Supported by a grant from the Mellon Foundation, the Arts & Urban Experience and the Arts & Technology Fellowships support students to participate in Occidental’s 10-week Summer Research Program.
Fellowships
Arts & Urban Experience: Supports students conducting original, arts-centric research. Research proposals should incorporate a tie-in to Los Angeles. Projects proposing collaboration with community partners, local arts organizations (archives, museums), and/or local arts practitioners are highly encouraged.
Arts & Technology: Supports students conducting arts-based projects related to the arts and technology. Projects proposing collaboration with faculty research projects, community partners, local arts organizations (archives, museums), and/or local arts practitioners are highly encouraged.
Funding
Fellows receive:
- Study award of $4,500.
- Subsidized on-campus room and board or an off-campus housing allowance based on financial need.
- Candidates can apply for up to $400 in consumable materials necessary for their research projects.
Applications
Please direct any questions about the Mellon Student Research Fellowship to rmukerjee@oxy.edu.
Interested students should apply using the Summer Research Program Fellowship process.
Applications are due on January 31, 2022.
Recent Recipients
2021
Arts & Technology
- Britney Aboagye (Sociology ‘22) “Do It for the Culture: Black Cultural Agency in Social Media” [mentor: Benjamin Weiss]
- Divya Prakash (CSLC, Cognitive Science ‘23) “Diachronic changes to journalistic orality: The (re)technologization of the word” [mentor: Jacob Mackey]
- Julie Riley (MAC ‘21) “Art & Activism: Documentary Filmmaking and Collective Art as a Tool for Migrant Detention Abolition” [mentor: Broderick Fox]
Arts & Urban Experience
- Wren Andres (Undeclared ‘24) “Freeway Construction and Human Displacement” [mentor: Amy Lyford]
- Aria Devlin (UEP ‘21) “LA Stories: Intertwining the Built and the Natural Environments in Short Fiction” [mentor: Sarah Ostendorf]
- Cassie Dutton (CSLC ‘23) “Techniques of Exposure: A Developing Ontology of Acting” [mentor: Damian Stocking]
- Eliza Kirk (Philosophy ‘24) “Humanizing Healthcare: Studying the Implementation of the PPE Portrait Project at LAC+USC Medical Center” [mentor: Mary Beth Heffernan]
- Johnna Munsen (DWA ‘22) “Interruptions! Printmaking as Resistance” [mentor: Linda Lyke]
2020
Arts & Urban Experience
- James Burwick (UEP ‘21) “Understanding the Cultural Significance of Used Bookstores in LA” [mentor: Sarah Ostendorf]
- Nora Fujita-Yuhas (Politics ‘21) “Art as a Tool of Resistance and Solidarity: Asian American Organizing in Los Angeles” [mentor: Katarzyna Marciniak]
- Brenda Jackson (Music, UEP ‘21) “Creating Modern Spanglish Music: Latinx Musical Sound and Identity in Los Angeles” [mentor: Jongnic Bontemps]
- Harrison Kallner (Art & Art History ‘21) “The Evolutions of Queer Censorship Within the Los Angeles Art Institutions” [mentor: Amy Lyford]
- Mia Miranda Recio (CTSJ ‘21) “Punk Healing and Futurity: A Close Look at Art by Queer, Trans, Punks in Los Angeles” [mentor: Mary Christianakis]
- Leslie Torres (MAC, CTSJ ‘21) “Skinny Brows and Think Eyeliner: An Exploration into the Appropriation of Latinx Make-Up” [mentor: Allison de Fren]
- Yoshi Wainwright (MAC ‘21) “A Living Story Written in Stone: Reframing the Japanese Internment Narrative” [mentor: Broderick Fox]
2019
Arts & Urban Experience
- Brendan Galbreath (MAC ‘20), “Like Movies? Let’s Write One!: The Effects of Curated Screenwriting Instruction on Los Angeles Youth” [mentor: Broderick Fox]
- Molly Kauffman (Theater ‘20), “23andMe and Me? - A Theatre Piece” [mentor: Sarah Kozinn]
- Isabel Norsten (Art & Art History ‘20), “Constellations of Connectivity: Activating Instagram in the Art Museum” [mentor: Amy Lyford]
- Sam Orlin (Art & Art History ‘21), “Northeast Los Angeles in color and black & white film photography” [mentors: Dan Fineman and Kelema Moses]
- Yoshi Wainwright (MAC, CSLC ‘21), “American Hollow: A Filmmakers Story” [mentor: Aleem Hossain]
2018
Arts & Urban Experience
- Alex Duncan (Art & Art History ‘20), “Murals, Heritage, and Cultural Exchange between Cairo and Highland Park” [mentor: Eric Frank]
- Nell Farrow (Art & Art History ‘19), “Fostering Community Through Creative-Based Women’s Organizations” [mentor: Julie Prebel]
- Laura Searles (MAC ‘19), “The Fight for Legitimacy of “Meaningless” Music: Understanding Trap Through the Lens of Bebop” [mentor: David Kasunic]
- Kendrick Shoji (MAC ‘20), “The Greatest Documentary” [mentor: Ari Laskin]