New Program Expands Research Opportunities in Humanities and Social Sciences
For undergraduates in the humanities and social sciences, opportunities to conduct research alongside faculty are often harder to come by than in STEM fields, where lab work routinely relies on student assistants.
Bryn Mawr is working to change that through its new Social Sciences/Humanities Summer Research Program. In its pilot year, 11 students each received stipends between $2,500-$5,000, allowing them to spend eight to 10 weeks collaborating with faculty in History of Art, Spanish, Political Science, Economics, Growth and Structure of Cities, Anthropology, Russian, and the Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research.
Naveah Diaz ’26, a Religion Studies major with a film minor, worked with Associate Professor of Russian José Vergara on “Paul Thomas Annotated: In the Margins,” a digital humanities project that aims to annotate director Paul Thomas Anderson’s filmography. The final product will be an open-access website, with screenshots from all 10 of his feature-length films, that Vergara and student researchers have analyzed, commented on, and otherwise interpreted, along with metadata derived from those screenshots and a series of essays that bring together thematic elements from across the movies.
“I love the idea of our fields also being spaces where we can experiment, take chances, and create new approaches through collaboration rather than the standard siloed way we usually conduct research.”
“There Will Be Blood is my favorite movie ever, so I was immediately interested when I heard about the project,” says Diaz. “We’re spending hours going through these movies scene by scene and making annotations, so I’ve really gained a lot of insight into what it’s like to research cinema in a very detailed way. If you’re interested in film studies, there aren’t many opportunities to do research as an undergraduate, so I’m really grateful that Bryn Mawr has this program.”
“Since I first started at Bryn Mawr, I had been hoping that the College would create something similar to the Summer Science Research Program for the humanities,” says Vergara. “I love the idea of our fields also being spaces where we can experiment, take chances, and create new approaches through collaboration rather than the standard siloed way we usually conduct research. Working with Naveah and the rest of the PTAnnotated team as a true collective has been incredibly rewarding, even liberatory."
Maddie Raymond ’26, a double major in Literatures in English and History, studied the Atlantic World in her history courses with Professor Ignaciio Gallup-Diaz. When she learned about the chance to research Afro-Caribbean art from 1750–1900 with Assistant Professor of History of Art C.C. McKee, she jumped at the opportunity.
Raymond’s work included archival research with McKee at the Philadelphia Library Company, where they reviewed the papers of 18th-century polymath Pierre Eugene du Simitiere. After leaving Geneva, du Simitiere spent 10 years in the West Indies before settling in colonial America.
“I loved formulating and discussing my own historical theories about the du Simitiere papers and discovering evidence for those theories within the collection,” she says of the experience.
Skills Raymond says she gained or improved through the program include building solid bibliographies, formulating and working to prove theories, and advanced and effective note-taking skills. She’s also had more practice with academic copyediting and is now familiar with the process of editing a monograph for print.
“All of these skills will benefit me greatly in my research for my capstone in the history department this fall and if I decide to go to graduate school for history,” says Raymond. “Working with Professor McKee has deepened my understanding of the Atlantic World and strengthened my competence in asking historical questions and finding evidence to support my answers.”
McKee knows firsthand the value of programs like Bryn Mawr's.
“During my undergraduate studies, I had the pleasure of serving as a summer research assistant for a faculty member in my home department of History of Art, but working outside my direct field," they say. "She assigned me to develop a bibliography for a research project in its early stages and gave me the opportunity to read and discuss a new field. This experience was integral in my decision to pursue a doctorate in the humanities; it gave me confidence as a researcher and taught me new modes of developing research questions that I use today.”
Sarah Kurth ’28 worked with Visiting Assistant Professor of Spanish Kathryn Phipps, who specializes in Inquisition studies, to transcribe Spanish Inquisition trial documents housed at the University of Pennsylvania.
Kurth’s work this summer made big advances towards the goal of Phipps’ Paleography Working Group: to transcribe the entirety of the Inquisition holdings on trials of women.
“By converting the illegible-to-most documents into a readable file, the texts will be able to circulate more easily and are ready for critical analysis,” says Phipps. “I'm excited to see the research Sarah will produce from her transcriptions as our working group continues to pursue digital humanities initiatives to improve the accessibility of the archives.”
Originally planning to finish three transcriptions, Kurth completed five. “I’ve loved developing a picture of these women’s lives, from food practices and beauty rituals to what incarceration looked like,” she says. “The paleography skills I’ve built will support future research and contribute to Bryn Mawr’s working group.”
Associate Professor of Anthropology Melissa Pashigian mentored two students—Akosua Boatemaa Sarpong ’28, a chemistry major on the pre-med track, and Rose Sunderland-McKay ’26, an anthropology and dance double major—on a project exploring the social and medical constructions of dizziness and chronic illness.
Together, they conducted background research, created a bibliographic database of cross-cultural sources, identified advocacy organizations, and examined online narratives to think through parameters for future data collection, with the long-term goal of laying the groundwork for a fieldwork project and grant proposal.
Sarpong says the experience stretched her beyond the lab mindset: “As a STEM major, I’m used to following set instructions. This project taught me to think critically, consider multiple perspectives, and collaborate as part of a team–skills that will stay with me.”
Sunderland-McKay adds that she valued developing hands-on research skills. “I’ve gained experience navigating databases like ProQuest and PubMed, but also the fundamental experience of actively contributing to a project from its earliest stages,” she explains. “That will inform my thesis planning on both logistical and conceptual levels.”
Reflecting on the program, Pashigian called it “an exceptionally important opportunity for social science and humanities faculty and students at the College, and doubly so in the current national climate of research and grantmaking.”
In addition to the student funding, the Social Sciences/Humanities Summer Research Program provides funding for participating faculty acknowledging the time and energy required to provide close, high-impact mentorship.