Undergraduate Research News
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Clockwise from upper left: Ava Towle ‘26, Maya Katz ‘25, Annetta Venford ‘25, Danny DeMilia ‘25, Sunan Sun ‘25 (at center)
March 14, 2023
February 25, 2025
Our Peer Research Mentors share their experiences finding research opportunities, funding and navigating the process.
March 14, 2023
Professor Charles Golden and Alexandra Bazarsky '23 reveal the secrets of this vanished city and its implications for our understanding of the ancient Maya population.
February 13, 2023
The bottom line: Brandeis University is a leading institution when it comes to research in the social sciences, according to data from the National Science Foundation.
The data, released as part of an annual report from the NSF, shows that Brandeis ranked 17th in the country in funding social sciences research in 2020-21. In all, $34.3 million was invested in social sciences research at Brandeis in the 2020-21 fiscal year. The leading social science faculty member worked with several of our undergraduate students on projects. Read more in BrandeisNow!
Parker Thompson '23 posing with his photo images collection.
Photo Credit: Brandeis Now
February 1, 2023
Parker Thompson ’23 has grown a collection of images that reflect the beauty of everyday Black joy. He's sharing them with the world in a new exhibition at the Griffin Museum of Photography. Parker received funding from the Fori and Robert Kay Undergraduate Research and Creative Collaborations Fellowship, as well as the Provost's Undergraduate Research Fund.
Students should expect to have a work/study load that's equivalent to a regular course and will receive a letter grade for their work. Course work is done on campus in Dr. Klausen’s social science lab. Students are expected to put in 10 hours per week with at least three-hour minimum shifts. Hours and days are flexible but need to be between 9am and 6pm.
Lab work will include training in using archival sources for the development of digital data, how to read and infer relevant data from court documents and other types of source material, encode data and how to write summary biographical profiles for the database, and how to work with other student researchers to ensure quality control. Students are expected to participate in bi-weekly group meetings discussing their own work and publications drawn from the data collection.
In place of a final paper, students are asked to write a self-evaluation assessing what they have learned from the internship. Students are graded based on punctuality, engagement, and the quality of their work and the final paper.
Admission to the research internship class requires the instructor’s signature. If you are interested in joining the project, please send an email to klausen@brandeis.edu with a resume and a brief paragraph about your interest. The paragraph should focus on relevant experience, coursework, or research interest.
Seats are very limited so interested students should apply as soon as possible. Applications will be accepted until January 17, 2023.
November 19, 2022
Through a trip to the Mississippi Delta, Leeza Barstein ’23 and Maya Subramanian ’25 observed the legacy of slavery in the region, connected with the communities still affected, and also discovered steps they could take to bring change to their own backyard. Read More in BrandeisNOW!
Members of the Generation One board pose for a photo. Left to right: Rebecah Kennedy, Ngawang Tridytsang, Yuyao Shi, Mia Park, Justine Sarkodie, and Marco Ferral Hernandez
URCC Undergraduate Peer Research Mentor Srishti Nautiyal ’23 dicusses her experience with Generation One, the academic services program for students who are the first in their family to attend college. Read more in BrandeisNow.
After collecting samples, Maya Levisohn '23 analyzed her findings within the lab at NASA.
October 3, 2022
Maya Levisohn ’23 spent her summer researching methane concentrations and working with advanced atmospheric technology, all while 40,000 feet in the atmosphere with NASA’s SARP program. Read more in BrandeisNOW
Alex Bazarsky '23 posing with her discoveries.
BrandeisNOW
For many college students, an ideal trip to Mexico means kicking back on a beach, digging their toes in the sand. For Alex Bazarsky ’23, a double major in anthropology and Latin American studies with a minor in art history, it meant digging up history deep in a remote forest.
August 15, 2022
BrandeisNOW
Members of the Brandeis community came together on August 11th to celebrate the 11th annual SciFest event. This scientific showcase, featuring poster boards across the scientific spectrum, highlighted each student’s summer of research.
August 4, 2022
Through his World of Work Fellowship, Ori Cohen '24 spent the summer training birds at the Southwick Zoo. Read more on Brandeis Now!July 8, 2022
The School of Arts and Sciences is delighted to announce that the William Randolph Hearst Foundation has awarded Brandeis $125,000 to support undergraduate research and creative work in the Creative Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.
May 17, 2022
At a career day during a summer camp when he was in high school in Marietta, Georgia, Joseph Coles '22 realized he wanted to be a foreign service officer. [...] Back on campus, he enrolled in courses in Arabic and Islamic and Middle Eastern studies. He also learned from a friend about Lawrence A. Wien Professor of International Cooperation Jytte Klausen's Western Jihadism Project Lab.April 12, 2022
Brandeis Now
The finals for Brandeis University’s first ever Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition were held on the evening of April 7, 2022. Six students took home seven prizes. The first place winners in each category received $1,000, and the runners up received $500. The “People’s Choice” winner also received $500.
March 30, 2022
Brandeis Now
As the pandemic surged in the spring of 2020, college students saw their lives disrupted by COVID-19’s sudden emergence. Their classes moved to Zoom, study abroad programs were canceled, and many summer internships fell through.
But for Sophie Trachtenberg `21 and Mariah Lewis `22 there was a bright lining: the opportunity to collaborate with sociology professors Sara Shostak and Wendy Cadge on a time-sensitive research project on the impact of the pandemic on nurses and respiratory therapists in the Massachusetts General Hospital’s COVID-19 intensive care units.