What do Turkey’s Israel policy, a Sufi-Jewish poet, maps of Seattle childhood spaces, and international asylum seekers have in common? All are topics that will be presented by Jackson School graduate students on May 6th at the 4th annual Jewish Studies Spring Research Symposium.
The event showcases the research projects of the 2015-16 cohort of the Jewish Studies Graduate Fellowship. The interdisciplinary fellowship builds intellectual community, provides experience in public scholarship, and enhances professional credentials.
When: Friday, May 6 from 9:30-11:30 am
Where: UW Intellectual House
This year, four of the seven Fellows are based in Jackson School graduate programs:
- Canan Bolel, a second-year Ph.D. student in Near and Middle Eastern Studies, is creating an interactive mapping project tracing spaces of Jewish childhood in Seattle from 1900-1950.
- Berkay Gulen, a first-year Ph.D. student in International Studies, focuses on Turkey’s foreign policy towards Israel from 2002 onwards.
- Oded Oron, a second-year Ph.D. student in International Studies, studies asylum seekers the rhetoric of contemporary politics in Israel
- Sasha Prevost, a second-year M.A. student in Comparative Religion and Asian Languages and Literatures, explores the fascinating life and work of Sarmad Kashani, the “Jewish Saint of India”
The other members of the 2015-16 cohort include Rachel Graf (Department of English), who works on perspective in graphic novels; Katja Schatte (Department of History), who studies Jewish women’s lives in post-war East Berlin; and Emily Thompson (Library & Information Science), whose project proposes a Seattle Jewish library catalog.
All of this year’s Graduate Fellows have written blog articles about their research and fieldwork experiences, viewable on the Jewish Studies website at this link.
The May 6th Symposium, taking place at the UW Intellectual House for the first time, will feature an interactive format this year: each student has designed a multi-media station for their presentation.
Click here to register for the event, which is open from 9:30-11:30 and includes a kosher bagel breakfast.
The next class of Jewish Studies Graduate Fellowships will be announced later this spring. Congratulations to the 2015-16 Fellows for their innovative projects!
