Location: Full remote

Duration: Eight weeks

Dates: May 25, 2026 – July 19, 2026

Project Description

This project explores pre-modern practices of life writing and self-archiving through a comparative analysis of two 16th-century Japanese warrior diaries that survive in holograph form: the “Uwai Kakuken nikki” (western Japan) and the “Matsudaira Ietada nikki” (eastern Japan). Although both texts belong to the same turbulent historical moment—the so-called “Warring States” or Sengoku period—they differ markedly in geographical location, social milieu, and stylistic approach. Together, they offer an especially compelling case study for examining how regional, political, and cultural factors shaped modes of self-representation through daily journaling.

Both diaries document the everyday activities of mid-ranking warriors engaged in bureaucratic and military duties. They raise fundamental questions about how literate warriors used writing to fashion the self:

• What aspects of their lives did they choose to record, omit, or emphasize?
• Why did they write about particular events or emotions, and what can this tell us about the expectations of their social world?
• What stylistic strategies, rhetorical habits, or formulaic expressions recur across entries?
• How do the material characteristics of the manuscripts—the handwriting, marginalia, and (in Ietada’s case) the numerous sketches and doodles—contribute to these acts of self-inscription?

Such questions will be central to our inquiry. Ultimately, the project seeks not only to investigate textual content, but also to foreground the materiality of writing and the specific affordances of the “diary” (nikki) as a medium and paraliterary genre in late medieval Japan.

Anticipated Project Activities

The project will involve the systematic analysis of these two diaries using modern Japanese translations (as no English translations are currently available). When relevant, we will also refer to the original texts, which have been transcribed and digitized.

The student scholar(s) will gather, organize, and analyze raw data related to daily activities, individuals and places mentioned, emotional expressions and other forms of self-referential language, as well as noteworthy cultural practices. In parallel, they will engage with selected secondary scholarship on premodern diaries, warrior culture, and archival practices in Japan, allowing the project to move beyond data collection toward comparative analysis and interpretation. More specifically, student tasks will include:

• Assisting in the creation of a searchable dataset (Excel spreadsheets, tagged entries, or similar formats) that may serve as the foundation for further research (such as Digital Humanities visualizations or network analysis).
• Identifying and analyzing moments of self-reflection, personal commentary, or recurring narrative patterns.
• Reflecting on the relationship between text and image where applicable.
• Contributing to preliminary comparative observations between western and eastern diary traditions and their respective self-fashioning strategies.

Throughout the project, the student will be encouraged to think critically about the nature of pre-modern life writing: What constitutes a “self” in a medieval warrior diary? How does textuality intersect with orality and embodied practice? How do seemingly mundane daily entries accumulate into a self-narrative of sorts?

Regular meetings (at least once a week) will be used to discuss findings, refine categories, and reflect on broader methodological questions surrounding life writing and ways in which warrior-scribes used the page to produce meaning, track memory, and shape identity day by day.

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

• High proficiency in modern Japanese is essential. Since neither diary exists in English translation, candidates must be able to read and work with modern Japanese translations of premodern texts.
• Patience, strong attention to detail, and the ability to work carefully with large textual datasets.
• Comfort with spreadsheets or a willingness to learn basic data organization and data-management skills.
• Coursework or a strong interest in (Japanese) cultural studies, history, and/or literature is desirable. A willingness to engage with more theoretical questions pertaining to self-representation, archives, material culture, or digital humanities is also welcome, though prior experience in these areas is not required.
• Availability to participate in class visits, guest lectures, research forums, or similar activities following the completion of the project.
• No prior experience with classical Japanese language is required, as guidance and contextual support will be provided; however, candidates with some familiarity with classical Japanese will be given special consideration.

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

Student scholars will gain transferable research skills in close reading, data organization, and comparative analysis that will support future coursework, senior theses, and potential graduate study. Depending on their interests and on the outcomes of the project, students may be invited to continue working on the research during the following academic year, contribute to a conference poster or panel, or assist in developing a pilot digital humanities component (such as visualizing diary data or mapping social networks).

The project will also directly inform my future course offerings on Japanese literature. Student scholars may be invited to share their work through class visits (for example, in JAPA 125 or a future iteration of JAPA 335) or through undergraduate research forums. If the project is supported with two student scholars, I would be particularly eager to organize a small, student-centered panel at Vassar (in addition to the 2026 Ford Scholars Symposium) to showcase and increase the visibility of our collaborative research. This panel would be ideally co-sponsored by the Department of Chinese and Japanese, Asian Studies, and Medieval & Renaissance Studies.

Location: Hybrid

Duration: Eight weeks

Dates: June 1, 2026 – July 24, 2026

Project Description

I am working on a chapter for my upcoming monograph on the Sanskrit drama The Recognition of Shakuntala that focuses on the case study of Polish director Jerzy Grotowski’s 1960 production of the play. Though much has been written about Grotowski’s contributions to modern European theater, especially in the later years of his career, this production is often mentioned in passing, merely a footnote on the way to what has been perceived as his “more important” work. While I was undertaking my field research for this project, I spent four days at Grotowski’s archives in Wraclaw, Poland, during which time I acquired a number of exciting primary documents concerning the production, including: a manuscript of the adapted text; scenic and costume renderings; programs and publicity material; and dramaturgical analysis. These materials are quite rich and promising, but they are in Polish, which is a language I don’t read. I am therefore interested in offering a Ford Scholar position to a student who is proficient in Polish, to undertake translations of these materials, and to assist me positioning them within the larger footprint of my monograph.

Anticipated Project Activities

The primary activity for the project would be completing a translation of the manuscript of Grotowski’s play, which is approximately 70 pages long, and the relevant scenic and dramaturgical materials from the archive (another 20-30 pages of text).

Based on what I know of the manuscript from secondary scholarship about it, Grotowski interpolated other Sanskrit texts, including the Manusmriti and sections of Dharmashastra, into his play text. There would, therefore, also be an opportunity for this student to conduct research into sourcing the origins of these interpolations, and understanding the ways in which they contribute to/modify the original Sanskrit play.

I would also ask the student to become familiar with Grotowski and his writing, by reading the collection of essays by and about him entitled, “Towards a Poor Theater.” Ideally, they would be able to read these essays in both the published English translation and the original Polish, to both get a sense of Grotowski’s voice and the interpretive lens that has been put on him by other translators.

The La Mama Theater Archives in NYC also house some important materials concerning Grotowski’s later career. While he never toured Shakuntala to the states, it would be a worthwhile task to spend a couple of days in these archives to see and catalogue what they hold.

Finally, as a translation project, I would provide the student with a syllabus of writings on translation, and work with them on developing a methodology that suits both the needs of the project and their own linguistic interests, strengths, and curiosities.

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

The primary requirement for this position is reading proficiency in Polish. I know that this is a very specific skill, and not a language taught at Vassar, so would depend on a student’s prior familiarity with the language. Still, my hope is that for a student with Polish language proficiency, this project would be an opportunity to learn about a seminal figure of late 20th century Polish theater world and to uncover his relationship to and interest in Sanskrit drama and Indian culture. No previous experience with the fields of South Asian or Theater studies is required, but a demonstrated interest in these subjects is certainly preferred.

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

If the student were interested, I would intend to keep them on as my research assistant for the 2026/27 academic year (and beyond if they do not graduate that year), to help me in bringing together the manuscript of my book. In addition to the chapter on Grotowski, to which they would be an invaluable collaborator, I will need assistance with compiling my bibliography and notes; producing a series of appendices; and acquiring image permissions from archives across Europe and India. This opportunity would give the student direct insight into the world of academic publishing, and provide them with continued work study employment for at least a year after the Ford fellowship period.

As Grotowski’s manuscript has not been published in English, I would also be interested in pursuing a publication for the students’ translation. This would require the permissions of the archives in Poland, but would be of great value to the broader field of theater and Performance studies. I envision this publication as an annotated script that the student and I would build together, supplementing their translation with rich contextual notes as well as elaborations of the choices they’ve made in producing the translation.

Location: Preferably in-person, but open to remote

Duration: Eight weeks

Dates: June 1, 2026 – July 24, 2026

Project Description

The purpose of this project is to investigate how increases in the probability of deportation affect immigrants’ and natives’ access to credit. Credit plays a central role in household consumption, labor market mobility, and economic stability. Heightened deportation risk may deter immigrants from applying for credit or lead lenders to adjust underwriting practices, potentially restricting access to formal financial markets for populations already facing barriers. These effects can also spill over to natives, particularly in mixed-status households or communities with high immigrant concentrations, altering local credit markets more broadly. Understanding these dynamics helps clarify how immigration enforcement policies shape economic integration, inequality, and financial inclusion, and informs debates about the unintended economic consequences of enforcement-based immigration policy.

Although there is a vast literature studying the impact of tougher immigration enforcement measures – including deportation – on various outcomes, limited attention has been given to their impact on access to credit.

Anticipated Project Activities

The student working on the project will help with three tasks: (i) data collection and cleaning, (ii) preliminary analysis (summary statistics and basic visualization), and (iii) regression analysis to formally document the effect of higher deportation rates on credit access.

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

Students must be willing to learn (or have some prior experience with) basic programing in Python and/or Stata. Additional required qualifications include mathematical maturity, interest in economic modeling, aptitude for critical thinking, and ability to work independently. Having some background in Statistics, econometrics, or economic modeling is not necessary, but it would be beneficial.

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

The student will present the findings at the Ford symposium in the 2026 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 build up on this experience to develop their own related research project for a course or senior thesis. The opportunity to collect, clean, and analyze data provides valuable experience for internships, full-time jobs, and a great introduction to research for those considering graduate school in any field.

Location: in-person, hybrid, and full remote

Duration: Eight weeks

Dates: June 1, 2026 – July 25, 2026

Project Description

Healthcare adequacy is the ability to receive the healthcare that an individual needs. Previous work has found that male veterans have better healthcare adequacy prior to Medicare eligibility than male nonveterans. Racial disparities have been shown to exist in healthcare access, healthcare adequacy, and overall health. This project will utilize the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a panel dataset that surveys individuals and their spouses every two years, and a difference-in-differences/triple differences research design to examine the change in healthcare utilization around age 65 for black and white veterans compared the nonveterans. Individual level data on demographics, determinants of health, health care utilization, and insurance status will be utilized.

Anticipated Project Activities

The scholar will clean the data, conduct a detailed literature review, set up and run regression analysis, create figures and tables, present at the department seminar series, and contribute to a first draft of the paper.

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

Econometrics (ECON 203), Microeconomics (ECON 201), and a willingness to learn

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

Depending upon the stage the project reaches over the summer, it could be submitted for presentation at a conference for the 2026-2027 academic year.

Location: I plan to have weekly in-person meetings and otherwise work hybrid.

Duration: Eight weeks

Dates: May 26, 2026 – July 31, 2026

Project Description

This project examines the expansion of organized youth sports in the United States and its interaction with other community institutions, particularly religious congregations. Over recent decades, youth sports have increasingly shifted from informal, volunteer-run activities toward more formal, club-based organizations. One hypothesized driver of this shift is the passage of state laws that limit the legal liability of volunteer coaches and youth sports organizations. These legal changes may have lowered barriers to entry for organized sports while reshaping how families allocate time and resources across community activities.

The project’s central objective is to build a historically grounded dataset that links legal change, organizational growth in youth sports, and local measures of religious participation. Rather than aiming to complete a full causal analysis over the summer, the project focuses on foundational research tasks: assembling original data, documenting institutional variation across states and time, and producing descriptive evidence that can support future scholarly work. The student researcher will work closely with the faculty mentor throughout all stages of the project, gaining direct exposure to academic research design, data construction, and public-facing scholarly communication.

Anticipated Project Activities

The summer project will involve several interconnected research activities:

• Legal and policy research: The student will collect and code state statutes related to youth sports and volunteer coach liability, documenting enactment dates, scope, and applicability. This work will involve reading legal texts, legislative histories, and secondary policy summaries.
• Data construction: The student will assemble datasets on youth sports organizations, including incorporation records, nonprofit filings, and geographic identifiers (e.g., county or ZIP code). These data will be harmonized into a state-by-year or county-level structure suitable for analysis.
• Data integration: Legal timelines will be linked to organizational data and to existing measures of religious participation and community engagement.
• Visualization and documentation: The student will create maps, timelines, and summary figures that describe patterns in legal change and organizational growth. All data will be carefully documented to ensure transparency and reproducibility.
• Presentation: The project will culminate in a public presentation at the Ford Scholars Symposium, with additional opportunities for written summaries or posters.

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

This project is open to students from a wide range of academic backgrounds. Ideal—but not required—qualifications include:

• Interest in social science research, public policy, law, religion, or community institutions
• Familiarity with or willingness to learn basic statistical programming (R or Python)
• Comfort working with spreadsheets, structured data, or text-based sources
• Attention to detail and willingness to engage in sustained, independent research
• Prior experience with web scraping, data visualization, or “data carpentry” is helpful but not required

Students do not need prior coursework in economics or advanced programming. All technical skills necessary for the project will be taught during the summer.

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

If the summer research yields promising results, I anticipate continuing collaboration with the student during the academic year. This may include co-authoring a working paper draft or research memo and integrating the student into conference presentations where the work is discussed. I am committed to supporting student professional development and would invite the student to attend conferences at which the research is presented, allowing them to observe academic exchange and, where appropriate, present their own work. These experiences are intended to demystify the profession and provide concrete exposure to scholarly careers.

Location: In-person

Duration: Eight weeks

Dates: June 1, 2026 – July 24, 2026

Project Description

This project studies how relational networks in professional sports affect player trades in the NBA and MLB. Trades are bilateral negotiations under uncertainty with no posted prices and substantial informational frictions. While teams’ competitive needs drive most transactions, informal relationships may reduce search and bargaining costs and influence which counterparties are chosen. Using data on NBA and MLB trades and front-office career histories, the project asks whether and how general managers’ personal connections influence trading patterns across teams. The goal is to understand how relational networks affect market outcomes in a setting where transactions rely on trust and repeated interaction.

Anticipated Project Activities

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

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

Prior coursework in statistics (and/or econometrics); 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 the summer research experience in my future ECON 102 Introduction to Economics class. The summer collaboration may also lead to future research assistant opportunities.

Location: hybrid

Duration: Eight weeks

Dates: May 25, 2026 – July 31, 2026

Project Description

The project will entail econometric analysis of a few new datasets from experiments I have recently run, and the design and execution of new experiments. The experiments include a project on our ability to detect deception in a simple game, how the value of favors appreciate or depreciate over time, and how narratives affect economic decision making.

Anticipated Project Activities

Every part of a research project, from hypothesis generation to literature review to experimental design to execution to statistical analysis, to publication and presentation. The first round of data will be collected, but the data analysis will likely necessitate follow up experiments which will require new hypotheses, literature reviews, and new experiments

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

• Ability to run a regression in Stata (maybe also python, understanding Stata loops and macros and graphing a plus)
• Able to learn basic programming (e.g. using python to analyze text data and/or web design, experience using GPT for data and programming 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 find a spinoff for 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 both in professional journals and undergraduate focused research journals

Location: In-person, potentially remote one week

Duration: Eight weeks

Dates: May 25, 2026 – July 17, 2026

Project Description

In the past 20 years the foreign born population in the U.S. has increased by more than 50% and has become more diverse in terms of the countries of origin. Mexico, once the largest sending country by far, has experienced persistent declines in migration flows to the U.S., while numerous other countries from Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe have experienced increases. The average number of countries represented in any state’s population rose from 55 in the year 2000 to 115 in the year 2022.

This project aims to examine legislative responses at the state and local level to changes in the size and composition of the foreign-born population. These changes likely vary across time and location, given variation in the preferences and engagement of voters. They could be a direct result of immigrants who become naturalized citizens and engage politically (the number of naturalized citizens increased close to 100%). They also could be an indirect result of native-born citizens who respond to changes in their local populations.

The Ford Scholar will assist in creating a new database on enacted laws and resolutions related to immigration at the state and local level. They also will link these findings to data on the changing profile of the immigrant population in the U.S. They will create figures and maps and will link these visualization exercises to academic and popular press articles. The goal is to create a narrative that is accessible to a broad audience.

Anticipated Project Activities

The project has a data, literature review, writing and presentation component. The data component will involve helping to create a new dataset on laws and resolutions related to immigration passed by state legislatures. It also will involve analyzing datasets on migration from the U.S. Through this the student will become familiar with some of the key datasets used by policymakers and researchers to analyze migration. The student also will learn how to present data in an interesting and meaningful way to a broad audience using tables and graphs.

The literature review will involve finding papers on legislation at the state level and on changes in migration flows to the U.S. The writing component will involve 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 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 an informal seminar held in the Economics department over the summer. The department has run this seminar series over many years, and it is a wonderful way for students and faculty to interact around research. 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

Through the project the student will learn how to work with economics data and how to use those data to answer questions about individual outcomes. These skills are beneficial as data analysis is a key part of many jobs, both within and outside of academia. By gaining a better understanding of how data sets are constructed and how they can be used, the student will better see the link between economic theory, data and policy-making.

The student will use STATA, a widely used statistical package. Knowledge of STATA is beneficial if the student is interested in pursuing graduate study or a career within Economics and Public Policy. Many excellent jobs for undergraduates within both fields require a good understanding of statistical programs.

Finally, a key goal of this project is for students to gain a better understanding of what research in economics entails, and potential career paths that involve economic research. Past Ford scholars have gone on to write theses in economics, to work as research assistants after graduation, and go on to graduate school.

Location: Full remote

Duration: Eight weeks

Dates: May 25, 2026 – July 17, 2026

Project Description

International students and immigration issues have been front in center in recent policy debates. In the past decades, policymakers have encouraged international students into the U.S. under the argument that they bring in high skill human capital that would benefit the U.S. economy. In recent years, policymakers have turned to the opposite—threatening to cancel Optional Practical Training programs (OPT) and tightening H1B work visas under the argument that international students could crowd out employment opportunity for natives.

This project examines this issue by directly measuring the human capital of international students and natives using a combination of transcript data and syllabi data. The syllabi data will inform us what human capital skills are embedded in different courses. The transcript data will then help us map the human capital skills to international and native students that take different courses.

We will then leverage policy shocks such as the OPT expansions between 2000–2015 to examine how international student-friendly policies affect the composition of international and native students’ human capital.

Anticipated Project Activities

• Scraping of syllabi data from public repository
• Using OpenAI API tools to extract skill measures from syllabi
• Merging syllabi measures with Texas administrative data
• Producing summary statistics on international versus native student human capital
• Conducting basic regression analyses on how OPT expansions affect skill components of students

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

Required:

• Ability to code in Python (experience using Python to work with OpenAI API is a plus)

Preferred:

• Experience cleaning data with STATA

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

The scholar will have the opportunity to continue to work as my RA in the following academic year conditional on interest and performance.

Location: Hybrid (I will be based in NYC so any in person meetings will mostly be in NYC)

Duration: Eight weeks

Dates: May 25, 2026 – July 24, 2026

Project Description

I am seeking a scholar that can help me launch a new research project that broadly looks at the intersections of educational policy, urban housing policy and planning, and shifting racial and class demographics in contemporary New York City, to consider how they converge to shape educational (in)equality and opportunity. Since I am in the nascent phases of this project, the scholar will work closely with me on the conceptualization, research, development, and design of the project, particularly assisting with the background research and the methodological design.

Anticipated Project Activities

I would like the scholar to help me with several phases of the project. The first part includes helping conduct background research on 1) NYC urban housing policies over the last 10 years (including City of Yes, COPA, etc…) 2) NYC educational policies (including on de/segregation, public school admissions policies, and curricular initiatives) over the last 10 years and 3) shifting NYC demographics of the last 10 years and 4) organized community resistance to these housing and educational initiatives. The scholar will help create an annotated bibliography for these themes.

We will then shift our focus to the research design, where the intern will assist me in developing the methodological research design of the larger project. This includes survey and interview protocols, helping to determine site selection (like focus on Queens), etc. We may even conduct some pilot focus groups depending on our progression (and subject to IRB approval). I do plan on applying for larger grants to be able to conduct empirical qualitative research and the scholar will help me identify and work on those.

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

Ideally, the scholar will have taken at least one education course. The scholar should have excellent research skills, and have a strong interest in educational, social justice, and urban issues. Finally, since this project may involve collaboration with various constituencies and groups, including assisting with any necessary community outreach related to the project about future implementation, they should work well with others. I will be based in NYC and the scholar should be able to meet in NYC in person with me from time to time.

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

The scholar will present her/his work in an education class in the fall and will be encouraged to write about her/his experiences with the project and submit to conferences. I also hope that the student will remain active with the project during its implementation, perhaps through research assistantship or fieldwork credit. Finally, I hope to present at the AERA and CIES conferences in Spring 2027 and hope that the scholar will be able to join me for that, as well for any other presentations locally.

Location: Since we will be using the College Archives extensively, in-person is the only viable option

Duration: Eight weeks

Dates: June 1, 2026 – July 24, 2026

Project Description

Since its inception in 2021, the Race and Racism in the Historical Collections Engaged Pluralism Learning Group has led discussions and workshops that highlight the history of race and racism at Vassar. We’ve done so by “going to the source”--the Vassar College Archives. Our first project was examining a collection of glass plate negatives (an early type of photography) from the early twentieth century that provided evidence that Vassar students, faculty, and administrators participated in the use of Blackface and other racial masquerades. Since these images were available through the Digital Library, in Spring 2022, we felt it was important to develop a content statement that alerted viewers to the possible harmful content. That alert is now part of the metadata for each record in the Digital Library. In Spring 2023, we hosted “Complicating Founder’s Day,” a program that explored the complex history behind Founder’s Day, including the use of racial masquerade (some of the materials in the google folder are racist, xenophobic, or otherwise harmful). Last year, we shifted gears and we explored how students protest by looking at the archival materials related to the 1969 Black Studies Sit-In. We sponsored a workshop in which campus community members viewed archival documents related to the event and reflected on how student protest movements have changed.

This year, we are examining the aftermath of the 1969 Black Studies Sit-In. What happened after the sit-in? How did the College respond and what were students, faculty, and administrators doing to change campus culture? How did leading administrators and students relate to and communicate with each other? Were the demands of the students from the Sit-In honored? How did Vassar’s experience compare to what was going on elsewhere in academia, especially at smaller liberal arts colleges similar to Vassar? We are quickly realizing that there’s quite a bit of material that deserves a deeper dive than we have been able to do. And from what we know, this is an under-studied aspect of Vassar’s history. The Ford Scholar will play a significant role in furthering our research and creating a coherent understanding of what happened in the years following the Sit-In.

Anticipated Project Activities

• Develop a project plan that includes concrete milestones for each week of the program
• Examine and read the relevant archival folders related to the project
• Create a timeline of events, including a list of important documents
• Gain knowledge of the wider historical background in order to put the events at Vassar in a broader context
• Possible visits to other college archives
• Produce a final product of the Scholar’s choice, based on the timeline and the list of documents, that encompasses the summer’s learning and can be incorporated by the Race and Racism in Historical Collections Learning Group for a possible Fall 2026 event

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

• Excellent organization and written and oral communication skills with attention to accuracy
• Ability to perform independent research
• An intense curiosity and a willingness to ask questions
• Creative problem-solver with hands-on ability, thoughtfulness and respect for the handling of historical materials and sensitive issues
• Demonstrated commitment to DEIA practices
• Experience with multidisciplinary approaches to learning and enthusiastic about engaging with a wide array of topics outside personal areas of expertise

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

The fellowship will introduce the Ford Scholar to archival-based research. The Scholar will gain experience reading and synthesizing archival documents, secondary historical interpretations, oral histories, images, and other materials related to the topic. The co-chair of the Race and Racism in Historical Collections, Debra Bucher (Head of Collections & Discovery in the Libraries), will work most closely with the Ford Scholar in a mentoring (and co-learner!) capacity. However, a team of people, including the College Archivist, curators at the Loeb, Academic Engagement librarians, and other members of the Race and Racism in Historical Collections Learning Group will also be eager to work with the Ford Scholar to learn specific disciplinary research methods, encourage original research, be a sounding board, and think about ways to engage the Vassar campus and community in the research findings. Our Learning Group has had some good success in hosting programs for the campus community, and we hope the Ford Scholar can be instrumental in helping us plan an event for Fall 2026 based on this research.

Location: In-person at Vassar. All the materials needed for the project are available at Vassar. Some are in Special Collections; some are accessible digitally through the library.

Duration: Eight weeks

Dates: June 1, 2026 – July 24, 2026

Project Description

The Tatler was a ground-breaking periodical publication that ran for less than two years beginning in April of 1709. It was a single half-sheet (2 pages) including a combination of news, editorials, fiction, and history. As the publication, which reached 270 issues, grew in popularity, it became an important source of social commentary, ethical advice, and literary and dramatic criticism (it includes the first theater reviews). The Tatler and its successor, The Spectator, were available in every London coffee shop, and they were essential to the creation of the public sphere of private individuals so important in the history of western European and American culture. The first-person narratives in the Tatler and the creation of a community of fictional characters were important steps in the emergence of the novel in the eighteenth century.

Cambridge University Press commissioned me to produce a new edition of the Tatler ten years ago (I am appalled to realize it was ten years ago). I made a good deal of progress before Covid hit and enjoyed a Ford fellowship to work on it one or two summers. Covid put a crimp in my plans because the project requires books in special collections and research assistance. Balked on that work, I followed another commission and produced an edition of Johnson’s poetry with Rob Brown (Vassar emeritus in GRST) in 2024. I am now back on track and hoping to finish the project by the end of 2026. It is three volumes. The first volume is drafted; the text for 230 numbers is complete; and the complicated problem of including the advertising is solved. I am now working on the commentary for the last 2/3 of the numbers.

Anticipated Project Activities

My research assistant for the summer would help write the commentary for the Cambridge University Press Tatler. This means tracking down very numerous allusions, both to contemporary events and to literary works. It is work that draws on resourcefulness and presses the editor and assistant to expand their ability to find things out. Our library, its digital resources and special collections, is largely adequate to the task, but the student will have to master the use of these resources.

The Ford students I had in the past were mostly concerned with helping me establish the text by comparing various editions of the Tatler. That work is 90% finished. The very different work of commentary is mainly what is left to do. I guarantee the student will exit the summer very well informed about European history in the reign of Queen Anne and very well versed in the use of library resources. I would expect to meet with the student many hours a week, though he or she will also be able to work on their own much of the time.

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

Attention to detail and a determination to be accurate are the main qualities needed in an editor. A knowledge of the library and its resources is immensely helpful, as would be knowledge of the historical period and of the early periods of English literature on which the Tatler draws.

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

I am on leave in the fall of 2026 but back for a final semester of teaching in spring. In that final semester I am teaching an intensive on the subject of scholarly editing. My assistant will be entirely able to make a presentation on scholarly editing as part of that intensive. She or he will also be able to help individuals in the class with their own editorial projects.

If the follow-up must be in the fall, I can ask my colleague who is teaching eighteenth-century British novel to invite the student to make a report on the Tatler’s importance in the rise of the novel as a genre (it was very important!).

Location: As a matter of equity I will allow the successful applicant to determine their location plan (fully in person, fully remote, or hybrid) as their circumstances require

Duration: Eight weeks

Dates: June 1, 2026 – July 24, 2026

Project Description

Professor Curtis Dozier seeks a Ford Scholar to assist him in updating and improving GRST 105 — Introduction to Greek and Roman Civilizations. He offered this course for the first time in Spring 2026, having designed it with the assistance of a Ford Scholar in Summer 2025, and is seeking to revise and update the curriculum, materials, assessments based on his experience teaching it and student feedback. His objective remains to create a course appropriate for students who have no formal experience studying Greco-Roman antiquity that will equip them to explore our department’s other offerings.

Anticipated Project Activities

• Syllabus Assessment and Revision: course objectives, course policies, assignments
• Curriculum Update: reduce, refocus, or expand existing content to align with revised course objectives.
• Research new content suggested by curriculum update, both in textbooks and existing scholarship
• Revision and/or creation of instructional materials (slideshows, assignments, syllabi, discussion questions, examinations) to reflect revised syllabus and curriculum

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

• Some background in the study of history (ideally Greco-Roman history)
• Research experience
• Familiarity with Google Docs, which will be our collaboration platform
• Pedagogical training, experience teaching, or experience with curriculum design is desirable but not required
• Ability to view a topic from the perspective of an absolute novice
• Preference will be given to declared GRST majors and/or students who enrolled in the first iteration of GRST 105 but all qualified students should apply (Prof Dozier’s Ford Scholar last summer was not a GRST major).

In advance of the interview stage, applicants will be required to submit a brief assessment of how they would improve an example of existing course materials. Professor Dozier will contact you with further information following the submission of your application.

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

In addition to participating in the Ford Scholars Symposium in September, the successful applicant will gain experience toward applying to be a departmental research assistant during the academic year.

Location: Hybrid

Duration: Eight weeks

Dates: June 1, 2026 – July 24, 2026

Project Description

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, begun in Fall 2019, of the four-volume 19th-century edition of the text working in collaboration with Vassar students. 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 collaborative translation model presents new opportunities for the completion of such a necessary but onerous task. 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

Volume One will be published in spring 2026 by Brill Publishers, a leading international academic publishing house founded in 1683 in Leiden, Netherlands. It includes the work of 49 student translators and annotators. Volume Two will be submitted for publication in April 2026, with the contributions of another 55 Vassar students.

During the summer of 2026, we will be working on editing, annotating, drafting the introduction, and preparing Volume 3 for submission to Brill in the late fall. We will also be working on editing and annotating the completed sections of Volume 4. We will expect our Ford Scholar(s) for the summer of 2026 to help us research and prepare the third volume for publication by working closely with us in editing and annotating the text, securing high-resolution versions of the images/maps to be included, and checking the manuscript for errors and typos. We expect the students to join 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 (Brown University).

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.

Location: Hybrid

Duration: Eight weeks

Dates: May 25, 2026 – July 31, 2026

Project Description

This project builds upon research initiated last summer in collaboration with a Ford Scholar. Our primary objective was to develop an index to assess the risk of children’s rights violations in wartime contexts, specifically focusing on risks stemming from products manufactured by the arms industry. Having successfully established an assessment formula, a significant accomplishment that solidified our project goals, we are now in a refinement phase. We are currently polishing the assessment tool and developing a qualitative framework to evaluate the Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD) policies of leading defense companies. We are also drafting working papers to document our findings in both areas.

During the Summer of 2026, the project will transition into a new stage: translating complex data about on-the-ground impact of weapon use into actionable insights for investors and stakeholders regarding HRDD and risk. We are investigating instances where specific company products are linked to harm, which suggests a failure in HRDD processes to prevent or mitigate adverse impacts in conflict-affected and high-risk areas.

While many companies claim they lack sufficient information regarding the end-use of their products, a challenge compounded by the trend of manufacturing “dual-use” (lethal and non-lethal) technologies, our research is designed to provide transparency. The project’s long term goal is to help companies and investors identify concrete strategies to mitigate risks to children’s human rights in conflict zones.

Anticipated Project Activities

The Ford Scholar will work alongside a multidisciplinary student team from Columbia University, including undergraduates supported by Undergraduate Research and Fellowships (URF) and Data Science MA students from the Columbia Data Science Institute.

The Ford Scholar, working in collaboration with other students, will help develop and test a methodology for tracing the impact of specific weapons and technologies back to their manufacturers. Additionally, they will study this impact within the context of risk and potential harm to children’s rights..

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

• Coursework in children’s human rights and international and humanitarian law
• Coursework and/or some (even limited) experience with data science skills
• Coursework (?)/ and/or research experience in the field of human rights due diligence and business
• Analytic skills

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

If the student is interested, there will be several opportunities for follow up activities that involve the dissemination of our research and the completion of working papers.

Location: In-person

Duration: Six weeks

Dates: June 1, 2026 – July 10, 2026

Project Description

This summer presents an exciting opportunity for a Ford Scholar to engage with museum practice at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center. The Ford Scholar will support the Loeb initiative, funded by the Terra Foundation for American Art, to reinterpret and ultimately reinstall the museum’s permanent collection galleries dedicated to the so-called Hudson River School.

Since its inception in 1864, Vassar’s art museum has maintained a strong collection of nineteenth-century American landscapes, established through a founding gift of around seventy works by artists such as Frederic Edwin Church and Sanford Robinson Gifford. Paintings from this original endowment, supplemented by subsequent acquisitions, currently form the core of a permanent exhibit in the Loeb’s suite of “Founding Galleries.” At a moment when cultural institutions across the country are reevaluating their historic collections, the Loeb recognizes the need to thoughtfully and deliberately interrogate its founding collection with an eye to more expansive, layered, and inclusive perspectives.

Anticipated Project Activities

The first half of the eight-week project would be dedicated to researching the Hudson River School collection. Four key topic areas will guide the Ford Scholar’s research: 1) the enslavement of Africans and their descendants in the Hudson Valley; 2) the genocidal displacement of the Munsee Lenape people; 3) the marginalization of female landscapists in the art historical canon; 4) the effects on Hudson Valley labor and ecology of the Industrial Revolution. This research will help generate content for Bloomberg Connects, Loeb’s digital museum guide, and will also inform a planned collections catalogue focused on the Loeb’s Hudson River School paintings slated for publication in 2027 or 2028.

The second half of the scholarship would involve a small display, curated by the Ford Scholar, related to themes of the larger project. This project will provide hands-on experience with various facets of museum roles and operations, including developing checklists, drafting labels, and collaborating with Loeb staff on potential programs.

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

• Interest in museum / curatorial studies
• Art History coursework
• Interest in Hudson Valley history-
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Ability to work independently and as a team member in a rapidly changing environment

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

The Ford Scholar will have a chance to share their research in an in-gallery presentation, preferably tied to the content of a specific Vassar course.

Location: Full remote

Duration: Eight weeks

Dates: May 25, 2026 – July 31, 2026

Project Description

This projected eight-week research work has two parts. The first is theoretical and historical: it is an analysis of the antinomy (internal contradictions) of the concept of sovereignty. This first part explores how sovereignty, following the Treaty of Westphalia (1648), is split between a claim that sovereignty is a power that should be identified with the ruler (autocrat, Leviathan, ruler, king, etc.), and one that should be shared (in an indivisible manner) with all participants/citizens/constituents. It is this split definition that reveals the internal split of modern politics, wherein individuals are both subjects and sovereigns, rulers and ruled. The second half is theoretical and case-based. It takes the U.S. as an instance of exemplifying the antinomies of modern sovereignty. Though not identical to sovereignty, executive power is seen as the representative of such power. This second half is, accordingly, empirical and case-based: it is an analysis of specific executive orders on the part of U.S. Presidents, and how the other two branches of U.S. government respond. The project to identify what sovereignty is (how it manifests itself), and then how its internal contradictions manifest themselves in the context of the U.S. government.

Anticipated Project Activities

During the course of the eight-week project, I anticipate: (1) reading and research activities associated with the reading materials, (2) assembling an annotated bibliography of relevant secondary literature, (3) class and syllabus design built from this project, and (4) writing (mock) assignment briefs in preparation for case studies.

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

• Strong research skills; ability to work alone, but also share information and skills with others (peer, fellow-researcher, etc.).
• Intellectual maturity: having know-how to determine reputable (re)sources, analyze varied arguments in order to present the best overview.
• Willingness to engage in ideas they disagree with.
• Ability to synthesize ideas they read and present them in a quick overview manner.

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

I anticipate a number of summative/follow-up projects: (1) class and syllabus design built from this project (including the instructors Spring 2027 early modern philosophy course), (2) undergraduate papers on the part of the scholars, (3) a paper on specific problems identified in the first half or second half (e.g., on Rousseau and the law-giver), and (4)

Finally: one follow-up potential for student(s) includes being hired as a research assistant, or department intern.

Location: Hybrid. I expect the first 5-6 weeks to be in person.

Duration: Eight weeks

Dates: May 29, 2006 – July 24, 2026

Project Description

I am looking for a student researcher to collaborate with on two projects: 1) avoidant personality disorder (AvPD) and 2) crime perception. The AvPD project examines ways to promote social engagement and more positive self- and interpersonal evaluations among individuals with avoidant personality styles. Variables of interest may include open-mindedness, trust, attachment-related safety cues, and social acceptance. The crime perception project explores how exposure to crime-related information influences support for retributive, punitive, or cruel legal and military policies. This project also explores how personality traits, as well as threats to social status or status hierarchies, relate to crime perception and prejudice. The specific direction of the projects will be developed with the Ford Scholar and be informed by findings from pilot studies.

Anticipated Project Activities

The scholar would be expected to complete database searches, as well as evaluate and synthesize the relevant research. We would meet regularly to discuss the project and research design ideas. Together, we would design and conduct a study on one or both of the topics.

Preferred Student Qualifications and Skills

Students should have completed coursework in research methods and statistics, preferably in psychology or fields such as sociology, political science, mathematics, or economics. Students should also be proficient in searching for scholarly literature and have experience evaluating and synthesizing academic research.

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for Student

If all goes well with the research, I expect we would submit it for a conference presentation. If the student were interested, the student would be well-positioned to conduct additional research projects with me or other members of my department. The scholar will also share his/her summer research experience with my intensive or research methods class.