About the Fellowship
The UMass Center for Justice, Law, and Societies and the SBS RISE program are proud to sponsor a fellowship that provides full time summer funding in the amount of $5000 for undergraduate students in SBS RISE, which provides opportunities for support, community, and leadership to students who identify as first-generation, economically disadvantaged, and/or students of color. These students work with a faculty mentor on research. Fellows will work approximately 30 hours each week for about 11 weeks and will gain hands-on experience in research design, methods, and publication.
2025 RISE into Research Undergraduate Fellowship Teams
This fellowship, now in its fourth year, provides full-time summer funding for undergraduate students in the Remedying Inequity through Student Excellence (RISE) Program to work with a faculty mentor on research.
Sarah is working with Professor John Clegg on a historical economics project titled Counterfactual Reparations: The Effect of Naval Prizes on Life Outcomes of African American Civil War Sailors. The project analyzes a dataset of African American sailors who received financial rewards for capturing or destroying Confederate ships, using these naval prize payments as a counterfactual framework for understanding the long-term impacts of reparations.
Robert is working with Professor Burcu Baykurt on The Political Economy of Gov-Tech, a project that examines the political and ethical dynamics behind the shift from public open data initiatives to privatized data infrastructures in U.S. city governments. Drawing on a corpus of contracts between tech firms and municipal agencies, the project interrogates the frames and moral economies that justify public-private data partnerships.
Jenelle is working with Professor Kimberlee Pérez on Telling Survival Stories, a research project that uses storytelling methodologies as both a communication tool and a form of cultural critique. Centering the voices and experiences of survivors, the project explores how we talk—and ask questions—about sexual violence and harm, and how these conversations shape collective understanding and response.
Uttara is working with Dr. Marta Vicarelli on the multi-year, NSF-funded research initiative Recovery, Renewal, and Resilience in a Post-Pandemic World (RRR), which investigates green and inclusive economic growth in coastal communities. The project brings together an international research team from UMass Amherst, the United Nations University (Germany), the University of Costa Rica, and the University of Glasgow to conduct a transnational comparative study on coastal resilience. During summer 2025, the team will survey local governments in the U.S., Costa Rica, Germany, and Scotland, with the goal of providing science-based recommendations for sustainable Blue Economy strategies.