit given to the Fellow for research and curation.

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

• Excellent skills in research, writing, and verbal communication
• Interest in museum practice and/or curating
• A high degree of organization, self-motivation, ability to take initiative, exercise independent judgment, manage projects
• Interest in and ability to work collaboratively
• Ability to be a team player in an active office environment.

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

Similar to last year, the Ford Scholar would have the chance to potentially publish their research in an exhibition brochure and lead a public program in the gallery fall semester. I would also invite the Ford Scholar to present their findings to the Exhibition Design course in the fall and lead a classroom discussion on a topic of their choosing.

Project Location

In-person at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center

Project Duration

Eight weeks

Project Start Date

05/30/2023

Project End Date

07/21/2023

French and Francophone Studies

Kathleen Hart (French and Francophone Studies)

2023 Ford Scholars Program

When Sand scholar Thelma Jurgrau passed away recently, leaving behind an unfinished translation of Sand’s epistolary novel Jacques, some members of the George Sand Society asked me to help make it suitable for publication. Like other 19th-century feminist novels, it criticizes the prohibition of divorce and women’s lack of access to education. Unusually, however, it focuses far more on the problem of a couple's incompatibility than it recycles tropes of a tyrannical husband.

Anticipated Project Activities

Students become acquainted with principles of translation. Examining Jugrau’s very rough manuscript, they learn to identify errors and issues commonly raised when translating from French to English. Working on the translation of one letter of the novel at a time, the student translators learn to use 19th-century as well as modern sources in order to adopt the proper register and vocabulary. Each letter translated will represent an accomplishment in itself, no matter how many letters we manage to translate.

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

Enough knowledge of French is necessary in order to decipher French texts with the aid of a dictionary. However, an ability to write well in English, combined with an interest in literary translation, can more than compensate for a student’s relative lack of French-language skills.

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

Publication of the novel, with credit given to the student(s) for their contribution. An opportunity for the student to visit my translation seminar next spring as a guest (I often invite Vassar graduates to my translation seminar if they have worked on a translation under my guidance, in order to talk about the project and/or how it helped their careers).

Project Location

Hybrid : I will be on campus but can easily accommodate students who are not

Project Duration

Four weeks

Project Start Date

05/30/2023

Project End Date

06/26/2023

Geography Program, Earth Science and Geography

Mary Ann Cunningham (Geography Program, Earth Science and Geography)

2023 Ford Scholars Program

The New York Climate Act directs 35-40 percent of funding to ""disadvantaged communities,"" for building decarbonization, transportation or vehicle upgrades, and other climate action efforts. The disadvantaged designation includes the City of Poughkeepsie and a number of other communities in the Hudson Valley. The theory of the current energy transition is that low-middle income households will achieve lower costs and greater financial stability in this scenario, yet typically high-income households have the resources to implement upgrades, which historically done at the private household level. The critical question that follows from the 35-40 percent statutory mandate is how community groups act to acquire the capacity to use fast-emerging resources and information. Current, rapidly growing literature and policy conversations make this an important moment to explore this question. Vassar is situated in an especially interesting community, from which Vassar students have a great deal to learn. This project, then, seeks to understand what community groups in Poughkeepsie already have in mind regarding the Climate Act, such as building upgrades or energy transition, to understand what Vassar students and faculty might have to learn from their work, and to explore whether there are ways that Vassar students or classes might provide useful resources for Poughkeepsie to take advantage of both energy efficiency and poverty reduction aspects of the Climate Act in the coming years.
While this project focuses on exploring local priorities and opportunities for the community and for Vassar students, we may also consider that Poughkeepsie as a case study for the general question, and we can learn a great deal by seeing what resources are present or needed in this community

Anticipated Project Activities

Coordinate meetings with community groups and with interested members of the Vassar community, participate in and help lead conversations, become familiar with relevant aspects of the final Scoping Plan (December 2022), document and share ideas emerging from conversations and meetings, participate in thinking through the larger questions involved in translating larger policies to local priorities, help envision intersections between community priorities and interests and curricular opportunities at Vassar. Participate in writing a paper to summarize and share findings.

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

An interest in climate action, willingness to reach out to community groups, ability to listen in an open-minded way, a willingness to learn about class and race differences that persist between Vassar and its community, ability to pursue tasks with some independence, ability to communicate clearly in verbal and written form.

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

This project is intended to provide ideas that will inform student academic work and employment, as the topic is one of considerable activity in New York and elsewhere. The material would make a solid foundation for a thesis or for continued CEL work. There may be opportunities to present work at state meetings about Climate Act progress and implementation. In addition, contacts made during the project could provide connections that would be useful for later employment opportunities.

Project Location

Most work in person, but some hybrid/remote work could be an option for writing phases.

Project Duration

Four weeks

Project Start Date

05/30/2023

Project End Date

06/24/2023

Greek and Roman Studies

Curtis Dozier (Greek and Roman Studies)

2023 Ford Scholars Program

I am working on a book analyzing the ways that American white nationalist organizations, particularly those that cultivate a “highbrow” or “academic” ethos, seek legitimacy in Greco-Roman antiquity. I have completed my research on white nationalist appropriations, many of which are documented at my website pharosclassics.vassar.edu. My particular focus this summer is in identifying the similarities between white nationalist interpretations of the ancient past and mainstream, “traditional” interpretations as a means of demonstrating the historical entanglement of Classicism and white nationalism.

Anticipated Project Activities

-Review of primary and secondary sources cited in white nationalist literature
-Identification of scholarly approaches alternative to those cited in white nationalist literature
-Identification of historical examples of Greco-Roman antiquity being used in support of violence and oppression
-Assessment and summary of other scholarship relevant to my project
-Maintenance and development of the Pharos website, as needed and as time permits

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

The most important qualifications are:
-Research skills, in particular identifying, navigating, assessing, and summarizing scholarship from a range of disciplines (primarily history, literary studies, political science, and philosophy).
-Ability to work independently on a consistent basis
-Commitment to social justice
-Willingness to encounter violent and disturbing white nationalist content
-Familiarity with Google Docs, which will be our collaboration platform

Other preferred qualifications include:
-Familiarity with the Vassar Library Catalogue and bibliographic databases
-Familiarity with the major databases relating to the study of Classical literature (Loeb Classical Library online; L’Annee Philologique; Brill’s New Pauly)
-Familiarity with Wordpress online publishing platforms
-Familiarity with Twitter
-Elementary knowledge of Latin and/or Ancient Greek
-Knowledge of contemporary and historical white nationalism in the United States

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

I will be on research leave during the Fall of 2023 continuing my work on this project. My Ford Scholar will be in an excellent position to continue working on this implementation of this project as a departmental research assistant in Greek and Roman Studies.

Project Location

Any: As a matter of equity I am open to a range of possibilities depending on the scholar’s situation. I will be in residence on campus throughout the project for a fully in-person mentorship but the work requirements can accommodate remote or hybrid arrangements. I will select a scholar first and then discuss this aspect of our collaboration.

Project Duration

Eight weeks

Project Start Date

05/30/2023

Project End Date

07/21/2023

Hispanic Studies

Augusto Hacthoun (Hispanic Studies)

2023 Ford Scholars Program

Paths to Knowing: Poetry and Research


Numberless are the paths and ways that suggest, urge, coax, craze writers to write, filmmakers to film, musicians to compose, and angels to breeze in or monsters to gust about painters’ heads. All stroll, stumble or search on the road to creation. Search is an ancient word from the seed verb circare, to go around, to wander and traverse.

Our project will follow the searches of two friends who were poets: Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979) and Pablo Neruda (1904-1973). We will journey with them, assay their libraries, intrude on their correspondence, read their notebooks, and study poems where their separate poetic searches converge. It would be a journey inward into their texts, an anabasis from the core of information to the heart of creation.

Anticipated Project Activities

Their search is our research. Recall circare, the mother verb: to circle about and circle back. We will circle about the unknown of the known, the invisible of the visible, researching in the Thompson Library Archives, reading the poets’ handwritings, and rereading, discerning, discussing, ever learning about the what, where, and how of the poets’ journey.

At the end of our eight weeks of work, we will prepare a digest of our own journey to better understand how their searches and researches took them from planned and contingent inquiries to poetry. With clear intent and luck, we will get there as well.

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

Expressions of interest from all disciplines are welcome.

Ideally, my collaborator(s) would be careful reader(s) and writer(s), proficient in English and versed in Spanish, minimally at the high end of an intermediate level of proficiency in reading and writing.

This is an archival project: we will work in person, on campus and, possibly, at archives off campus. The final report of our work will be available in hard copy and on line. Accordingly, appropriate presentation skills are necessary. For models, please view online presentations of prior projects.

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

This project offers the student a particular and extraordinary opportunity to experience the creative process and research itself.

It makes practicable a rare and close view of the relationship and the creative processes of two remarkable poets. The student handles, reads and deciphers in manuscript form the personal and private notes and communications between different creative worlds and minds. Through study and reflective reading regarding those exchanges. the student considers, surmises and interprets their poems.

The student should gain from this project a deeper appreciation of the scholarly resources offered by our Libraries, sharpened skills with research tools and textual analysis, a more nuanced understanding of the creative process across time and cultures, and possible strategies of adapting that process for their own goals and prospects.

Project Location

IN PERSON

Project Duration

Eight weeks

Project Start Date

05/22/2023

Project End Date

07/14/2023

Lizabeth Paravisini and (Hispanic Studies) Michael Aronna (Hispanic Studies)

2023 Ford Scholars Program

The Oviedo Project @ Vassar College is a collaborative digital humanities/scholarly publication undertaking whose aim is the first complete translation into English of Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo’s 16th-century Historia general y natural de las Indias, islas, y tierra firme del mar océano (General and Natural History of the Indies, Islands and Mainland of the Ocean Sea). Written between 1524 and 1548, the brief iterations of the text published in 1526, 1535, and 1547 were translated into English, Italian, French, German, and Latin; its fifteen editions in the 16th-century marked the text as a classic of Renaissance ethnographic and natural history. The full text, however, was not transcribed and published in Spanish until 1851-1855 in a 4-volume, nearly 3,000-page edition sponsored by the Royal Academy of History.
Oviedo’s signal contributions to early Latin American political, environmental, economic, and cultural history were substantially eclipsed by his death while he was engaged in the process of editing his work for publication. The four volume-edition opened new vistas into the world of the 16th century Caribbean for readers able to access the material in Spanish, but it did little to make this extensive new text available to readers in any other language. In fact, there is no translation of the four-volume work—a work that simply defies characterization—available in any language other than the original Spanish.
This is where both the challenge and significant contribution of our translation project lies. We are engaged in the translation, already in process, of the four-volume 19th-century edition of the text working in collaboration with a team of Vassar’s students in time for the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the publication of Oviedo’s Sumario in 2026. The incorporation of a pedagogical component in our project responds to various pressures, realities, and opportunities of 21st-century academia. First, it is not feasible to expect one single scholar to dedicate a career to the translation and publication of a text as extensive as Oviedo’s Historia. In the face of this practical reality, the digital humanities in the form of an ongoing online translation of Oviedo’s Historia present new opportunities for collaboration, experiential learning, accessibility, and archiving of a comprehensive translation.
Our model for collaborative engagement of scholars and students in the production of a translation of this length and significance is one that we hope will serve as a model for similar projects aimed at the revitalizing of translation as an essential component of foreign language acquisition.
Designed as a closely-mentored multi-leveled engagement with the text—as a form of apprenticeship in the endangered art of scholarly translation and interpretation—the project aims to bridge the gap between seemingly inaccessible “old” texts and evolving contemporary concepts of history, indigeneity, race and ethnicity, and natural and environmental history by tapping into the possibilities of scholarly mentorship opened by a liberal arts education. Conceived as a team effort through which they can contribute to making an important primary source available to a broad reading public, the project has been built on the students’ enthusiasm for a text they have come to understand through its relevance to contemporary questions about the impact of colonization on the environments of colonized societies, the evolution of racial categories and discrimination, the history of extractivist capitalism, or the textual intricacies of describing a new world in a language that requires reinvention.

Anticipated Project Activities

We have now completed the translation of the first volume of the work and expect to have completed the second volume by the summer of 2023. We will expect our Ford Scholar to help us prepare the second volume for publication and to help us update the project's website (https://pages.vassar.edu/oviedo/) by loading the chapters from Volume Two and finding suitable illustrations for the students' work. We expect the students to joining the editorial team for discussions and project decisions and to help us research and draft scholarly and explanatory notes for the text. This work may take us to specialized libraries in New York City and the John Carter Brown Library.

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

A knowledge of Spanish—at least at the intermediate level—would be preferred, as well as an interest in translation and scholarly research. We work with Wordpress and Scalar on our site, but we can train the student in these skills quite quickly.

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

In addition to participating in the Ford Scholars Symposium, we would like the student to participate in the orientation and training of the translators that will join the project in the fall and spring semesters of the 2022-2023 academic year through the sharing of their experiences and skills.

Project Location

Hybrid

Project Duration

Eight weeks

Project Start Date

05/30/2023

Project End Date

07/25/2023

History

Robert Brigham (History)

2023 Ford Scholars Program

The book I am working on is not my usual historical analysis. This book is a memoir based on a recent DNA finding of my biological father, a Marine combat photographer named Bruce Allen Atwell, who took some of the Vietnam War's most iconic shots. I have used Atwell's photographs in my courses on the Vietnam War for forty years without knowing that he was my father.

Atwell fathered me at age fourteen while he was in foster care in New York State. He never knew about me, and I never knew about him. I had been born in an inner-city Salvation Army to an unwed mother without knowing who either of my bio parents were. Like my unknown father, I too was part of the New York foster care system, a Baby Scoop Era adoptee.

This memoir follows the unlikely path that brought my bio father and me from homelessness and foster care to Vietnam, though in very different roles. Through our personal history, I also trace the history of postwar America and the impact of poverty on generations of Americans. It is also a story of discovery, one that many adoptees will find familiar.

Anticipated Project Activities

We will be conducting archival research in New York and Massachusetts state archives and the Marine Corps archives. We will also conduct research in Salvation Army archives and with the New York State Social Welfare Department. We will also be conducting oral history interview with family members of my newly discovered bio family.

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

The student needs to have excellent research skills and experience with state and federal archives. Ideally, the student would also have experience working in historical memoir or biography.

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

My Ford Scholar will present a lecture in my course, HIST 279 The Vietnam War, in the fall 2023 semester. I also hope to take my Ford Scholar to the annual meeting of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations and the annual meeting of the Society for Military History (travel to these conferences funded through another source). In addition, I have been asked by several Vassar Clubs to present a book talk (before publication) on this memoir.

Project Location

We will be working together in the Massachusetts Historical Society, Marine Corps Archives, and in on-line sessions. We will be off campus for the entire eight weeks.

Project Duration

Eight weeks

Project Start Date

06/01/2023

Project End Date

07/27/2023

Latin American and Latinx Studies

Tracey Holland (LALS)

2023 Ford Scholars Program

Project Description
Approximately one-third of all new cases in Immigration Court in the United States are children. As part of their immigration proceedings, judges often ask young migrants about their school histories in their countries of origin and about their performance in their new schools in the United States. Many of these children appear alone in immigration court. They do not always understand what they are being asked. Immigration judges utilize such information as attendance records, grades, or teacher recommendations to make decisions about the young person’s immigration status, including such high stakes decisions about whether they should be allowed to remain in the US or not. Such major decisions come to rely not only on the students’ school performance, but also the availability of school records that students may or may not gain access to. Despite the important role that such records, and young migrants’ school performance, play in immigration proceedings in courts, there is very little known about this relationship between courts and schools or the expectations that judges have of migrant student performance and how these expectations factor into decision-making. The teachers of migrant students lack awareness about the immigration process that their students are going through. Although they want to support their students and help them obtain positive outcomes in their court cases, teachers are unsure of what they can do.
This summer research project will examine the ways in which judges have used school performance and attendance in their immigration rulings of unaccompanied minors in New York City and Pittsfield MA. It will also examine the laws surrounding this aspect of immigration proceedings. It will seek to identify how school documents influence judges’ decision-making. The outcome of the project will be a set of Draft Recommendations for improving communication between courts and schools. The project will also culminate in a review of the relevant local, national, and international human rights laws and policies that relate to this process.

Anticipated Project Activities

The Ford Scholar will work closely with me in the implementation of all research activities, including:
--a review of the scholarship and research on relevant laws and policies
--phone and email outreach to advocacy and immigrant rights organizations in NYC and Pittsfield MA
--in-person interviews/meetings with immigration judges, school officials, and advocacy and refugee organizations in NYC and Pittsfield MA
--possible FOIA requests, and in-person data collection activities of court cases on files in courts
--write up of the summer’s work, including some tentative recommendations for improvement

The Ford scholar and I will meet weekly (and as needed between weekly meetings) to discuss the project’s ongoing tasks.

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills
• Academic background on migration
• Spanish-language proficiency
• Excel, Zotero
• Organizational skills
• If possible, knowledge or work experience with the court system

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

I expect to continue to work on this project next year. Eventually, I intend to publish a short piece outlining the findings of the research in the Teachers College Record, “Commentary” and the online blog, OpenGlobalRights. The student, should they choose, may co-author op-ed style essays.

Project Location

Hybrid, but mostly remote. It would be useful for us to have a few in person meetings.

Project Duration

Eight weeks

Project Start Date

05/29/2023

Project End Date

07/21/2023

Political Science

Taneisha Means (Political Science)

2023 Ford Scholars Program

In 2018, I received a grant from the National Science Foundation’s Law and Social Sciences program to collect data on political representation in state courts. My grant project goals include surveying all Black state court judges, surveying an equal number of White state court judges, and interviewing about 100 Black and White state court judges. These surveys and interviews asked judges to discuss their upbringings, childhood and young adult life experiences, pre-bench lives, identities, judgeships, judicial behavior, perspectives, and opinions.

The data collection for this project concluded during summer 2021. I spent last summer beginning the organizing, cleaning, and analysis of the data. This summer (summer 2023), I would like to continue where I left off.

This summer, I want to work with two ford scholars to organize, clean, and analyze the remaining survey and interview data. I want the scholars to help with analyzing the survey and interview data, writing up the results, and disseminating the results of the data via professional presentations and publications. There will be an opportunity to co-author at least one journal manuscript. Students will also help get the data ready to be shared publicly and housed at two data repositories.

Anticipated Project Activities

The summer Ford Scholar(s) will engage in the following activities with Professor Means:

First, plan the summer project; read and discuss some of the relevant judicial politics research to develop an understanding of the research topics we will focus on during the summer; study the survey and interview questionnaires used in the study; participate in a workshop on quantitative and qualitative research methods (1st week).

Second, organize, clean, and analyze the survey data; also determine co-authorship project (3rd-5th weeks)

Third, organize, clean, analyze, and verify the interview data; make progress on the co-authorship project (6th-8th weeks)

Fourth, discuss presentations (classroom and Ford Scholars conference) based on data analysis and research experience; submit coauthored papers for publication to a political science journal (8th week)

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

Strong interest in judicial politics, the project, and social science research generally.
High professional and personal motivation, self-management, and attention-to-detail
Strong ability to take responsibility in meeting deadlines and making progress with and without direct supervision
Experience using Stata (preferred), or at least a willingness to learn new software (e.g., NVivo and Stata)
Strong existing computer skills with Microsoft Office
Interest in mentorship and professional development

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

To demonstrate the synergy that can exist between teaching and research, the Ford Scholar(s) and Professor Means will work together to create a presentation using the data for a Fall 2023 presentation. The Ford scholar(s) will be invited as a guest speaker(s) to my classes to present some of the research findings and to share their research experience. If interested, the scholar(s) will also be asked to attend and present at a professional conference with Professor Means during the 2023-2024 academic year and coauthor at least one paper that draws on the data collected this summer.

Project Location

In-person, if possible because I would like to work closely with the students who will be organizing, cleaning, and analyzing the survey and interview data.

Project Duration

Eight weeks

Project Start Date

06/05/2023

Project End Date

07/28/2023

Fubing Su (political science)

2023 Ford Scholars Program

Taiwan is one of the miracle economies in the post WWII era. As one of the East Asian Tigers, it has achieved fast industrialization and urbanization. In about thirty years, Taiwan has transformed its industrial structure from labor-intensive to capital-intensive and knowledge-intensive. Today, Taiwan is a world leader in high-tech manufacturing, including computers and Integrated Circuits. Most researchers attribute this success to Taiwan's active participation in the world economy. In order to survive the fierce competition in the global market, Taiwan has invested in its human capital and trained a large number of well-educated and disciplined workforce. Unlike these free-market supporters, some political economists argue that Taiwanese government has played an active role of designing smart industrial policies to improve the productivity of local firms. This debate has spawned a prolific literature on the relative merit of these two competing explanations. Recent scholarship shifts to a more fundamental question: why is the Taiwanese government willing to promote industrialization? After all, many developing countries facing the similar urgency of development have chosen to not promote industrialization. One prominent explanation directs scholarly attention to Taiwanese land holding structure. After Chiang Kai-shek was defeated in mainland China, he concluded that large land-holding structure resulted in huge inequality in the countryside, which in turn bred anti-government sentiment. Under Chiang's order, land in Taiwan was redistributed more equally to prevent rural support for the communist forces. One unintended consequence was that large landowner interests were absent in the deliberation of national development strategy. This allowed the Taiwanese government to modernize its economy and prioritize industrial development. This explanation makes good sense but is incomplete. Equal land distribution may lead to a different problem of land fragmentation. Industrial projects and urban development require conversion of large land plot from farming to nonagricultural uses. Negotiating with many small land owners can be difficult and one or two hold-outs may stall potentially beneficial projects for the community. In fact, students of Taiwanese politics have long observed that elections have tied politicians and rural farmers into one patronage relationship: politicians promise protection and subsidies while farmers deliver votes. Therefore, a complete explanation of Taiwanese industrialization must examine its land regulation more carefully and explain how this regime facilitates industrialization and urbanization in spite of strong rural strength. We seek to fill in this gap in this project.

Anticipated Project Activities

* a theoretical survey of the contemporary debate about Taiwanese development, particularly the role of land redistribution in national development strategy;
* a collection of land regulation policies in Taiwan, maybe separated by time periods and regions;
* interviews with government officials, scholars, and landowners in Taiwan;
* a comparative study with other East Asian economies, like Japan and South Korea.

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

*working proficiency in English and Chinese;
*good training in social scientific writing (literature search and usage of original sources);
*interests in political economy and development;
*familiarity with Taiwan and East Asia preferred but not required.

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

I am teaching two related courses next academic year. One is about Chinese political economy where students will work on economic development, industrialization and urbanization. I am using this case as a comparison with Chinese development experience. The other is comparative political economy. Industrialization is a major theme in the course. I have been using Japan as a major case. The Taiwanese case will be added for comparison. If we can make enough progress, the student is invited to cowrite a paper on this topic in the coming semester. If possible, this could be developed into a senior thesis.

Project Location

Hybrid

Project Duration

Four weeks

Project Start Date

06/05/2023

Project End Date

06/28/2023

Psychological Science

Carolyn Palmer (Psychological Science and College Course)

2023 Ford Scholars Program

Vassar has two labyrinths for walking and reflection. The purpose of this project is to explore how to capture these places using 360-degree video for purposes of remote viewing and immersive experience. This work has application well beyond our labyrinths, to other sites not readily accessed in person but of tremendous meaning. The product of this work will be useful for anyone teaching reflective and contemplative practices.

Anticipated Project Activities

The project activities will include 360-degree video capture at locations including the Vassar labyrinths. The scholar will also learn and use software for processing video for remote and immersive viewing. Along with the video work, the scholar will learn about contemplative places and practices, and develop activities to accompany any finished product, for classroom and online use.

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

Qualifications include an interest in contemplative places and practices. Comfort with video equipment and editing software is useful, as is willingness to learn these techniques.

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

Together with the student, we will determine what is an optimal fall semester 2023 presentation or workshop to offer to a group such as the RSLCP Student Fellows, and faculty who teach contemplative practices.

Project Location

In-person, both on campus and possibly at off-campus locations.

Project Duration

Four weeks

Project Start Date

05/30/2023

Project End Date

06/23/2023

Michele Tugade (Psychological Science)

2023 Ford Scholars Program

Background: Resilience is characterized by effective coping, emotional agility, and the capcity to adapt and recover from stress (Bonanno, 2004; Masten, 2007; Skodol, 2010, Tugade, 2011). It is further defined as the ability to thrive despite personal and social stressors (Steinhardt & Dolbier, 2008). My program of research on resilience consists of two main areas. The first examines the components of resilience, including the acquisition of personal skills to achieve positive outcomes for mental health. In my empirical work, my students and I examine several markers of resilience, among them: self-compassion, gratitude, growth mindset, and goal agility. The second main area of my research, which examines applications of resilience research across several domains.

The Project: This work will build on an ongoing program of research. My Ford Scholar(s) will assist in developing evidence-based materials to strengthen resilience in daily life (e.g., mindfulness, gratitude, grit). The goal is to develop a curriculum and resource “hub” that provides skills for resilience to individuals across a number of social domains (students, educators, organizational leaders, executive leaders). The overall aim is to provide evidence-based strategies to improve mental health and well-being through empirical work, supported by personal stories and narratives.

References

Bonanno, G. A. (2004). Loss, trauma, and human resilience: Have we underestimated the human capacity to thrive after extremely aversive events? American Psychologist, 59(1), 20–28.

Masten, A. S. (2007). Resilience in developing systems: Progress and promise as the fourth wave rises. Development and Psychopathology, 19(3), 921.

Skodol, A. E. (2010). The resilient personality. In J. Reich, A. Zautra, & J. Hall (Eds.), Handbook of adult resilience: Concepts, methods, and applications (pp. 81–93). New York: Guilford.

Steinhardt, M. Dolbier, C. (2008). Evaluation of a resilience intervention to enhance coping strategies and protective factors and decrease symptomatology. Journal of American College Health. 56(4), 445-453.

Tugade, M. M. (2011). Positive emotions and coping: Examining dual-process models of resilience. In S. Folkman (Ed.), Oxford handbook of stress health coping (pp. 186–199). New York: Oxford University Press.

Anticipated Project Activities

The Ford Scholar will compile and summarize current literature on resilience across generations, and help to identify key individuals to interview about their “resilience stories.” Some individuals may come from groups related to my research : first-responders, NASA astronauts, military veterans, executive leaders, individuals in recovery from addiction, students from post-genocide Rwanda). The Ford Scholars will develop interview questions, conduct the interviews, and synthesize narratives from the “resilience stories” compiled during this project for presentation and curriculum design.

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

Research skills (data collection, data analysis, coding of responses)
Organization
Interview skills
Graphic design skills (e.g., Canva, web layout)
Writing skills

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

The Ford Scholar will help to develop a curriculum that teaches resilience skills to individuals across a number of social domains (students, educators, organizational leaders, executive leaders). The overall aim is to teach evidence-based strategies to improve mental health and well-being from personal stories and narratives. The student will gain professional development skills by conducting interviews with key individuals. The student scholar will also gain valuable public speaking and presentation skills through the opportunity to lecture and help facilitate workshops. Finally, the student will help to develop post-session assessment questions to collect feedback about the resilience program.

Project Location

Fully remote

Project Duration

Eight weeks

Project Start Date

06/05/2023

Project End Date

07/28/2023