2010 Pardee Summer Fellowship Comes to Successful End

The 2010 Pardee Summer Graduate Fellowships came to a successful end on August 6. According to the Fellows, the key highlight of the Fellowship was being exposed to the interdisciplinary aspect of program and the Pardee Center itself.

Speaking about the program, Prof. Adil Najam, the Director of the Pardee Center, commented that interdisciplinary research is at the heart of all Pardee Center activities and having the brightest graduate students from all across the University pursue their research at the Center during the summer months add great vibrance to the Pardee House. He said that the Center hopes to continue with the program next summer as it has now become a banner activity for the Center.

The 10-week long program brought together Boston University graduate students from different schools and departments for a structured program of inter-disciplinary research on a variety of issues related to longer-range futures of global development. The broad focus for the 2010 Summer Fellowship program was on longer-range human development, using global and regional analysis. The Fellowship program allowed the Fellows time and resources to undertake their own research and also a number of opportunities to interact with each other and with BU faculty on issues related to the substance and process of doing interdisciplinary research.

The 2010 Pardee Summer Graduate Fellows were selected in April from a highly competitive pool of candidates from across the university. The six came from the BU departments of Political Science, Economics, Sociology, Geography and Environment, and the School of Theology/School of Social Work. The program began on June 1, when the Fellows arrived at the Pardee House and began their summer research projects. Each Fellow is completing a paper that will be considered for publication as part of the Center’s publication program in the coming academic year. The Summer Fellows were joined at the Pardee House by two visiting summer researchers, Charlotte Ólöf Jónsdóttir Ferrier and Zoe Robert, from the University of Iceland.

During the time they worked at the Pardee House, the Summer Fellows met with faculty members over informal lunches and discussed topics ranging from career paths and the changing methods of academic research in the internet age to setting a personal example for sustainable living. The Fellows also had the opportunity to interact with the Planning Committee of The Millennium Project at a reception held at the Pardee House in July. They also attended Pardee House Seminars held on June 8 and July 1st on the topics of “Future Challenges of Global Energy Systems” and “Africa 2060: Health & Development”, respectively.

In addition, the Fellows gave presentations on their research to the other Summer Fellows, resident Pardee Research Fellows and Pardee Center staff, who provided feedback about the key research questions and methods. Many informal discussions and exchanges of information among the Fellows helped shape the direction of their research, as well as individual research meetings each had with Pardee Center Director Professor Adil Najam. Many of the Fellows also worked closely with their own departmental advisors and mentors to finalize research projects.

The Center plans to continue with the Summer Fellowship program in 2011.

For more information on the Pardee Summer Fellowship, see here.