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Department of Religion Summer Opportunities

The deadline to apply for Luce Moore Summer Internships has passed. The extended deadline to apply for Severinghaus Summer Internships is March 15, 2024 at 5:00pm (EST).

The Religion Department offers both research and grant opportunities for students pursuing summer experiences.
  • Elisabeth Luce Moore Summer Research Internships in Religion
  • Severinghaus Summer Internship Program in Ministry/Human Services

 

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. For Summer 2024, the research internships will have 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 2024, two internships will be offered. The expectation is that they may carried out remotely or in-person (as determined by the faculty member and taking into account pandemic conditions).

2024 Luce Moore-funded Research Opportunities

Professors Steve Marini and Neelima Shukla-Bhatt will each offer a remote research opportunity:

Professor Stephen Marini, Elisabeth Luce Moore Professor of Christian Studies, seeks a 2024 Summer Research Intern to collaborate in completing a four-year Digital Humanities mapping project provisionally titled "A Digital Atlas of Religion in Revolutionary America". Over the past three summers, Luce Moore Interns and I compiled a census of all religious congregations in colonial and Revolutionary America by county from 1725 through 1790, and prepared this data for mapping with the QGIS free and open-source Geographical Information System. This summer's intern will be expected to design and execute maps of this data in five-year intervals (1725, 1730, 1735, etc), using the QGIS system along with Python programming language to determine precise plot points for the congregations from the US Postal Service National Zip-Code database. This work can be performed remotely in consultation with myself and Tracy Tien, GIS and Data Instructional Technologist in Clapp Library. Competitive applicants should demonstrate interest in Early American History as well as competence in QGIS and Python. The intern will be given authorial credit when the project is published online.

Professor Neelima Shukla-Bhattseeks a research intern to assist with a project leading to the preparation of a book manuscript that she plans to complete during her upcoming sabbatical leave in 2024-2025. The project is focused on the poetry of the sixteenth century Hindu woman mystic Mirabai, who is internationally celebrated as a powerful voice of devotion and resistance to patriarchy. A part of her corpus has been translated by major poets in the US and elsewhere. Several scholars have studied this part of the corpus. My project is focused on the part that has not received attention because of linguistic shifts.

The research assistance needed from the student intern in the Summer of 2024 is in the area of preparation of bibliography focusing on Mira and feminist theories, compilation of the list of Mira's poems that have been translated by different poets/scholars, preparing a catalog of her representations in performative art media - journals, exhibits, websites, films, television shows, music albums, and plays. If the student also has proficiency in Hindi and/or Gujarati languages, the research assistance in all the above areas will be greatly enhanced. The research work will be done remotely by the student.

If there are further questions feel free to email Prof. Shukla-Bhatt at nshuklab@wellesley.edu.

 

Severinghaus Summer Internship Program in Ministry/Human Services

In Memory of Emmavail Luce Severinghaus '22

The Religion Department oversees the Severinghaus Summer Internship Program in Ministry/Human Services. This program supports students who engage in research or hands-on work through unpaid positions with humanitarian or social action agencies, charitable or religious organizations, or policy-based institutes. Projects may be domestic or international. For Summer 2024 the Department will sponsor up to four of these internships. Students identify and apply to their own internship opportunities; students are encouraged to meet with advisors in the Career Education office for support.

Please note that for Summer 2024, Severinghaus internships may be remote or in-person (as determined by the employer and the College and taking into account pandemic conditions).

Students do not need to have an internship confirmed before applying for a Severinghaus award, but they do need to have applied for a position(s) and have a clear vision of their proposed summer experience so they can describe, in a compelling manner, how this experience will benefit them professionally, personally, and academically. (Note: Awardees have until May 1, 2024 to secure an internship and confirm their opportunity.)

Recently funded projects include the following:

  • Asian & Pacific Islander Coalition on HIV/AIDS
  • Bread for the World
  • Camp Whatchamacallit
  • Come Let's Dance
  • Gawou Ginou King Foundation
  • Interfaith Hospital Network
  • Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust
  • Rosemount Center
  • St. Stephen’s Youth Programs
  • The Street Child Project
  • Wheelchairs of Hope