A Wave of Summer Humanities Research

When planning fun things to do on summer break, surfing may come to mind, but research? It doesn't usually make the cut, but this past summer some ambitious students studying the humanities in UVM's College of Arts and Sciences learned a way to do both, so to speak.

TheSummer Undergraduate Research Fellows (SURF) program, administered through the FOUR Office (Fellowships, Opportunities, & Undergraduate Research), offers grants to award winners in several programs across the university. Student applicants present project proposals in the spring, which are judged on the project's intellectual and/or artistic substance, the promise of results, how well prepared the applicant is, and how feasible the project is. The Humanities Center typically provides two of these SURF awards, but this year, the Center was presented with so many outstanding project proposals that it increased that number to three. Allow us to introduce you to the winners: Greta Powers, Nina Pschar, and Katie DiPalma.

Name:Greta Powers
Year:Senior
Major:English /Minor:Gender, Sexuality, & Women's Studies

Her project:Writing a Life, Writing Herself: An Investigation of the Experience of the Reader, Nonlinear Narratives, and the Creation of Selfhood in Alison Bechdel's Fun Home

The details:Powers (shown above) used her SURF award to begin working on her Honors College thesis, which centers on Alison Bechdel's Fun Home, a graphic memoir about Bechdel's relationship to her father, a closeted gay man who took his life shortly after Bechdel came out as gay herself. "My thesis is a literary analysis of both the book and the musical adaptation that came to Broadway in 2015," she says.

Why she chose it:Powers initially read Fun Home during her first year in an Honors College class taught by her thesis advisor, Lisa Schnell. She admired the book tremendously, wrote her final research paper about it for the class, and then couldn't shake it from her mind.

What she learned:Powers says there was something different about working from home with no structures in place to energize her learning. This prompted her to prioritize conversations with her advisor, "which always moved me forward when I was in a rut." She also learned the importance of stepping away from work for periods of time.

Thoughts from her advisor:"Just applying for a Humanities SURF grant set Greta apart," says Lisa Schnell, Ph.D., associate professor of English. "But it is her project that truly distinguished her grant. She's working on the cutting edge of genre studies and contributing in valuable ways to the growing body of work that acknowledges the importance of graphic literature in general, and the genius of Alison Bechdel (a Vermonter!) specifically."

Name:Nina Pschar
Year:Senior
Majors:English and French

Her project:Sujets précieux: La comédie et la conversion à traversAgathonphile martyr, tragi-comédiede Françoise Pascal (Comedy and Conversion in Françoise Pascal'sAgathonphile martyr, tragi-comédie)

The details:For Pschar's essay, written in French, she researched Françoise Pascal, a 17th-century playwright, and the context of religious instruction for women at that time. In the essay, Pschar argues "for a more serious consideration of the worldview presented by the précieuses, women writers who rejected a tradition of being subjected to male interests and who prioritized their own refinement and learning, the expression of true love, and a Christian conception of charity."

Why she chose it:Pschar began this research in her sophomore year, thinking it would become the subject of her Honors College thesis. "I love to study the Early Modern period in my English classes, especially works that feature women characters and pieces written by women," she says. She ultimately changed the topic of her thesis, so she applied for the SURF grant hoping to develop this earlier idea.

What she learned:Pschar says she learned to develop systems to schedule her workload in a productive way. She specifically learned a lot about what it means to design, research, and compose an article over a period of 10 weeks.

Thoughts from her advisor:"What's striking about Nina is her independence as a budding scholar," says Joseph Acquisto, Ph.D., professor of French and director of the School of World Languages and Cultures. "She formulated the SURF project out of her independent scholarly reading on a topic not covered in our French literature courses. This, along with her undergraduate Honors thesis, will be an excellent indicator to Ph.D. programs that she is capable of sustained, independent, and high-quality scholarly work in French literature."

Name:Katie DiPalma
Year:Senior
Majors:History and Psychology /Minor:Sociology

Her project:Smuggling Across the New England Border During Prohibition

The details:DiPalma researched alcohol smuggling across the Vermont-Canadian border during Prohibition and how this was affected by the history of temperance (a movement of the rejection of alcohol on moral grounds) in New England. She focused on archival research with physical documents, the Special Collections at UVM, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Natick Historical Society, and some digital newspaper databases.

Why she chose it:"My topic is very closely related to the thesis I am currently working on for the Honors College," DiPalma says. She had some background knowledge on Prohibition but had never gotten the chance to study it closely. She adds that Vermont is a unique case because of its proximity to the Canadian border, its long history of alcohol restrictions, and its sense of close-knit community.

What she learned:DiPalma spent a lot of time working to narrow down information to what was most enlightening and important. She says her goal was to expand her archival research skills and use them to build a diversified collection of sources.

Thoughts from her advisor:"Katie's project led her to a variety of different types of archives over the summer, and since she's interested in becoming an archivist or librarian, it was great for her to have an opportunity to experience that range," says Nicole Phelps, Ph.D., professor of history. "She is really taking advantage of unique, locally available resources to produce original research, in addition to garnering experiences that are directly useful for her post-UVM career.

 

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