The Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia (WCEE) is pleased to announce that it has awarded $100,285 in grants for summer and semester-long research projects and internships to students. The grants were awarded to 53 students following a competitive review process. Funding comes from a variety of sources within WCEE and its partner units—the Center for European Studies (CES); Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies (CREES); Islamic Studies Program (ISP); and Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies (WCED). Grants are primarily used to fund overseas experiences, and students will be going to 29 countries including Albania, France, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Russia, and Spain.

Student grantees represent a wider range of disciplines including history, engineering, political science, and public health. All current U-M students are eligible for the awards, which in many cases allow students to undertake research or an internship that they would otherwise not be able to afford. Polina Fradkin says, “Thanks to the Weiser Center, I can have firsthand experience in academic research abroad!” She is an undergraduate student and two-time recipient of Weiser Center funding.

The grants have been offered for several years, with the oldest among them the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies Research and Internship Fund (CRIF) awards that were first awarded in 1995. This is the first time that award totals top $100,000, which reflects the generosity of donors who want to support international experiences for students. Over the past two years, new donations have come from community groups to support students going to Albania and Ukraine, alumnus Nicholas Kabcenell in support of undergraduate experiences in European Union candidate or post-2004 member countries, and WCEE founding donors Ronald and Eileen Weiser for support of students studying emerging democracies.


LIST OF AWARDS

Susan Abraham, PhD Romance Languages & Literatures, for research in Spain, “Tratado de los dos caminos and its Eighteenth Century Interlocutors,” CES Summer Research and Internship Grant

Tessa Adzemovic; MD Medicine; for research in Bosnia and Herzegovina; “Child Health in High Risk Settings in Mostar, Bosnia and Hercegovina;” CRIF Program Grant

Alena Aniskiewicz, PhD Slavic Languages & Literatures, for an internship in Poland with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Copernicus Summer Grant

Maja Babic; PhD Architecture; for research in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Croatia; “PostSocialist Architecture and Politics in Former Yugoslavia;” CRIF Program Grant

Ariana Bancu, PhD Linguistics, for research in Romania, “Sociolinguistic Factors in Language Maintenance,” CRIF Program Grant

Mohamad Bazzi, BA LSA, for research on the Maktab Tarighat Oveyssi (MTO) centers in California and Texas, ISP Summer Fellowship

David Beck, BA History, for research in Poland, “Catholicism in Lublin: A Case Study on the Effects of the Faith,” WCED Summer Fellowship

Linda Camaj, BS Biomolecular Science/Spanish, for an internship in Albania with the Ministry of Health, WCED Summer Fellowship

Cristian Capotescu, PhD History, for research in Hungary, “Solidarity across Borders: Humanitarian Networks in the Last Decade of the Soviet Bloc,” CRIF Program Grant

Jim Carter, PhD Romance Languages & Literatures, for research in Italy, “Olivetti on 5th Ave: Marketing Italian Design in America, from the Museum to the Storefront,” CES Summer Research and Internship Grant

Vedran Catovic; PhD Comparative Literature; for research in Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia; “Humor in Post-Yugoslav Writings on War,” CRIF Program Grant

Xi Chen, MS Natural Resources & Environment, for research in Switzerland, “Promoting Sustainable Forest Management in Eastern Europe and Russia,” WCED Summer Fellowship

Ahyoung Cho, BA International Studies/BMus Music, for an internship in Poland with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Swiderski Fellowship

Adrian Deoanca, PhD Anthropology, for research in Romania, “Derailed: Infrastructure, Politics, and Affect in Postsocialist Romania,” WCED Summer Fellowship

Anne Desiderio, MA Higher Education/Middle Eastern & North African Studies, for an internship in Georgia with the Overseas Professional and Intercultural Training (OPIT) Internship Program, CRIF Program Grant

Christopher Fort, PhD Slavic Languages & Literatures, for research in Uzbekistan, “Parricide in Twentieth Century Uzbek Literature,” CRIF Program Grant

Michael Fortunato, MPH Health Management & Policy, for an internship in Belgium with the European Public Health Alliance, CES Summer Research and Internship Grant

Polina Fradkin, BA International Studies/Judaic Studies/Russian, for research in Cuba, “Eastern European Jewish Immigrants to Cuba and their Descendants,” WCED Summer Fellowship

Dustin Gamza; PhD Political Science; for research in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan; “Reluctant Monopolists: Religious Regulation, National Identity, and Dissent in Central Asia;” WCED Summer Fellowship

Natalie Greifer, BA Residential College, for participation in the Polish study tour “Memory and Oblivion: Polish and Polish-Jewish History in the Polish Modern Landscape,” Amelia Kulesa Konopka Fellowship

Taylor Gunderson, BA International Studies/Political Science, for participation in the European Union study tour in Belgium, “The EU as a Global Actor,” WCED Summer Fellowship

Matthew Henry, BS Neuroscience, for an internship in Germany with Cultural Vistas, CES Summer Research and Internship Grant

Linh-Yen Hoang, BFA Art & Design, for an internship in Portugal with Multitecidos, WCED Summer Fellowship

Ian Holtz, BA German/International Studies, for an internship in Germany with Cultural Vistas, WCED Summer Fellowship

Ergest Isak, BA LSA, for an internship in Albania with the Ministry of Health, Kabcenell New Europe Grant

Maria Joachim; PhD Heath Service Organization & Policy; for research in Cyprus, Malta, and Portugal; “Cyprus Health System: A Time of Austerity and Health Insurance Reforms,” CES Summer Research and Internship Grant

Marie Keith, BS Cellular & Molecular Biology, for research at the Institute of Neurogenetics in Germany, “The Role of Engrailed in the Etiology of Parkinson’s Disease,” WCED Summer Fellowship

Nadiya Kostyuk, PhD Public Policy & Political Science, for research in Ukraine, “The Invisible Conflict in Ukraine: Cyber Berkut versus Ukrainian Cyber Troops,” Ukrainian Research Grant

Amber Krupp, BA Political Science, for participation in the European Union study tour in Belgium, “The EU as a Global Actor,” WCED Summer Fellowship

Erica Liao, BA Political Science, for an internship in Germany with Cultural Vistas, CES Summer Research and Internship Grant

Kristina Ljucovic, BS Neuroscience, for an internship in Albania with the Ministry of Health, Kabcenell New Europe Grant

Joanna Mazurkiewicz, PhD Slavic Languages & Literatures, for research in Poland, “The Impact of Communism on the Yiddish Theater in Warsaw, Poland,” Copernicus Summer Grant

Natalie McCauley, PhD Slavic Languages & Literatures, for research in Russia, “Controlling the Uncontrollable: Power, Agency, and Influence in Late and Post-Soviet Women’s Writing,” CRIF Program Grant

Alexandra Newton, BA Economics/International Studies, for research in Romania, “Postsocialist (In)Securities: Private Security in Bucharest,” Kabcenell New Europe Grant

Cosmo Pappas, BA Comparative Literature, for research in France and Italy, “Alexandre Kojève, the European Union, and Neoliberal Capitalism,” CES Summer Research and Internship Grant

Jamie Parsons, PhD Slavic Languages &Literatures, for an internship in Ukraine with the City Government of L’viv, CRIF Program Grant

Spenser Pawlik, BSE Mechanical Engineering, for a research assistant position in Kazakhstan at Al Farabi Kazakh National University, CRIF Program Grant

Shanae Pruitt, BA English, for an internship in England with the Institute for the International Education of Students, CES Summer Research and Internship Grant

Helena Ratte, BA German/History, for research in Bosnia and Herzegovina, “Oral Histories of Bosnian Gastarbeiter and Refugees in Germany,” CRIF Program Grant

Muhammad Amier Zaryff Razali, BA Economics/History, for an internship with the Central Bank of Malaysia, ISP Summer Fellowship

Marta Sadowska, BA International Studies, for an internship in Poland with Coffey International, the Copernicus Summer Grant

Luqman Harith Saifuddin, BS Economics/Actuarial Mathematics, for participation in the Durham Islamic Finance Summer School in England, ISP Summer Fellowship

Jeffrey Samuels, PhD Classical Art & Architecture, for research in Italy, “Gender, State Formation, and Craft Production at ProtoUrban Gabii,” CES Summer Research and Internship Grant

Leigh Saris, PhD Anthropology, for research in Greece and Turkey, “Connection across Conflict: Greek-Turkish Exchangee Tourism,” CES Summer Research and Internship Grant

Samuel Shuman, PhD Anthropology, for research in Belgium, “Cleaving to Shards: An Ethnography of Industrial Collapse among Antwerp’s Hasidic Diamond Merchants,” CES Summer Research and Internship Grant

Kimberly Swisher, PhD Anthropology, for research in Hungary, “Bronze Age Archaeological Studies in Hungary: A Perspective on the Emergence of Social Inequality,” CRIF Program Grant

Amanda Ujkashi, BA LSA, for an internship in Albania with the Federata Shqiptare e Futbollit (Albanian Football Association), WCED Summer Fellowship

Nadia Vandergriff, MS Natural Resources & Environment, for research in Switzerland, “Promoting Sustainable Forest Management in Eastern Europe and Russia,” WCED Summer Fellowship

Louise Wang, BS Environment, for an internship in Albania with the National Coastline Agency, WCED Summer Fellowship

Hanna Wetters; BA Philosophy, Politics & Economics; for an internship in France at the U.S. Embassy in Paris, CES Summer Research and Internship Grant

Mary Kathleen Wroblewski, PhD History, for research in Poland, “Children of the Sun: The Polish Peasant in the Modern World,” Reade Graduate Fellowship

Peixin Yang, BA Residential College, for an internship in Albania with the National Coastline Agency, WCED Summer Fellowship

Jifang Zhou, MPH Health Management & Policy, for an internship in France and Denmark with the World Health Organization, CES Summer Research and Internship Grant

More information about WCEE Summer Grants for Research and Internships