Weiser Center awards $100K for student research, internships
The Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia (WCEE) is pleased to announce that it has awarded $100,285 in grants for summer and semester-long research projects and internships to students. The grants were awarded to 53 students following a competitive review process. Funding comes from a variety of sources within WCEE and its partner units—the Center for European Studies (CES); Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies (CREES); Islamic Studies Program (ISP); and Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies (WCED). Grants are primarily used to fund overseas experiences, and students will be going to 29 countries including Albania, France, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Russia, and Spain.
Student grantees represent a wider range of disciplines including history, engineering, political science, and public health. All current U-M students are eligible for the awards, which in many cases allow students to undertake research or an internship that they would otherwise not be able to afford. Polina Fradkin says, “Thanks to the Weiser Center, I can have firsthand experience in academic research abroad!” She is an undergraduate student and two-time recipient of Weiser Center funding.
The grants have been offered for several years, with the oldest among them the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies Research and Internship Fund (CRIF) awards that were first awarded in 1995. This is the first time that award totals top $100,000, which reflects the generosity of donors who want to support international experiences for students. Over the past two years, new donations have come from community groups to support students going to Albania and Ukraine, alumnus Nicholas Kabcenell in support of undergraduate experiences in European Union candidate or post-2004 member countries, and WCEE founding donors Ronald and Eileen Weiser for support of students studying emerging democracies.
LIST OF AWARDS
Susan Abraham, PhD Romance Languages & Literatures, for research in Spain, “Tratado de los dos caminos and its Eighteenth Century Interlocutors,” CES Summer Research and Internship Grant
Tessa Adzemovic; MD Medicine; for research in Bosnia and Herzegovina; “Child Health in High Risk Settings in Mostar, Bosnia and Hercegovina;” CRIF Program Grant
Alena Aniskiewicz, PhD Slavic Languages & Literatures, for an internship in Poland with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Copernicus Summer Grant
Maja Babic; PhD Architecture; for research in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Croatia; “PostSocialist Architecture and Politics in Former Yugoslavia;” CRIF Program Grant
Ariana Bancu, PhD Linguistics, for research in Romania, “Sociolinguistic Factors in Language Maintenance,” CRIF Program Grant
Mohamad Bazzi, BA LSA, for research on the Maktab Tarighat Oveyssi (MTO) centers in California and Texas, ISP Summer Fellowship
David Beck, BA History, for research in Poland, “Catholicism in Lublin: A Case Study on the Effects of the Faith,” WCED Summer Fellowship
Linda Camaj, BS Biomolecular Science/Spanish, for an internship in Albania with the Ministry of Health, WCED Summer Fellowship
Cristian Capotescu, PhD History, for research in Hungary, “Solidarity across Borders: Humanitarian Networks in the Last Decade of the Soviet Bloc,” CRIF Program Grant
Jim Carter, PhD Romance Languages & Literatures, for research in Italy, “Olivetti on 5th Ave: Marketing Italian Design in America, from the Museum to the Storefront,” CES Summer Research and Internship Grant
Vedran Catovic; PhD Comparative Literature; for research in Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia; “Humor in Post-Yugoslav Writings on War,” CRIF Program Grant
Xi Chen, MS Natural Resources & Environment, for research in Switzerland, “Promoting Sustainable Forest Management in Eastern Europe and Russia,” WCED Summer Fellowship
Ahyoung Cho, BA International Studies/BMus Music, for an internship in Poland with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Swiderski Fellowship
Adrian Deoanca, PhD Anthropology, for research in Romania, “Derailed: Infrastructure, Politics, and Affect in Postsocialist Romania,” WCED Summer Fellowship
Anne Desiderio, MA Higher Education/Middle Eastern & North African Studies, for an internship in Georgia with the Overseas Professional and Intercultural Training (OPIT) Internship Program, CRIF Program Grant
Christopher Fort, PhD Slavic Languages & Literatures, for research in Uzbekistan, “Parricide in Twentieth Century Uzbek Literature,” CRIF Program Grant
Michael Fortunato, MPH Health Management & Policy, for an internship in Belgium with the European Public Health Alliance, CES Summer Research and Internship Grant
Polina Fradkin, BA International Studies/Judaic Studies/Russian, for research in Cuba, “Eastern European Jewish Immigrants to Cuba and their Descendants,” WCED Summer Fellowship
Dustin Gamza; PhD Political Science; for research in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan; “Reluctant Monopolists: Religious Regulation, National Identity, and Dissent in Central Asia;” WCED Summer Fellowship
Natalie Greifer, BA Residential College, for participation in the Polish study tour “Memory and Oblivion: Polish and Polish-Jewish History in the Polish Modern Landscape,” Amelia Kulesa Konopka Fellowship
Taylor Gunderson, BA International Studies/Political Science, for participation in the European Union study tour in Belgium, “The EU as a Global Actor,” WCED Summer Fellowship
Matthew Henry, BS Neuroscience, for an internship in Germany with Cultural Vistas, CES Summer Research and Internship Grant
Linh-Yen Hoang, BFA Art & Design, for an internship in Portugal with Multitecidos, WCED Summer Fellowship
Ian Holtz, BA German/International Studies, for an internship in Germany with Cultural Vistas, WCED Summer Fellowship
Ergest Isak, BA LSA, for an internship in Albania with the Ministry of Health, Kabcenell New Europe Grant
Maria Joachim; PhD Heath Service Organization & Policy; for research in Cyprus, Malta, and Portugal; “Cyprus Health System: A Time of Austerity and Health Insurance Reforms,” CES Summer Research and Internship Grant
Marie Keith, BS Cellular & Molecular Biology, for research at the Institute of Neurogenetics in Germany, “The Role of Engrailed in the Etiology of Parkinson’s Disease,” WCED Summer Fellowship
Nadiya Kostyuk, PhD Public Policy & Political Science, for research in Ukraine, “The Invisible Conflict in Ukraine: Cyber Berkut versus Ukrainian Cyber Troops,” Ukrainian Research Grant
Amber Krupp, BA Political Science, for participation in the European Union study tour in Belgium, “The EU as a Global Actor,” WCED Summer Fellowship
Erica Liao, BA Political Science, for an internship in Germany with Cultural Vistas, CES Summer Research and Internship Grant
Kristina Ljucovic, BS Neuroscience, for an internship in Albania with the Ministry of Health, Kabcenell New Europe Grant
Joanna Mazurkiewicz, PhD Slavic Languages & Literatures, for research in Poland, “The Impact of Communism on the Yiddish Theater in Warsaw, Poland,” Copernicus Summer Grant
Natalie McCauley, PhD Slavic Languages & Literatures, for research in Russia, “Controlling the Uncontrollable: Power, Agency, and Influence in Late and Post-Soviet Women’s Writing,” CRIF Program Grant
Alexandra Newton, BA Economics/International Studies, for research in Romania, “Postsocialist (In)Securities: Private Security in Bucharest,” Kabcenell New Europe Grant
Cosmo Pappas, BA Comparative Literature, for research in France and Italy, “Alexandre Kojève, the European Union, and Neoliberal Capitalism,” CES Summer Research and Internship Grant
Jamie Parsons, PhD Slavic Languages &Literatures, for an internship in Ukraine with the City Government of L’viv, CRIF Program Grant
Spenser Pawlik, BSE Mechanical Engineering, for a research assistant position in Kazakhstan at Al Farabi Kazakh National University, CRIF Program Grant
Shanae Pruitt, BA English, for an internship in England with the Institute for the International Education of Students, CES Summer Research and Internship Grant
Helena Ratte, BA German/History, for research in Bosnia and Herzegovina, “Oral Histories of Bosnian Gastarbeiter and Refugees in Germany,” CRIF Program Grant
Muhammad Amier Zaryff Razali, BA Economics/History, for an internship with the Central Bank of Malaysia, ISP Summer Fellowship
Marta Sadowska, BA International Studies, for an internship in Poland with Coffey International, the Copernicus Summer Grant
Luqman Harith Saifuddin, BS Economics/Actuarial Mathematics, for participation in the Durham Islamic Finance Summer School in England, ISP Summer Fellowship
Jeffrey Samuels, PhD Classical Art & Architecture, for research in Italy, “Gender, State Formation, and Craft Production at ProtoUrban Gabii,” CES Summer Research and Internship Grant
Leigh Saris, PhD Anthropology, for research in Greece and Turkey, “Connection across Conflict: Greek-Turkish Exchangee Tourism,” CES Summer Research and Internship Grant
Samuel Shuman, PhD Anthropology, for research in Belgium, “Cleaving to Shards: An Ethnography of Industrial Collapse among Antwerp’s Hasidic Diamond Merchants,” CES Summer Research and Internship Grant
Kimberly Swisher, PhD Anthropology, for research in Hungary, “Bronze Age Archaeological Studies in Hungary: A Perspective on the Emergence of Social Inequality,” CRIF Program Grant
Amanda Ujkashi, BA LSA, for an internship in Albania with the Federata Shqiptare e Futbollit (Albanian Football Association), WCED Summer Fellowship
Nadia Vandergriff, MS Natural Resources & Environment, for research in Switzerland, “Promoting Sustainable Forest Management in Eastern Europe and Russia,” WCED Summer Fellowship
Louise Wang, BS Environment, for an internship in Albania with the National Coastline Agency, WCED Summer Fellowship
Hanna Wetters; BA Philosophy, Politics & Economics; for an internship in France at the U.S. Embassy in Paris, CES Summer Research and Internship Grant
Mary Kathleen Wroblewski, PhD History, for research in Poland, “Children of the Sun: The Polish Peasant in the Modern World,” Reade Graduate Fellowship
Peixin Yang, BA Residential College, for an internship in Albania with the National Coastline Agency, WCED Summer Fellowship
Jifang Zhou, MPH Health Management & Policy, for an internship in France and Denmark with the World Health Organization, CES Summer Research and Internship Grant
More information about WCEE Summer Grants for Research and Internships