Research Interns

Amita Ganesh (CAS ’27) is an undergraduate student majoring in sociocultural anthropology. She is currently developing her Honors Thesis in Anthropology, which examines how ideas of purity and honor shaped gendered violence during the 1947 Partition of India and Pakistan, with a particular focus on representations in Bollywood film and ethnography. Her general research interests include media studies, gender, and the ways that popular culture can shape social life. This summer she will be working with the Global Development Policy Center with the Economics in Context Initiative. She is especially interested in making economic and social science research more accessible, relevant, and engaging for wider audiences. Placement: Global Development Policy Center

Lindsay Griesman (CAS’27) is a rising senior from Manhattan, New York, majoring in anthropology with a specialization in Health & Medicine. In addition, she is minoring in Public Health (SAR) and Biology (CAS), which allow her to understand how we’ve gotten to where we are in healthcare today from both a scientific and humanities-based perspective. This summer she is working at the Center For Innovation in Social Sciences. She is passionate about addressing and advocating for health equity, specifically combatting racism and gender bias in healthcare. Beyond academics, she is an Admissions Ambassador here on campus, President of her sorority, Sigma Delta Tau, a member of Anthropology in the Works, a member of the Undergraduate Public Health Association, a member of the PreHealth Professionals Club, and a co-captain of an intramural volleyball team. She takes pride in working with her community and giving back wherever and whenever she can. Placement: Center for Innovation in Social Science

Zuzu Jensen (CAS ’27) is a senior studying medical anthropology and is fascinated by the intersection of gender, sex, sexuality, and mental health in social and environmental justice. She was also raised in a family of artists and is a current member of the Young Adult Advisory Council (YAAC) for the Foundation for Art and Healing, an organization dedicated to fighting the loneliness crisis through creativity and community. Zuzu is a firm believer in the power of art as a tool for connection, expression, and activism for marginalized communities. She hopes to use creativity and storytelling to weave together all of her interests as an intern for the CAS communications team. Placement: CAS Communications / Center for Innovation in Social Science

Krishna Nagarajan (CAS ’28) is a rising junior pursuing a major in economics. Previously, Krishna wrote a paper about leveraging artificial intelligence to reduce biases in plea bargaining; his research iies at the intersection of AI and legal justice, with a focus on socioeconomic disparities in the United States. During this internship, Krishna will be interning at the Center on Forced Displacement. A fun fact about Krishna is that he enjoys producing music, a longstanding hobby of his that he has carried with him for the past 8 years. Placement: Center on Forced Displacement

Jieun Paik, (CAS ’28) is a rising junior from New Jersey majoring in English and Philosophy, with a minor in African American & Black Diaspora Studies. This summer, in addition to their internship, they will be working as a writer for the Sargent College. On campus, she is a part of the E-Board at Arche and a part of the AABDS focus group. Placement: Center on Forced Displacement

Robin Sheng (CAS ’28) is a junior majoring in history. They are particularly interested in topics such as urban history, industrialization and deindustrialization, land ownership, and environmental conflicts. In the past year, they have been working on an extracurricular research project on the relocation of the MBTA Orange Line and its relations to the Roxbury neighborhood during the 1970s and 1980s. Outside of academics, they also co-host a weekly game show on WTBU Radio and write music in their free time. Placement: Institute for Global Sustainability

Kate Charlotin (CAS ’27) is pursuing a joint major in Political Science and Philosophy, with a double major in Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights, and a minor in Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Guided by a deep commitment to addressing systemic inequalities within her communities, she incorporates her proficiency in Haitian Creole into her academic and research endeavors. Her current research examines how physicians respond to patients’ social determinants of health, with the aim of advancing more equitable approaches in healthcare.  The project: Clinical Practice & Social Determinants of Health (Mentor: Michel Anteby, QST).

Sage Clark (Wheelock ’28) is a sophomore pursuing a major in Education and Human Development with a specialization in Youth Justice & Advocacy. He is a Questbridge Match Scholarship recipient from Sioux Falls, South Dakota and is on the Pre-Law track interested in educational policy and juvenile justice. As a first-generation, Indigenous college student with a lived experience in the American foster system, Sage has dedicated his academic career to understanding the school-to-prison-to-pipeline and its impact on the unjust incarceration of adolescents. Sage is working with Professor of Political Science, Spencer Piston hoping to better understand the complexities of alternative crisis response and its possible implications in communities of color. The project: Organizational and everyday successes and challenges of alternative crisis response (Mentor: Spencer Piston, CAS/Political Science).

Cate Rosa (CAS ’26) is a senior studying Environmental Analysis & Policy with a minor in Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies. She is a pre-law candidate interested in family dynamics and how they are affected by the legal system, particularly the impact of the incarceration of mothers. Since January, Cate has been working with Professor of Sociology Nazli Kibria on the Global Siblings & Inequalities Project. Her research within the project now focuses on assessments of inheritance distributions and seeks to better understand how our cultural and familial frameworks of fairness and equality are shaped. The project: A Fair Inheritance? Adult siblings and the distribution of inherited assets (Mentor: Nazli Kibria, CAS/Sociology).

Tania Torres (CAS ‘27) is a junior pursuing a double major in Sociology and English. Her personal experiences growing up in low-income communities in California’s Bay Area center her commitment to analyzing how positive education experiences can be a liberating site for marginalized communities. Her research interests are focused on experiences around education as they intersect with access to housing and urban development. Tania also focuses her research on the analysis of political and historical trends in Latin America within the 20th century and their relation to the development of Latinx communities in the United States. In addition, she is interested in seeing how these transnational experiences are expressed in literature. She will be working with Professor Schmidt to study the housing experiences of Latinx immigrants in Los Angeles, and is extremely excited to be able to learn more about Urban Sociology as a field. The project: Examining the Causes and Consequences of Renter Immobility in Los Angeles (Mentor: Steven Schmidt (CAS/Sociology).

Jessica Wu (CAS ’27) is a junior majoring in Psychology and Sociology on the pre-law track with minors in Deaf Studies and Urban Studies. She is from Denver, Colorado, and enjoys beekeeping, along with visiting museums. She is passionate about pursuing criminal justice law with the hopes of influencing a chain reaction within the justice system and truncating the effects of generational incarceration. She is excited to participate in this internship program to learn more about the research process and improve her skills while also acquiring new ones. The project: Witnessing Birth: Women of color and the labor of birth work (Mentor: Celeste Curington, CAS/Sociology).

Yijun “Betty” Xie (CAS ‘26) is a senior from Cincinnati, OH, majoring in Biological Anthropology with a minor in Archaeology. She is interested in the ways that human remains can reveal critical stories about past lives and practices, especially in ways historical and systemic violence has and continues to impact treatment, care, teaching, and curation across classrooms, labs, and museum spaces. This year she will be taking part in the Anthropology Teaching Collection Curation Project (ATCCP) under Dr. Andreana Cunningham, where she will be contributing to an inventory of human remains and other biological material in efforts to create a more accessible and ethical process of care and use in teaching and curation. She will also be researching possibilities of phasing out unethically sourced human remains in teaching collections through creating hand-sculpted osteological models in conjunction with her honors thesis. The project: Anthropology Teaching Collection Curation Project (ATCCP) (Mentor: Andreana Cunningham, CAS/Archaeology).