Student Research & Internships

The Summer Humanities and Arts Research Program (SHARP) is a 10-week summer residential program for up to 16 Harvard undergraduates participating in arts and humanities research projects directed by Harvard faculty or in partnership with leaders at our libraries and museums. The program seeks to create a diverse community of student fellows who are inspired by, and committed to, research in the humanities. Students are provided with a stipend, as well as on-campus housing and a partial meal plan for the duration of the program.

Meet some of our SHARP Fellows from 2023!

2023

Julia Garcia Galindo: This summer I'm working with the education team at Poetry in America. Created and directed by Harvard Professor Elisa New, one of the non-profit's main jobs is developing and administering online literary courses for a range of students (from high schoolers, to college students, to other kinds of learners). My main task is providing feedback and creating materials for their newest course on the Health Humanities. Every week I sit in on education meetings and try to think of ways to make online materials accessible and engaging. It is a very challenging yet rewarding creative task. 

I chose to work with Poetry in America because it combines two of my interests: literature and education. As I start to consider my post-grad plans, I know I'd like to do something with education and/ or literature. Thus, getting to interact and learn from people who studied the humanities and are now in education has proven very insightful. Furthermore, I'm inspired by Poetry in America's mission to use the internet to create enriching and high quality educational materials accessible to all, regardless of background or location. 

Elena Lu: I’m a rising sophomore in Mather planning on studying the Classics and Philosophy, with special interests in archaic Greek poetry, Plato and Aristotle, and ethics. This summer, I worked with Professor Gregory Nagy to contribute comments on select passages of the Iliad to “A Homer Commentary in Progress,” a collaborative and ever-evolving commentary on the Homeric corpus. Though it was those unforgettable first lines of the Iliad that, two years ago, introduced me to and spawned my love for the Greek language, the poem never ceases still to delight with its cinematic storytelling, fluent style, and remarkable foreignness. Having now absorbed every one of its 15,000 verses in the original Greek, I can safely say that the Iliad, for me, will never get old.

Naturally, this opportunity to read, think, and write about Homer has been a dream, especially with the endless wisdom and support of Professor Nagy and of my didaskaloi and hetairoi on the second floor of Boylston. I am grateful to Jorge Wong for his lengthy Homeric bibliography and for his eagerness to explain every form in M.L. West’s critical edition, to Justin Miller for challenging any notion I had of ancient and modern linguistic borders, and to Connor North for his infectious love for Tacitus as well as his excellent book recommendations and even better coffee recommendations. The work I’ve done and the environment of curiosity among my fellow SHARP fellows have made the poem’s Greek come alive in ways I never imagined possible for a dead language. I have no doubt that the seeds planted this summer will continue to bear fruit in the coming years of my studies.

Liv Oster: I'm a rising junior in Eliot House studying English. As one of the Houghton Fellows in SHARP, I have spent the summer looking at the drafts of one of my favorite poets, Elizabeth Bishop. My project uses her work as a case study to understand and reshape dialogues around artificial intelligence (AI) and literature. After being inundated with news stories and dinner-time conversations about AI, I wanted to understand how we can use these technologies to better understand ourselves. In my final paper, I aim to illuminate the ways in which AI represents an entirely new mode of constructing language and, thus, how it can reveal the contributions of human subjectivity to literary production. Two main questions frame my project: what do humans actually do when they make great art? And, how can AI help us figure out, by the contrast it represents, what it means to be a human being? My hope is that refiguring our dialogues around technology has the potential to counteract distinctly unempowering “doomsday” narratives and instead emphasizes how the unique capacities of human literature are vital to making sense of the world as we experience it. SHARP has been an invaluable experience; I’ve met so many interesting people on campus who have entertained insightful, rich conversations and I feel prepared to embark on other research projects in the upcoming years. I’m so grateful to the Harvard Research Village, as well as my supervisors, Kristine and Zoë, for making this project possible! 

Mila Barry: I’m a rising junior studying English. This summer I put together the first draft of a poetry chapbook entitled “Fisheye femmes in search of new constellations.” The work is focused mainly on the emotional experience of ecological grief: what it feels like to hold space for despair as well as authentic hope and awe in a time of environmental crisis. It's also deeply concerned with my body’s relationship to the natural world, and how organic metaphors can be used to term gender, specifically femininity, in expansive ways. Fundamentally, this zine is a personal journey; a reflection of the daily ups and downs of continually turning away from fear to find love and compassion for a self and a world in pivotal flux. What does imaginative adaptation amidst uncertainty look like? These poems aim to help readers draw a connection between the practice of self building, relation building, and future building, while holding space for the painful and contradictory feelings that come along with doing that in a society that is deeply flawed. 

Aidin Kamali: My SHARP research is for an upcoming documentary film that tells the story of Karen Blixen’s 1959 trip to New York and Boston and her legacy in America. Karen Blixen (A.K.A. Isak Dinesen) was a Danish writer famous for Babette’s Feast, Seven Gothic Tales, and her memoir Out of Africa (which was turned into a Best Picture-winning Meryl Streep movie in the ‘80s). My research has focused on finding archival photo and video footage from Harvard and other libraries to be used in the documentary. I have also taken a close look at Blixen’s writing, secondary scholarship, and film adaptations of her stories to contribute original writing on themes such as the postcolonial critiques and cinematic legacy of her work. In all honesty, I was unaware of Karen Blixen until I heard of this project, but my interest was sparked when I realized that Blixen, under the pseudonym Dinesen, was the original writer of Babette’s Feast, a film from my childhood beloved by my mother. Since discovering this connection, I have loved becoming so familiar with her remarkable writing and persona, and I’m very eager to continue work with the documentary research team after the summer!  

Niyathi Chagantipati: My research this summer was focused on mapping Asian American Poetry - my mentor Christopher Spaide and I worked on tracking down as many Asian American identifying poets as possible. We documented them in a dynamic database, which was then used to create a series of data visualizations with ArcGIS and python coding to show various factors of our collected data, such as where in the United States Asian American poetry is being published the most, or what has the growth in publishing been over time in this specific literary field. I think I was most interested in this topic because of my love for poetry which I had since high school and which is one of the main reasons I came to Harvard - to study English. I took a Women, Gender, and Sexuality class on Korean Pop Culture where I read some Korean-American poetry and gained bits of exposure to the subject, which is why I thought exploring this research field this summer would be interesting and would be worth my time and efforts. So I applied and lucked out both with my project and with my mentor.   

This summer I basically made graphs and maps that visualized all of the many pieces of data I collected for our database which has never been done before. I also closely read quite a bit of poetry within this literary field and developed some research questions and corresponding potential theories that I hope my continuing work will answer in the course of this Fall. 

Jonathan Schneiderman: I spent the summer researching two cases in which abolitionists found themselves attending to the rearing of Black children. I am interested in education generally—in what it is for, in what it should be like, in what makes a good education—and I'm interested in the history of race in America. To a certain extent, then, this project is marrying two interests of mine. Since W. E. Burghardt Du Bois wrote “The Souls of Black Folk,” questions of race and education have been prominent on the national scene. Today, we have a lot of discursive currents arguing that the education and rearing of Black children demands something in particular that the education of other children does not: You see books with titles like “For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood,” and articles by and about Black children of adoptive White parents who feel their parents did an inadequate job, not because of any positively bad behavior but because of a negative inability to see to their children's needs. I wanted to see if and how some abolitionists were answering the question implied by all these currents: What does the education of Black children demand? 

Doing this research at the Houghton Library was an opportunity for me to learn the ropes of archival work. I got the chance to think about abolition and education, which was good, but more important was becoming somewhat comfortable with sifting through manuscripts, establishing strategies for transcribing and saving them; getting a footing in the two-step between secondary and primary research; getting a footing in the two-step between reading public-facing primary materials like pamphlets and reading private-facing ones like letters; keeping a research journal; failing adequately to keep a research journal and regretting it. The supervision and instruction of Kristine Greive and Zoë Hill, two Houghton librarians who guided me and Liv Oster, the other Houghton Fellow, through the summer, were invaluable, as were the sessions in which Zoë, Kristine, Liv, and myself critiqued my and Liv's work as it was coming along. These critical response sessions enabled us to turn our inchoate archival work into papers. It enabled me to see the project through. 


 

Pauliina Rumm: I am a rising junior at Eliot House, concentrating in Philosophy. This summer, I am working on a research project in contemporary metaphysics under the supervision of Prof. Selim Berker.  More specifically, I am working on developing an account of why certain facts cannot stand in explanatory relations to certain other ones. For example, why cannot biological facts be explained by political ones or facts about morality be explained by those about quantum mechanics? Drawing upon arguments in other subareas of metaphysics, such as the metaphysics of identity and contemporary essentialism, I argue that some facts are simply essentially incapable of standing in explanatory relations to one another. These questions fascinate me due to how they relate both to other questions in philosophy as well as to issues concerning our scientific methodology.

SHARP has provided me with a unique opportunity to focus so deeply on my own research project and has allowed me to learn a lot about both philosophy as well as humanities research more generally. Through this research, I hope to shed at least a little light on questions I think are central to metaphysics and see how they interact with other subfields of philosophy.

Emma Fang: I'm a rising junior in Leverett, studying Comparative Literature. This summer, I worked with Professor Bruno Carvalho on editing his manuscript for his forthcoming book, The Invention of the Future. This book uses urban literature as a lens to map a history of urbanization, analyzing works to see what kind of opportunities people in the past perceived in cities. In addition to this manuscript work, I investigated a number of research questions, primarily concerning attitudes towards automobiles in early twentieth century America, to aid Professor Carvalho in his next book. I was initially drawn to this project because it rests at the intersection of my interests in literature and urban phenomena/the built environment. I have thoroughly enjoyed taking strolls through Boston and calling it "research", diving deep into both physical and digital archives, and piecing my findings together into cohesive narratives. 

Deadline for Spring 2022 Internships is Sunday, February 6!

Apply on Crimson Careers!

The Mahindra Humanities Center invites applications for undergraduate internships in the Public Humanities. Internships offered for Spring 2022 are: Archival and Licensing Research Internship, Education Equity Internship, Non-Profit Administration Internship, and Medical Humanities Education and Video Editing Internship. See below for full descriptions of all opportunities.

Students may apply to up to THREE Internships in the Public Humanities. If you apply to more than one, please apply to each separately and rank them in your order of preference in each of your cover letters.

Preferred class levels: Students must be currently enrolled sophomores or juniors. NOTE: If you have held one of the Humanities internships previously, you will still be considered eligible even if you are a senior graduating in May 2022. (New applicants graduating in May 2022 are ineligible.)

Required application documents: Cover letter explaining why you are interested in the internship and what experience you have relevant to the description; resumé; copy of unofficial Harvard transcript.

Application deadline: Sunday, February 6, 2022 at 11:59pm

TV Archival and Licensing Research

The archival and licensing research internship will provide experience and training in archival research for public distribution. Archival research and licensing is an essential part of film and television production, of the mounting of museum and other cultural exhibitions, of online education, of digital as well as print publishing and advertising--as well as a wide range of other applications in the commercial world. Good archival research takes historical knowledge and curiosity, storytelling ability and an eye for visual culture. It also requires meticulous attention to copyright and intellectual property law, budgetary understanding, mastery of industry standards of record keeping and asset tracking, and the ability to work with others on deadline.

Students with interest in history, science, literature, the visual arts, media and law are invited to apply for this opportunity, which will allow them to work with an archival team on ongoing television and educational media projects. Training will be provided by seasoned veterans in the field. Students applying for this internship must be ready to commit 5-8 hours per week throughout the period of the internship; work must be completed in two or three consistent blocks during 9-5 weekday hours (i.e. intern is available regularly at set hours during the week). This internship is mostly remote, with exceptions to be determined in consultation with supervisor. The period of the internship is 10 weeks during the Spring 2021, ideally beginning the week of March 1 and ending when fall term classes end (no work is expected over spring break). The intern will receive a stipend of $1,400 ($700 payable at the end of week 5 and $700 payable upon successful completion of the internship and submission of a brief report).

Education Equity & Instructional Design

The education equity intern will gain experience in course and curriculum development, as well as program administration and delivery, by supporting a collaboration between Poetry in America, the National Education Equity Lab, Harvard, and Arizona State University. Interns will gain exposure to, and to build skills, in the world of online education, with a particular focus on dual credit programs targeting high-performing high-school students in under-resourced schools across the U.S.

Dual enrollment programs (also known as dual credit or concurrent enrollment programs) take various formats, but, in general, they provide high-school students with a cost-effective means of earning college credit while still in high school. These programs have the added benefit of promoting college readiness through rigorous curricula, while simultaneously enabling students to utilize the supports available to them on their high-school campuses (e.g., familiar teachers and peers, school counselors, school- or district-issued devices if available).

Students with an interest in literature, history, the social sciences, education, and educational media are invited to apply. The education equity intern will come onboard as the Poetry in America for High Schools program enters a growth phase, and will assist with development of student- and teacher-facing resources and curricula for use in future semesters, as well as with support of student enrolled in the Spring 2022 course as needed. The intern will receive training from, and work alongside, a team of instructional design professionals. Students applying for this internship should be ready to commit 7-10 hours per week throughout the duration of the internship; work will be mostly remote, with exceptions to be determined in consultation with the position’s supervisor. The period of the internship is 10 weeks during the Spring 2022, ideally beginning the week of February 21 and ending when fall term classes end (no work is expected over spring break). The intern will receive a stipend of $1,400 ($700 payable at the end of week 5 and $700 payable upon successful completion of the internship and submission of a brief report).

Nonprofit Administration

The nonprofit administration internship will provide training and real-world experience in expense tracking and business management at a 501(c)(3) non-profit production company.

Managers in nonprofit administration wear a lot of different hats. Often learning on the fly by adapting to the challenges that come up each week, managers must also establish processes that govern day-to-day operations, and keep organized records of monthly spending in order to report on the grant funding that supports their work. Administration and management at a small nonprofit takes a can-do attitude, a close eye for detail, and a willingness to dive deep into research and communicate with others to solve problems.

The nonprofit administration intern will work with the Operations Manager and others at Verse Video Education to track production expenses: helping to review monthly expense sheets, following up with staff on credit card transactions; collecting, coding and filing receipts; and helping to code equipment for a remote camera kit used during the pandemic. Other projects will be assigned as they become available, based on the intern’s areas of interest; this work could include drafting a project budget, proofreading grant applications or reports, tracking subscriptions and software licenses, documenting Verse Video’s financial controls, other prep work for the organization’s 2021 audit, or simply researching problems as they arise.

This internship will require detailed attention to classifying expenses, some familiarity with Google Drive and Google Sheets, and the ability to work with others on deadline. Students with interest in media or television production, filmmaking, education, or the public arts and humanities are invited to apply. Students applying for this internship should be ready to commit 7-10 hours per week throughout the duration of the internship; work will be mostly remote, with exceptions to be determined in consultation with the position’s supervisor. The period of the internship is 10 weeks during the Spring 2021, ideally beginning the week of February 21 and ending when fall term classes end (no work is expected over spring break). The intern will receive a stipend of $1,400 ($700 payable at the end of week 5 and $700 payable upon successful completion of the internship and submission of a brief report).

Medical Humanities and Science Education Image Research

Interest in the medical humanities is growing nationally, as medical professionals realize that caring for patients—and for themselves—often requires more than even the most sophisticated medical technologies can provide. Medical professionals with humanities interests write articles in public journals, teach in Medical Humanities programs, make films, and gather to share and to study arts and humanities in global conferences. Works of literature, the visual arts, music, and the great texts of philosophy are increasingly part of programming in hospitals and other medical settings, part of coursework in medical schools, and in demand in new online programs of professional development.

With more and more education now occurring online and across time zones, traditional 50 minute lectures, classic roundtable seminars and even hands-on labs are increasingly being augmented by new pedagogical forms and formats. Educational content that can be used synchronously or asynchronously, content that offers replay, speed control, annotation and other engagement features, and that may include video or audio, is increasingly in demand for learners both outside—and inside—traditional educational institutions. Engaging mini-lectures, scalable seminars, on-location field trips, animated visualizations and lab demonstrations are some of these new modes of instruction, and demand for these in medical education is also growing.

Demand is also growing for image researchers, video editors, instructional designers, and multimedia producers capable of translating curricular content, including academic materials, into engaging video. Subject knowledge married to video storytelling expertise is in high demand, and there are growing opportunities for humanists to work both in and outside of academic settings—even as there are new opportunities for media-makers to work, not only in film, broadcast television and other entertainment venues, but in education.

With training from a 25-year veteran creator of science and educational media, the intern will work alongside Professor Elisa New and her instructional design team to source images that illustrate concepts from interviews that Poetry in America has filmed with humanists and medical professionals. Images sourced by the intern will be woven together with interview footage, animations and music to make short, visually-engaging and instructive modules of content for a variety of online learners, including medical students, doctors and nurses. The intern may also be asked to assist with sourcing images for Poetry and Science videos, for online publication by Nautilus Magazine; and there may be opportunities for image research in other fields as well.

Students with interest in medicine or science, as well as library sciences or archival studies, literature, the visual arts, media and law, are invited to apply for this opportunity, which will allow them to work with a curriculum and video team on ongoing educational media projects. The internship will require meticulous attention to copyright and intellectual property law, budgetary understanding, attention to industry standards of record keeping and asset tracking, and the ability to work with others on deadline. Experience working or researching in libraries or archives would also be useful in this role. Applicants should be ready to commit 7-10 hours per week throughout the period of the internship, and work with others to meet tight publication deadlines; work will be mostly remote, with exceptions to be determined in consultation with the position’s supervisor. The period of the internship is 10 weeks during the Spring 2021, ideally beginning the week of February 21 and ending when fall term classes end (no work is expected over spring break). The intern will receive a stipend of $1,400 ($700 payable at the end of week 5 and $700 payable upon successful completion of the internship and submission of a brief report).