Summer Opportunities

Elisabeth Luce Moore '24 Summer Research Internships in Religion

The Department of Religion sponsors fellowships during the summer for students to conduct research on a project proposed by individual Religion Department faculty members. The research internships are funded at a maximum of $4000 with an expected commitment of 35 hours/week for 8-10 weeks. Typical research projects include bibliographic research, online database investigations, archival work in campus and local libraries, special computer work such as mapping, and, occasionally, translation. For Summer 2022, two internships will be offered. The expectation is that they will be carried out remotely. 

Luce Moore-funded Research Opportunities for 2022

Professors Jim Kodera and Steve Marini are each offering a remote research opportunity.

Professor Jim Kodera seeks a Wellesley student research assistant to help with editing his book manuscript on Watsuji Tetsuro’s work on Dogen (1200-1253), a Zen monk/priest who introduced the Soto (Chinese: Ts’ao-tung) School of Zen from China. Watsuji is a 20th-century Japanese philosopher, ethicist, and cultural historian who studied Continental philosophy, especially German Idealism, Nietzsche and Heidegger. He studied with Heidegger in Germany in his early scholarly career. After his study of Western traditions, he devoted himself to the study of Confucianism and Buddhism. His book, Shamon Dogen, which may be translated into English as "Zen Monk Dogen," was instrumental in introducing the 13th-century Zen master to the larger intellectual world in Japan. With Watsuji’s help, Dogen has come to be recognized as one of the leading thinkers in modern Japan. There are many Western, especially German and North American students and scholars of Buddhism and Japanese thought, who would benefit from the English translation of Watsuji’s key work. Professor Kodera has been working on revising the original manuscript since last summer.

The student best suited as a Research Assistant for this project would offer: 1. A good grasp of fundamental teachings of Buddhism, especially Zen Buddhism; 2. A good working knowledge of the Japanese language; some knowledge of Classical Chinese would also be helpful; 3. and perhaps most importantly, a demonstrated skill in expository writing in English, plus some editorial work. 

Professor Stephen Marini is searching for a research intern for summer 2022 to assist him in a multi-year Digital Humanities project to map religious change in colonial and Revolutionary America, 1725-1795. The goal of the project is to create detailed maps of all religious congregations in every American county over five-year periods (1725, 1730, 1735, and so on), using the ArcGIS mapping program. These maps will produce new knowledge about the geographical and chronological development of religious culture in early America, a topic that is hotly debated among scholars and the general public, but has no reliable empirical foundation.

The intern will build on work completed last summer, in which basic protocols for the map data and design were established, and trial runs executed. Specific tasks for 2022 include refining and transferring data on the congregations to Excel files prepared for ArcGIS use, further developing map designs, and producing new maps for the series. Accordingly, the successful candidate will have training and experience in Excel and ArcGIS, and, hopefully an intellectual interest in early American cultural history. 

This work can be completed remotely. Tech support will be available through the LTS staff.

Severinghaus Summer Internship Program in Ministry/Human Services