Steinbrecher Fellowship | Undergraduate Research & Fellowships Advising

A special opportunity for Clark students

In 2005, the family and friends of David C. Steinbrecher ’81 created the Steinbrecher Fellowship Program with a generous gift that established a permanent endowment in memory of David. The Steinbrecher Fellowship provides funding for Clark undergraduates to pursue original ideas, creative research, public service, or enrichment projects, and maintains a vibrant community of learners.

Arts and humanities

Julianna lugg

Small town stories

Julianna Lugg, a media, culture, and the arts major, traveled to the smallest towns in each of New England’s six states to share their unique stories. Camera in hand, she chronicled life in each of the communities, producing a series of short documentaries called “Small Town Stories”.

Toni armstrong

Modern art gallery design in Europe

Toni Armstrong, an art history and ancient civilization double major, visited several art museums in Europe to explore the choices exhibition designers make when creating modern art galleries, and how these choices inform audience understanding. She blogged about her impressions of the exhibits and their designers.

Casey Bush

Investigating forgiveness among Holocaust survivors

Casey Bush has studied the Holocaust since fifth grade, when she read “Number the Stars,” a book about a 10-year-old Danish girl who teams up with the Danish Resistance to help her Jewish friend and others flee the Nazis in Copenhagen. As a Steinbrecher Fellow and history major, Bush studied the topic of forgiveness among survivors t the United States Holocaust Museum. She also traveled to the CANDLES Holocaust Museum in Indiana to interview founder Eva Kor about her decision to forgive Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele , who performed experiments on Kor and her twin sister during World War II. Bush stayed in touch with Kor until the 85-year-old’s death in 2019.

Sciences

anthony jreije

A tale of two cities in Beirut

Anthony Jreije, a geography and economics double major, examined the politics of gentrification in Beirut. Working with a number of local organizations, he studied the role of the state, banks, and real estate developers in the transformation of the urban landscape.

Odgerel Chintulga

Year-round sustainable agriculture

Odgerel Chintulga, an environmental science major, worked with researchers from the Mongolian National University of Life Science to evaluate and improve the efficiency of a recently installed irrigation system in Khanbogd, Umnugobi. He also helped locals develop year-round sustainable agriculture.

Max defaria

Food insecurity in Chile

Max DeFaria, a geography and Spanish double major, traveled to Santiago, Chile, to study the prevalence of food inaccessibility across different areas of the city. There, he explored food safety policies and public awareness of nutritional quality and standards.

Linnea menin

Seeking answers in Massachusetts’ waterways

Biology major Linnea Menin used molecular and bioinformatic methods to research little-known microbial communities in a dozen kettle ponds on Cape Cod and in Walden Pond. Her work involved conducting nutrient analyses to determine how changes in nutrient levels impact organisms.

Social sciences

Themal ellawala

Gender norms in Sri Lanka

Themal Ellawala, a psychology major, traveled to his home country of Sri Lanka to examine how culture, gender norms, and stigma affect non-heterosexuals there. He later presented his research at Clark and also at an American Psychological Association conference.

Sherief Eldeeb

Reducing stress through mindfulness intervention

Sherief Eldeeb, a psychology major, worked with Professor Kymberlee O’Brien at the Health Psychology Lab at Worcester Polytechnic Institute to test the efficacy of a mindfulness intervention with victims of trauma.

Charline Kirongozi

The politics behind black hair

Charline Kirongozi attended the Charleston Natural Hair Expo in Charleston, South Carolina, as part of her research into the historic, political, and cultural significance of how Africans and African-Americans style their hair. A political science major, Kirongozi later developed workshops for teen girls that promoted self-confidence and combated societal prejudices that teach young black women to reject their natural hair.

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