The Humanities Center is pleased to announce the recipients of summer break Student Research Partner (SRP) awards for 2019.* Congratulations to all!

Barbara Allen (Political Science) and Ben Perry ’22 (Undeclared) and Jack Schill ’21 (Undeclared) will study how changes in ownership in news gathering services affect the local TV news coverage received by voters during the 2008, 2014, and 2016 elections, focusing on how information is framed in relation to race, gender, age, and experience; time given to candidates to voice positions; and time devoted to types of ads.

Charisse Burden-Stelly (Africana Studies and Political Science) and Katerina Katakalides ’20 (SOAN) and Guapo Banuelos ’20 (History) will do archival research for a book project, The Radical Horizon of Black Betrayal: Antiradicalism, Antiblackness, and the U.S. Capitalist State, which develops a political theory that explores the relationship between antiradicalism and antiblackness from 1919-1971, exploring how notions of belonging/unbelonging, citizen/ subversive, and American/un-American were used to discredit activism.  

Anita Chikkatur (Educational Studies) and Ricardo Garcia ’21(Undeclared) will develop a website in English, Spanish and Somali that will feature resources about participatory action for use among members of community organizations in Faribault, MN.

Michael Flynn (Linguistics) and Alex Zhai ’20 (Cognitive Science/Linguistics) and Anna Grove ’21(Undeclared) will travel to the Lake Traverse Reservation to work with native speakers of the Dakota language as part of a project to preserve and revitalize the severely endangered language.

Alex Knodell (Classics) and Sam Wege ’22 (Undeclared) and Aaron Forman ’21 (Undeclared) will travel to the Small Cycladic Islands for an archaeological survey project on the smallest of the Aegean islands. The group will conduct fieldwork as well as artifact study and analysis, to explore how tiny islands provided important stepping stones to more sizable landforms during the initial colonization of the Aegean Basin.

Jake Morton (Classics) and Isabel McFadden ’20 (English), Patrick Mullins ’20 (Classics), and Gabe Nass ’21 (History) will travel to northeastern Greece to conduct fieldwork in the southern Olympus range on the Roman troop movements of the 169 and 168 BC campaigns as well as the workings of the Macedonian fort network which Morton has proposed was in place to prevent such an invasion.

William North (History) and Read Wilder ’20 (History/Classics) will complete the revised translation of Book I of De Miraculis (On Miracles) by Peter the Venerable, abbot of Cluny, completing all annotation, and preparing a scholarly introduction and relevant supplements (maps, bibliography, etc.), and gathering any images to be used for a manuscript to send to potential publishers.

Daniel Picus (Religion) and Jacob Isaacs ’20 (English) will work on a project that explores the relation between biblical texts, spoken words, and the material world in Jewish antiquity, especially in regard to healing practices. Their research on religion and medicine in late antiquity will facilitate the completion of an article on biblical incantations (in blessings, curses, spells, and chants) that were understood by ancient Jews to have real, lasting, material effects on human bodies.

Asuka Sango (Religion) and Owen Yager ’20 (Religion) will work on two projects related to the history of the Reformed Druids of North America, founded in 1963 by Carleton students. First, they will do archival research at Carleton, for use in a library subject guide; second, they will work on a co-authored article that explores this movement as part of a mid-twentieth century trend in new spirituality movements that emerged as sub-culture alternatives to mainstream Christianity and Judaism.

*Awards made possible by a generous gift from Alison von Klemperer ’82 and support from the Dean of the College.