Hello Fellows!

I hope everyone is enjoying a happy Sunday and that you are pleased by the warmer weather. I want to give you an update on the Summer Fellowship Application process and explain our next steps.

The Team Application for the A&S Summer Research Fellowship is due on February 11th. The application requires a paragraph from each of you on your proposed summer activity related to migration. This was the idea behind having you write the initial paragraph.

Our next task is to revise these paragraphs to make them more specific and comprehensive for the overall team application. You will still be able to make changes to your project over the course of the semester; your actual research/creative program  won’t be made official until April. But we do have to provide the Undergraduate Research Committee with your ideas at this point.

I will be sending your paragraphs back to you with my comments this evening and tomorrow. But for now, let me make some general recommendations. Your paragraph should:

  1. Indicate the area in which you will be working as specifically as you can. Let’s say you’re thinking about a literature or a history project. If you’re not ready yet to name a specific author, can you mention a region and time period (e.g. mid-twentieth century American literature or 19th century Abolitionist communities in New England)? Could you list a few authors within that period that you are interested in?
  2. What sort of questions will you be asking? At the end of the research period, what are you hoping you will know?
  3. Suggest the methodologies that you will be using. What sort of sources or materials will you use? Are there archives or libraries that will be important? What is your primary approach: close reading, archival work, applying theoretical materials to primary sources, working through and challenging the conclusions of other scholars?
  4. Indicate what coursework you have done that will help you complete this project. You don’t have to mention every course, but provide at least one.
  5. Your paragraph should provide the most detail about what you will be doing during the summer. If you have a plan that already is continuing into the fall semester, you should definitely mention this. But the focus should be on the 8 to 10 week summer research period.

Be on the lookout for my comments coming back over email. And do get in touch if you have any questions or want to speak in person.

Onward, humanities!

Best,

Dr. Cheever