I am looking for research assistance on several projects related to sports economics and industrial organization, including: 1) analyzing NBA player contracts, with a focus on the determinants and outcomes for players who bought out their contracts; 2) examining how the use of industrial AI influences airlines’ capacity management, dynamic pricing, and potential tacit collusion; and 3) investigating how consumers respond to highly publicized corporate incidents, such as the United Express 3411 incident. I will work with the scholar to find a good match between the topic and the student’s interest/background.

Data collection, data processing, literature search, literature review, and preliminary descriptive analyses.

Prior coursework in statistics (and/or econometrics); prior experience with Stata, Python, or R; excellent time management skills and ability to multitask; attention to detail.

The scholar will share his/her summer research experience in my future ECON 102 Introduction to Economics class and/or ECON 160 Big Ideas in Economics. The summer collaboration may also potentially lead to future co-authoring opportunities on the project.

In-person

Eight weeks

06/09/2025

08/01/2025

The project will entail econometric analysis of a few new datasets from experiments I have recently run, as well as help developing new experiments. The current experiments include a project on our ability to detect deception in a simple game, the impact of giving on our attachment to material things, and how the value of favors appreciate or depreciate over time.`

Every part of a research project, from hypothesis generation to literature review to experimental design to execution to statistical analysis, to publication and presentation. The first round of data will be collected, but the data analysis will likely necessitate follow-up experiments which will require new hypotheses, literature reviews, and new experiments.

Ability to run a regression in Stata (maybe also Python, understanding Stata loops and macros and graphing a plus)

Able to learn basic programming (e.g. using Python to analyze text data and/or web design, experience using GPT for data and programming a plus)

An ability to read and consolidate diverse literatures (psychology, philosophy, political science, anthropology, computer science, etc.)

An interest in continuing behavioral econ research as a senior thesis

Typically I work with interested students to find a spinoff for the summer project into a co-authored paper to be submitted to an academic journal. Past Ford scholars have presented their work at national conferences (e.g. at Harvard and at Miami) and published both in professional journals and undergraduate-focused research journals

Hybrid. (I will be on campus about once a week. student ideally would be too but can be fully remote if preferred)

Eight weeks

05/28/2024

08/02/2024

Over 844 million people worldwide lack access to adequate safe drinking water, and climate change-induced salinization (CCIS) in low-elevation coastal zones has exacerbated this crisis. Globally, approximately 898 million people live in such zones, with more than 420 million residing in low-income countries. These populations are particularly vulnerable to declining freshwater supplies and often lack the resources needed to adapt. Studies have shown strong links between drinking saline water and various health risks, including preterm delivery due to pre-eclampsia, acute respiratory infections, skin diseases, and child malnutrition. Consequently, salinization could severely impact life expectancy, increase physical disabilities, and reduce worker productivity—factors critical to economic growth in low-income countries.

Information dissemination (including nudging) about the harmful effects of saline water and the provision of subsidized or free desalinized water can help vulnerable coastal communities adapt to CCIS and improve health outcomes. However, previous studies suggest that the adoption of low-cost, point-of-use safe water products remains low among poor communities, despite their potential to reduce waterborne illnesses. Similarly, subsidized desalinized water may see limited uptake due to long-standing habits and taste preferences developed from prolonged use of saline water.

To address these challenges, it is crucial to understand community knowledge, practices, perceived barriers, preferences, and willingness to pay for desalinized water. This is the focus of my proposed Ford Scholar project this summer. This exploratory research is part of a larger randomized controlled trial (RCT) aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of subsidized/free provision, information dissemination, and nudges as tools for promoting behavioral change and habit formation in adopting safe water products. Using household-level survey data from 1,600 households in Khulna—a coastal region in Bangladesh threatened by climate change, rising sea levels, and drinking water salinity—I aim to assess the community’s health conditions, current saline water consumption practices, knowledge of health risks, and willingness to pay for desalinized water.

Findings from this project will provide valuable insights into the preferences and aspirations of at-risk populations and help determine whether subsidized desalinized water and behavioral interventions can effectively support vulnerable coastal communities in adapting to the adverse impacts of CCIS.

Clean the data on different sections of the survey demographic, health, child anthropometric, pregnant mother, water source, perception and preference on water salinity, willingness to pay for pure drinking water) and link them with the household-level water salinity data.

Describe the compiled dataset in tables and figures.

Estimate models to examine how variation in water salinity affects the physical and mental health of coastal community members, child health and education, and willingness to pay for desalinized drinking water.

Appetite for doing research and asking questions.

Need to be able to follow an analysis plan (I will prepare a primary analysis plan)

Stata will be used for this project—I have a preference for someone with some pre-existing programming ability (Stata, R, GIS, Python, etc.) but not mandatory.

Strong attention to detail.

The Economics Department organizes a weekly Brown Bag Seminar during the summer where all FORD Scholar students present their research projects. This seminar provides a platform for students to share their work, receive feedback from peers and faculty, and gain hands-on experience in the research process.

For students working on my project, I will also invite them to present their experiences and findings in my Fall semester courses, particularly ECON 102. This will expose introductory students to the practical applications of economic research and policy evaluation, inspiring them to explore opportunities in academic research.

If the project progresses to generating causal estimates during the summer, students will have the opportunity to contribute to a manuscript for a potential journal article. This process will provide valuable experience in professional academic writing, data analysis, and interpreting results. Additionally, if the project’s findings are presented at a future conference, students may be invited to co-present, offering a chance to develop their communication and networking skills within an academic setting.

Possibility of hands-on experience in primary data collection, management, and implementation of RCTs in the future (contingent upon successful grant application for a pilot RCT).

Open to All

Eight weeks

06/02/2025

07/25/2025

Since the year 2000, the foreign-born population in the U.S. has increased by more than 50%, growing from approximately 30 million foreign-born residents in 2000 to approximately 45 million in 2022. These changes have been widespread, with all U.S. states experiencing an increase in foreign-born residents. Moreover, this period marks a dramatic change in the composition of new migrants arriving to the country. Migration from Mexico, historically the largest sending country, fell to historic lows during the Great Recession and never recovered. Meanwhile, migration from a large number of other countries in Latin America, as well as countries in Europe, Africa and Asia increased dramatically. As a result, the average number of countries represented in any state’s population rose from 55 in the year 2000 to 115 in the year 2022. The population dominance of any one immigrant group also declined. Thus, not only is the foreign-born population in the U.S. larger than in recent decades, it also is more diverse.

This project aims to examine legislative responses at the state and local level to changes in the size and composition of the foreign-born population. These changes likely vary across time and location, given variation in the preferences and engagement of voters. They could be a direct result of immigrants who become naturalized citizens and engage politically (the number of naturalized citizens increased close to 100%). They also could be an indirect result of native-born citizens who respond to changes in their local populations.

The Ford Scholar will assist in creating a new database on enacted laws and resolutions related to immigration at the state and local level. They also will link these findings to data on the changing profile of the immigrant population in the U.S. They will create figures and maps and will link these visualization exercises to academic and popular press articles. The goal is to create a narrative that is accessible to a broad audience.

The project has a data, literature review, writing and presentation component. The data component will involve helping to create a new dataset on laws and resolutions related to immigration passed by state legislatures. It also will involve analyzing datasets on migration from the U.S. Through this the student will become familiar with some of the key datasets used by policymakers and researchers to analyze migration. The student also will learn how to present data in an interesting and meaningful way to a broad audience using tables and graphs.

The literature review will involve finding papers on changes in migration flows to the U.S. The writing component will involve writing up commentary on the datasets analyzed, the summary statistics created from them, and a literature review. The goal is for students to gain experience writing in economics and to end the project with a written document that synthesizes the work they did during the summer.

Finally, the student will present preliminary results of the literature review and data analysis in a brown bag held in the Economics department over the summer. We have done this over the past several years, and participants include professors in Economics and their Ford Scholars. The environment is very collegial, and this is a good way to practice workshopping ideas in front of an audience.

The student needs to have taken Introduction to Econometrics (at Vassar or elsewhere). It is important that the student have some exposure to analyzing data in a statistical package like STATA.

Through the project the student will learn how to work with economics data and how to use those data to answer questions about individual outcomes. These skills are beneficial as data analysis is a key part of many jobs, both within and outside of academia. By gaining a better understanding of how data sets are constructed and how they can be used, the student will better see the link between economic theory, data and policy-making.

The student will use STATA, a widely used statistical package. Knowledge of STATA is beneficial if the student is interested in pursuing graduate study or a career within Economics and Public Policy. Many excellent jobs for undergraduates within both fields require a good understanding of statistical programs.

Finally, a key goal of this project is for students to gain a better understanding of what research in economics entails, and potential career paths that involve economic research. Past Ford scholars have gone on to write theses in economics, to work as research assistants after graduation, and go on to graduate school.

In-person (I will be remote for the first three weeks, but will be on campus after that)

Eight weeks

06/02/2025

07/25/2025

Through a close working relationship, this project will invite a Ford Scholar to work with me (the Rev Dr Leonisa Ardizzone) to analyze, organize, and ultimately bring together teacher cohort research data, a diverse array of curricula, various classroom experiences, and foundational works in peace education to create an easy-to-use, standards-aligned handbook on how to implement peace education in pre-K through grade twelve classrooms. The Peace Education Center of the Hudson Valley conducted its first teacher education program in 2024, working with 12 teachers in Ulster, Dutchess, and Orange Counties over a ten-month period. As part of our work, we collected evaluations from the participants to determine what they took away from the training, what they learned about peace, violence, justice, and classroom applications, and what their future needs may be in the classroom. The Ford Scholar would begin their work by analyzing these evaluations, laying the foundation for the Handbook. Wanting to include teachers' voices, the Ford Scholar will also be asked to contact members of the cohort to do some follow-up on how their learnings were (or were not) implemented in the 2024–2025 school year. Their responses will help guide us in creating the outline for the handbook. Then, with this data, and the peace education materials I have amassed over the years, the Ford Scholar and I will create a user-friendly guide to implementing peace education in the PreK–12 classroom. The handbook will be a mix of theory and practice and will include lesson plans and pedagogical methods. By the end of our time together, I hope to have a complete draft of the handbook that can be shared with our next cohort of teachers (school year 2025–2026) for pilot testing and data collection.

- Review and analysis of professional development cohort pre/post questionnaires

- Conversations (informal interviews) with teachers about peace education applications

- Review and summarizing of core texts/writings in international peace education

- Review and evaluation of existing curricular examples

- Creation of additional curricular materials

- Development and design of handbook

- Assistance (if available) with the implementation of the handbook with the teacher cohort in fall 2025

- Knowledge and experience with Peace Education (having taken courses with Ardizzone or Hantzopoulos, ideally)

- Knowledge of educational issues in the US Public Education System (coursework in the VC Education Department)

- Ability to interview or comfort with this process

- Strong writing and editing skills

- Creative thinker

- Spent time in classrooms (or similar settings) with a working understanding of how children learn and/or the pressures teachers experience.

- Ability to take assigned tasks and see them through

- Knowledge of Canva (or willingness to learn)

Since I hope to use the handbook with former teachers and a new cohort of teachers, it would be great if the student could be part of either the implementation of that program or serve as an "outside evaluator" as we collect and review teacher feedback on the handbook.

Hybrid

Eight weeks

06/04/2025

07/30/2025

This summer presents an exciting opportunity for a Ford Scholar to engage with museum practice at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center. The Ford Scholar will play a significant role in supporting the Loeb initiative, funded by the Terra Foundation for American Art, to reinterpret and reinstall the museum’s permanent collection galleries dedicated to the so-called Hudson River School.

Since its inception in 1864, Vassar’s art museum has maintained a strong collection of nineteenth-century American landscapes, established through a founding gift from Matthew Vassar of around seventy works by artists such as Frederic Edwin Church and Sanford Robinson Gifford. Paintings from this original endowment, supplemented by subsequent acquisitions, currently form the core of a permanent exhibit in the Loeb’s suite of “Founding Galleries.”

At a moment when cultural institutions across the country are reevaluating their historic collections, the Loeb recognizes the need to thoughtfully and deliberately interrogate its founding collection with an eye to more expansive, layered, and inclusive histories. Four key themes will guide the Ford Scholar’s research: 1) the enslavement of Africans and their descendants in the Hudson Valley; 2) the genocidal displacement of the Munsee Lenape people; 3) the marginalization of female landscapists in the art historical cannon; 4) the effects of the Industrial Revolution on Hudson Valley labor and ecology. The second half of the scholarship will involve curating a small display for the Loeb’s Spotlight Gallery related to the themes of the larger project.

-- Research on artists and artworks related to project

-- Potential to aid in writing and revising didactic labels and interpretive texts for the Loeb’s permanent collection

-- Training and use of the Loeb’s museum database, TMS (The Museum System)

-- Gain knowledge of the Loeb’s collection and programs through first-hand research of objects and participation in curatorial planning

-- Site visits to other relevant museums and cultural institutions with curators

-- Curating a focused display in the Loeb’s Spotlight Gallery related to the project's larger themes

-- Excellent organization and written and oral communication skills with attention to accuracy

-- Ability to function in a fast-paced environment within a team

-- Ability to conduct deadline-oriented rigorous, independent research

-- Creative problem-solver with hands-on ability, thoughtfulness and respect for the handling of historical materials and sensitive issues

-- Ability to work proactively, collaboratively, and enthusiastically with internal departments and external parties

-- Demonstrated commitment to DEAI practices

-- Experienced with multidisciplinary approaches to learning and enthusiastic about engaging with a wide array of topics outside personal areas of expertise

-- (Suggested but not necessary) Interest in nineteenth and twentieth-century American art and art history

The fellowship will introduce the Ford Scholar to object-based research in a museum context. I will be eager to work with the Ford Scholar in a mentoring capacity to encourage original research, innovative curatorial approaches, and ways to engage the Vassar campus and community in the museum context. The student will have the opportunity to put these lessons to practical use in curating a small display in the Loeb’s main galleries related to the project’s theme. This will involve conducting original research, selecting objects, writing labels, authoring a short essay for an accompanying brochure, and planning related programming. This model has proven successful with previous Ford Scholars, who have curated Loeb displays on themes ranging from feminist art collectives to New Deal art to Black space-making from Harlem to the Hudson Valley.

In-person (faculty and scholar) at the Loeb Art Center

Six weeks

06/09/2025

07/18/2025

Professor Curtis Dozier is seeking a Ford Scholar to assist him in designing an introductory course for the Greek and Roman Studies program. This course will be a survey of Greek and Roman Civilizations. such as many other institutions offer. My objective is to create something currently lacking in our department’s curriculum: a course appropriate for students who have no formal experience studying Greco-Roman antiquity that will equip them to explore our department’s other offerings.

- Curriculum Design: theorization of course objectives, syllabus design, development of formative and summative assessments, development of activities

- Review and Selection of Existing Textbooks

- Research on aspects of Greco-Roman antiquity to be taught in the course

- Creation of Instructional Materials (slideshows, assignments, syllabi, discussion questions, examinations)

- Some background in the study of history (preferably Greco-Roman history)

- Research experience

- Familiarity with Google Docs, which will be our collaboration platform

- Pedagogical training, experience teaching, or experience with curriculum design is desirable but not required

- Ability to view a topic from the perspective of an absolute novice

In advance of the interview stage, applicants will be required to submit a brief description of how they would approach the proposed subject matter. Professor Dozier will contact you with further information following the submission of your application.

The course we design will be offered in Spring 2026. I am open to considering how my Ford Scholar might productively participate in the first offering of this course (for example, as a STEPP consultant, as a teaching assistant, a GRST department research assistant, etc).

The successful Ford Scholar can determine their location plan (fully in-person, fully remote, or hybrid) as their circumstances require

Eight weeks

06/02/2025

07/25/2025

The Oviedo Project @ Vassar College is a collaborative digital humanities/scholarly publication undertaking whose aim is the first complete translation into English of Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo’s 16th-century Historia general y natural de las Indias, islas, y tierra firme del mar océano (General and Natural History of the Indies, Islands and Mainland of the Ocean Sea). Written between 1524 and 1548, the brief iterations of the text published in 1526, 1535, and 1547 were translated into English, Italian, French, German, and Latin; its fifteen editions in the 16th century marked the text as a classic of Renaissance ethnographic and natural history. The full text, however, was not transcribed and published in Spanish until 1851–1855 in a 4-volume, nearly 3,000-page edition sponsored by the Royal Academy of History.

Oviedo’s signal contributions to early Latin American political, environmental, economic, and cultural history were substantially eclipsed by his death while he was engaged in the process of editing his work for publication. The four volume-edition opened new vistas into the world of the 16th-century Caribbean for readers able to access the material in Spanish, but it did little to make this extensive new text available to readers in any other language. In fact, there is no translation of the four-volume work—a work that simply defies characterization—available in any language other than the original Spanish.

This is where both the challenge and significant contribution of our translation project lies. We are engaged in the translation, begun in Fall 2019, of the four-volume 19th-century edition of the text working in collaboration with Vassar students. The incorporation of a pedagogical component in our project responds to various pressures, realities, and opportunities of 21st-century academia. First, it is not feasible to expect one single scholar to dedicate a career to the translation and publication of a text as extensive as Oviedo’s Historia. In the face of this practical reality, the collaborative translation model presents new opportunities the completion of such a necessary but onerous task. Our model for collaborative engagement of scholars and students in the production of a translation of this length and significance is one that we hope will serve as a model for similar projects aimed at the revitalizing of translation as an essential component of foreign language acquisition.

Designed as a closely mentored multi-leveled engagement with the text—as a form of apprenticeship in the endangered art of scholarly translation and interpretation—the project aims to bridge the gap between seemingly inaccessible “old” texts and evolving contemporary concepts of history, indigeneity, race and ethnicity, and natural and environmental history by tapping into the possibilities of scholarly mentorship opened by a liberal arts education. Conceived as a team effort through which they can contribute to making an important primary source available to a broad reading public, the project has been built on the students’ enthusiasm for a text they have come to understand through its relevance to contemporary questions about the impact of colonization on the environments of colonized societies, the evolution of racial categories and discrimination, the history of extractivist capitalism, or the textual intricacies of describing a new world in a language that requires reinvention.

We have now completed the translation of Volumes One and Two of the work and are finalizing the details of the preparation of Volume One for publication by Brill Publishers (Amsterdam). We will expect our Ford Scholars for the summer of 2025 to help us research and prepare the second volume for publication by working closely with us in editing and annotating the text. We expect the students to join the editorial team for discussions and project decisions and to help us research and draft scholarly and explanatory notes for the text. This work may take us to specialized libraries in New York City and the John Carter Brown Library (Brown University).

A knowledge of Spanish—at least at the intermediate level—would be preferred, as well as an interest in translation and scholarly research. We work with WordPress and Scalar on our site, but we can train the student in these skills quite quickly.

In addition to participating in the Ford Scholars Symposium, we would like the student to participate in the orientation and training of the translators that will join the project in the fall and spring semesters of the 2022—2023 academic year through the sharing of their experiences and skills.

Hybrid. The hybrid mode has proven the best for us, as it gives us ready access to the resources on campus while offering flexibility as the focus of the work changes throughout the summer.

Eight weeks

05/26/2025

07/19/2025

This Ford Scholar proposed project focuses on building a spreadsheet that I’ve been working on with two students during the fall semester. It analyzes how weapons manufacturers approach human rights due diligence and risk assessment, especially when it comes to protecting children’s rights in armed conflict zones.

All arms companies include human rights due diligence statements and risk assessment protocols on their websites. On paper, they claim to care about protecting children’s rights, but their policies are weak. The number of children killed, maimed, or displaced because of conflicts involving these weapons is at an all-time high. Schools, hospitals, homes, and play areas—important spaces for children’s survival and development—are routinely destroyed by weapons these companies produce. Research is demonstrating that most arms manufacturers stop taking responsibility once their products are sold. They claim they’re not accountable for how their weapons are used.

This project attempts to understand how the industry navigates its accountability when it comes to children’s rights. We will collect and analyze data on the spreadsheet with the goal of shedding light on how arms companies address (or fail to address) their responsibility to protect children during armed conflict. The expectation is that this spreadsheet and a short paper that articulates our findings will be useful to those working to advocate for the protection of children's rights in armed conflict, as well as scholars interested in this topic.

The first priority for the team (TH and Ford Scholar) is to expand on the contents of the spreadsheet we’ve been building, pulling together information about arms companies, their human rights policies, how they handle risk assessments, their relationship to state control policy, and their impacts--particularly in Yemen and Colombia. This info isn’t easily accessible—it takes advanced research skills, creativity, and persistence to uncover it.

Our second activity will be to interview representatives that will help us close some of the gaps in our spreadsheet, including those working in arms manufacturers, lawyers who have been involved in court cases, and children’s rights field workers who have worked to enforce the Arms Trade Treaty and other international conventions. We also plan to focus our attention on companies with relatively stronger due diligence mechanisms. These conversations will give us insight into their processes, what they report, and where the gaps are.

The third summer activity is to write a short paper on the findings of the research to date. In order to develop themes for the paper we will conduct some quantitative and qualitative analysis of the contents of the spreadsheet. This short paper (of about 2000 words) will be written for an audience of human rights scholars and practitioners and due diligence and risk management officers who work in the companies we have focused on in our work.

Research skills, excel spreadsheet, quantitative and qualitative analysis, a language other than English (preferably Spanish)

I will ensure that the Ford Scholar has at least one opportunity to teach the material (in my class on armed conflict or in my other class on gun violence) and present the findings at one professional meeting at Columbia University.

Hybrid. I will work remotely with the student but we will also meet up occasionally on campus to check-in and/or to attend interviews together off campus.

Eight weeks

05/28/2025

07/20/2025

This summer I will continue working on my manuscript, a trade book, now tentatively titled, "Unlearning Texas: Memory and the Struggle for the Soul of the Lone Star State." I plan to focus on one of the major chapters, regarding struggles over remembering historic atrocities committed against ethnic Mexicans on the Texas border. The chapter will examine the relationships between these battles to remember the atrocities and their continuing resonance in the here and now.

For a very long time, the state of Texas mastered the art of a dominant history that turns colonization, slavery, insurgency and treason into a celebration of the founders of the Lone Star State, states’ rights, and the Anglo Texans’ fight against a newly independent Mexico -- a fight made iconic by the 1836 Battle of the Alamo. It is a story that remains silent regarding the centrality of slavery, and the damage to young self- and collective identities of Native Americans, Mexican Americans, and African Americans that is inherent to this dominant telling. Activists work to imagine Texas narrated otherwise. The book manuscript is essentially about memory, haunting, the dangers of whiteness, and contemporary political activism to change how Texas is narrated. I explore five sites, located in different parts of the state, and I follow the work of activists both trying to remove monuments and memorials that should no longer be standing, and to establish ones that should be. The book joins many in building an agenda for a politics of coming to terms with violent white supremacist historical memories in relation to current struggles for justice and for political solidarity. I argue that such an agenda always demands sensitivity and humility regarding the many invisibilities, dispossessions, and hauntings. As a white woman, I am also particularly conscious of how white people who become involved in anti-racist memorial activism do so in large part, often initially unconsciously and then more consciously, to address our own racism.

During the Mexican Revolution (1910-20), a group of Mexican Americans joined forces with a faction of Mexican revolutionaries in a short-lived but significant battle to reclaim the U.S. southwest. The leaders on the Texas side included Tejanos whose ancestors were among some of the oldest Spanish-descended landholding families of the region. Texas Rangers routed the revolutionary group, indiscriminately killing and lynching as many as 3,000 ethnic Mexicans in the process. The chapter I'll focus on this summer follows the work of memorial activists as they resurrect this period -- one that has been silenced in Texas -- as well as examine the challenges of forming historic alliances across different identities. It requires me to explore the tensions over Mexican ethnicity and whiteness and the failures in the 1910s and 1920s to establish alliances between Mexican-Americans and African-Americans in the struggle against lynching. Such tensions carried forward through the 20th century, into the 21st, though in the aftermath of the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd, new alliances became more visible. I place the historic period in relation to today’s migration crisis along the Mexico-U.S. border.

While I have done a fair amount of research on the chapter, the Ford scholar will help me organize and synthesize what I have, continue to research ongoing developments regarding the border tensions in south and west Texas, and help me think through key dimensions regarding the relationships between how the sites are narrated and how that materializes in Texas politics and elsewhere today. In addition to the training and mentorship I can offer, the scholar will meet with Vassar academic librarian Elizabeth Salmon to hone their research skills, and will be prepared to make contact with organizations, offices, and individuals in Texas regarding different dimensions of the project.

Additionally, the Ford scholar will help me think about my Fall 2025 Politics of Memory Seminar, especially a section regarding memory politics and our research and writing on Texas. It may also be the case that I decide to propose a future Texas research course and study trip as an Intensive, and the Ford scholar will help me sketch this out.

I will see the Ford scholar as an essential interlocutor. We can also explore whether we might co-author a short article or opinion piece, toward publication sometime post-summer. If time permits, I will additionally incorporate the Ford scholar some in portions of the Celebrating the African Spirit youth summer intensive, particularly regarding the "hidden histories" high schoolers explore.

The potential Ford scholar must possess an ability to work independently as well as collaboratively, and must be proactive in terms of following research leads.

Previous coursework and/or experience regarding racism, colonialism, immigration, and activism will be valued.

Organization and synthetic writing skills will also be valued.

Ideally, the scholar can read and speak Spanish.

While it has been a number of years since I have worked with a Ford summer scholar, I have had a range of previous experiences, from having the scholar become my academic year research assistant, to co-teaching class sessions with me, to co-authoring and presenting papers at the Latin American Studies Association annual congress and in academic institutions both in the US and in Chile. It will clearly be contingent on the working relationship we build.

in-person, though depending on where the student lives (like in Texas), some combination of in-person and remote could be considered.

Eight weeks

05/27/2025

08/01/2025

This project aims to address the pressing need for effective methodologies to assess and calculate and legally frame climate reparations for Indigenous loss and damage caused by disasters like heatwaves. Despite the disproportionate and unique vulnerabilities faced by Indigenous peoples, there remains a lack of standardized approaches to evaluating the harm they endure. The research seeks to provide a foundational analysis and actionable insights to support Indigenous claims for climate compensation in South Asia

The primary goal is to explore emerging judicial and administrative practices across various legal systems that address Indigenous claims for harm caused by environmental damage, land loss, cultural impairment, and other climate-induced impacts with a focus on such practices in South Asia and beyond. The outcomes will serve as a vital resource for practitioners engaged in domestic litigation, advocacy before human rights bodies, and the application of the loss and damage regime under the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement.

Literature Review and Comparative Analysis:

1. Conduct a comprehensive review of the existing legal literature on Indigenous loss and damage due to climate change.

2. Analyze judicial and administrative decisions in comparative fields (e.g., cases involving native title extinguishment, spiritual and cultural losses, and environmental damage).

Case Study Research

1. Examine key cases such as Billy v Australia (UN Human Rights Committee), Pabai Pabai v Australia (domestic litigation), and Smith v Fonterra (New Zealand).

2. Evaluate methodologies employed to calculate reparations and their applicability to climate change impacts on Indigenous communities.

Legal Framework Building: I will work with the scholar to arrive at potential legal frameworks to understand, calculate and compensate for loss and damage experienced by indigenous communities.

1. Interest in law, environmental policy, Indigenous studies, or related fields.

2. Curiosity about human rights law, climate change law, or Indigenous legal frameworks is preferred.

3. Interest in legal research, policy analysis, or case law review.

4. Proficiency in qualitative research methods, including literature reviews and stakeholder interviews.

5. Sensitivity to Indigenous cultures and perspectives.Previous experience working with Indigenous communities or on issues related to Indigenous rights is an asset.

They will join me for a large meeting among climate lawyers from across the globe where this research will be presented in July, 2025. The meeting will be held online over zoom.

hybrid as I will be traveling to New York city often for personal reasons over the summer.

Eight weeks

05/30/2025

07/31/2025

Since the Spring of 2024, I have taught several intensives related to the Dutchess County criminal legal system. In Spring 2024, I hosted two community events (~100 people total) to better understand how the community would like the system to change over the next 5 years. This fall semester, I hosted four sessions with local legal system actors to better understand how they would like the system to change over the next 5 years. Alternatives to Inceration is one of the overlapping interests of the community and legal system actors. But, in order to create new alternatives to incarceration, research and writing must be done. That is my goal for summer 2025.

This summer, I would like to collaborate with 1-2 students on research, writing, and pedagogical materials for several diversion programs for justice-involved youth.

The summer Ford Scholar(s) will engage in the following activities with Professor Means:

First, plan the summer project; read and discuss some of the relevant research and existing program materials to develop an understanding of alternatives to incarceration we will focus on during the summer; study the interview questions used in the study; schedule interviews with relevant community members and legal officials; participate in a workshop on quantitative and qualitative research methods (1st and 2nd weeks).

Second, research and write material for program #1 and submit to relevant people for feedback (3rd-4th weeks)

Third, research and write material for program #2 and submit to relevant people for feedback (5th-6th weeks)

Fourth, revise program #1 based on feedback, and discuss presentations (classroom and Ford Scholars conference) based on experience (7th week)

Fifth, revise program #2 based on feedback, and discuss presentations (classroom and Ford Scholars conference) based on experience (8th week)

Strong interest in criminal justice, the project, and social science research generally.

High professional and personal motivation, self-management, and attention to detail

Strong ability to take responsibility for meeting deadlines and making progress with and without direct supervision

Strong existing computer skills with Microsoft Office

Interest in mentorship and professional development

To demonstrate the synergy that can exist between teaching and research, the Ford Scholar(s) and Professor Means will work together to create a presentation using the information for a Fall 2024 presentation in my law-related course. The Ford scholar(s) will be invited as a guest speaker(s) to my classes to present some of the research findings and to share their research experience. If interested, the scholar(s) will also be asked to attend and present at a professional conference with Professor Means during the next academic year and coauthor at least one paper that draws on the experience this summer.

In-person

Eight weeks

06/02/2025

08/01/2025

The proposed project centers on two topics: power and crime perception. One of my goals is to expand the coverage of these topics in my courses. Doing so would require compiling and reviewing the central articles from psychology, sociology, and legal databases. Presently, my PSYC 201 and 382 courses explore research on social power, class, and status. I’d like to update, expand, and deepen my coverage of these issues in these courses. Tied to this would be examining how threats to status or the status hierarchy influence social perception and prejudice (Jost et al., 2019). A second topic that I cover in these courses considers perceptions of crime and criminality, and how different information concerning crime, incarceration, and the backgrounds of individuals involved can lead people to endorse retributive and cruel legal and military policies, as well as policies specifically targeting racialized and minoritized groups (e.g., Hetey & Eberhardt, 2014; Redford & Ratliff, 2018). Moreover, depictions of crime can be used to increase feelings of vulnerability and threat, which in turn potentiate the discrimination and dehumanization of marginalized groups (e.g., da Costa Silva et al., 2019). Along with supporting course development, I expect that the fellow and I would design and conduct a study on one of these topics. The study itself would likely be completed in the semester following the Ford program.

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da Costa Silva, K., Álvaro, J. L., Torres, A. R. R., & Garrido, A. (2019). Terrorist threat, dehumanization, and right‐wing authoritarianism as predictors of discrimination. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 60(6), 616-627. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/sjop.12574

Jost, J. T., Badaan, V., Goudarzi, S., Hoffarth, M., & Mogami, M. (2019). The future of system justification theory. British Journal of Social Psychology, 58(2), 382-392. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12309

Hetey, R. C., & Eberhardt, J. L. (2014). Racial disparities in incarceration increase acceptance of punitive policies. Psychological Science, 25(10), 1949-1954. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614540307

Redford, L., & Ratliff, K. A. (2018). Retribution as hierarchy regulation: Hierarchy preferences moderate the effect of offender socioeconomic status on support for retribution. British Journal of Social Psychology, 57(1), 75-94. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12219

The fellow would be expected to complete library/database searches, as well as review and synthesize the relevant research. We would meet regularly to discuss the project. The fellow would help me to select course readings and topics for one or more of the courses indicated. Together, we would design and conduct a study on one of the topics

Students should have completed at least one psychology course and a course in statistics. The statistics course would not need to be a psychology course. AP statistics would be considered, depending on other factors. In lieu of a psychology course, relevant courses in sociology, political science, and history would be considered. The student should be skilled at conducting searches for scholarly articles. The student should have experience writing about and synthesizing scholarly works.

If all goes well with the study, I expect we would submit it for a conference presentation. Regardless of the study outcome, the experience of completing the review and developing the study would benefit most students in terms of employment and graduate school applications. If the student were interested, the fellow would be well-positioned to conduct additional research projects with me or other members of my department.

In-person for the first 6-7 weeks, remote after that.

Eight weeks

05/28/2025

07/28/2025

Fasting and other Ramadan observances (including but not limited to communal gatherings, feasting, prayer, charity, nighttime socialization and worship) are rhythms of body, mind, labor, and time that shape the annual cycle not only for devout Muslims, but also for many who identify as “cultural” or even “secular” Muslims. Ramadan is the most widely observed Muslim ritual practice, and it offers a distinctive alternative to secular bodily regimes (such as diets or intermittent fasting) and economic patterns (such as the standard working day and week). Even for Ramadan-observers who do not fast, it is a transformative season of community and spiritual practice. Despite its widespread observance and major cultural, political, and spiritual impact, sustained scholarly treatments of Ramadan are scarce. I am in the early stages of a book-length introduction to Ramadan as a cultural practice, grounded both in ethnographic research with Ramadan-observing young professionals in New York City and in a global and transhistorical survey of Ramadan manuals, memoirs, cookbooks, and other literature and media. This project will investigate how American Muslims negotiate labor, devotion, embodiment, and family, during and beyond the timescape of the sacred month. It will then connect that situated research to diverse historical sources on Ramadan and fasting that illuminate different aspects of the social, cultural, and spiritual meaning of Ramadan.

Research in libraries and archives (e.g. NYC municipal archives, NYPL archives) on primary and secondary sources pertaining to Ramadan and Muslim fasting and feasting, ranging in language and time period depending on the scholar’s background. Gathering, annotating, and organizing a wide range of sources. Depending on the scholar’s interest, they may engage in careful study of premodern Ramadan manuals, of twentieth-century political efforts (notably in Tunisia) to reframe Ramadan without fasting in order to boost GDP, or of post-9/11 “official iftars” in New York City.

Transcribing and coding ethnographic interview data from the spring, possibly conducting some interviews as well (in NYC).

Curriculum development for a new introductory course I am teaching in the fall on “Religion, Violence, and Peacebuilding.” This curriculum development would not be directly connected to the Ramadan research, but it would engage similar themes of secular politics, embodiment, community formation, and religion and economy. The scholar could lead a week of class on a theme of their development in Fall 2025.

Required: Intellectually curious about religion and culture, with some prior coursework in the Religion Department and a nuanced understanding of religious practices, communities, and traditions. Motivated, independent, organized, and detail-oriented, with strong writing skills.

Preferred: Prior training or experience with any one of the following methods: ethnographic interviewing and participant observation, archival research, contextual close reading of pre-modern spiritual or philosophical texts. (Scholars may gain experience with in any of these methods according to their interest and project needs.)

Preferred: Reading ability in one of the following languages: French, Arabic, or Urdu. Other languages are also of interest.

The scholar could lead one week of class in my intro course in the fall, on a theme they had researched and developed over the summer.

The scholar could also potentially co-present a research paper at the American Academy of Religion conference in Boston in November. This would be contingent on the paper being accepted and the scholar working on that specific element of the project (likely the NYC “official iftars”).

First four weeks in-person; next four weeks could be remote or in-person.

Eight weeks

06/02/2025

07/25/2025

This project involves producing translations of previously untranslated Russian Futurist poetry with the purpose of publishing the annotated bilingual collection. The four poets involved are: Elena Guro (1877-1913), David Bulriuk (1882-1967), Vassily Kamensky (1884-1961), and Aleksey Kruchenykh (1886- 1968). While some Russian avant-garde poets are translated, most are not and as part of my teaching of the Russian avant-garde material I have been trying to fill the gap with my own translations. The poetry generated significant interest on the part of students who started to produce their own translations and I decided to create the current project, which seems ideally suited for the faculty/student collaboration.

Student Ford scholar will produce their own translation of selected poems and engage in substantial research on each poet.

I will meet with the student regularly on ZOOM and go over the translated and researched material until we arrive at the final cut for each poem.

The student will have to have completed the Introductory and the Intermediate levels of Russian. Academic interest in early 20th-century modernism is preferred.

At the completion of the project the student will produce the complete report on the project in a written form and will deliver a presentation to the department members and the Russian majors.

Full remote

Eight weeks

06/01/2025

08/01/2025