Hadassah-Brandeis Institute concludes 13th summer internship program

Undergraduate, graduate students explored Jewish issues through lens of gender

Photos/Charles A. Radin

Interns and audience discussed and questioned each presentation,

Francesca Petronio of Smith College surveyed Jewish women in comedy, in particular clowns.

Rachel Klionsky, a Brandeis graduate student, researched divorce on the Lower East Side.

A day of presentations of subjects including Jewish women clowns, divorce on the Lower East Side and the relationships of transgendered Jews with their faith concluded the 13th annual Hadassah-Brandeis Institute internship program on August 2.

The internship is an eight-week, paid summer program for undergraduates and graduate students interested in the study of Jewish topics through the lens of gender.

The undergraduate component is comprised of work as a research assistant to a Brandeis University faculty member or scholar from another institution; completion of an independent, self-designed research project supervised by the program’s academic adviser; and field trips to sites of historical or cultural significance to Jews or to women more broadly.

Undergraduate interns live in shared apartments on the Brandeis University campus, the cost of which is subsidized by the institute. The structure of the graduate component is similar, with the exception that graduate interns receive guidance on their independent research from their work supervisor rather than an academic adviser and are not required to live on campus.

Internships were awarded to six undergraduate and two graduate students this year.