Image

The UMass Amherst Center for Justice, Law and Societies (CJLS) and the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences’ Remedying Inequity through Student Engagement program (SBS RISE) have selected four students to receive summer 2025 RISE into Research Fellowships. The fellowships, now in their fourth year, provide funding in the amount of $5,000 for undergraduate students in SBS RISE to work with a faculty mentor over the summer, gaining hands-on experience in research design, methods and publication. Fellows also participate in summer research team mentoring and receive research methodological training through the Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR). 

The program is competitive for both undergraduate research assistants and faculty mentors. To be eligible, students must be part of the SBS RISE program, which provides opportunities for support, community and leadership to those who identify as first-generation, economically disadvantaged and/or people of color. 

The 2025 RISE into Research Summer Research Fellows are:

• Uttara Prakash (Sophomore, Department of Economics)
  Prakash will be working with Marta Vicarelli, assistant professor of economics and public policy, and is excited to contribute to research that aligns with her interests in sustainability, economic policy and international development. She is especially inspired by Vicarelli’s interdisciplinary approach to using economics as a tool for social and environmental resilience and sees this globally collaborative project as an invaluable opportunity to learn and grow.
• Sarah Dienta (Sophomore, Department of Economics) 
  Dienta will be working with, John Clegg, assistant professor of economics, to investigate the financial incentives awarded to African American sailors for capturing or destroying Confederate ships during the American Civil War. She is passionate about research that harnesses data to understand the best policy measures or programs to help as many people as possible.
• Jenelle Donahue (Sophomore, Department of Sociology)
  Donahue will be working with Kimberlee Pérez, associate professor of communication, on her project, “Telling Survival Stories,” which she hopes will help to deepen her understanding of storytelling and sexual violence while also growing as a researcher. Her academic interests focus on social inequality and the criminal justice system.
• Robert Long (Senior, Department of Communication)
  Long will be working with Burcu Baykurt, assistant professor of communication, to explore contracts between tech companies and municipal agencies. He will be seeking to identify the frames that justify how government data is valued and evaluated in public-private partnerships. He looks forward to pursuing a doctorate after his undergraduate studies.

Past fellows and mentoring teams have presented at conferences, co-authored publications and received recognition for their research, such as Bel Corder ’25, a 2023 fellow selected as a UMass Amherst Rising Researcher in fall 2024.

CJLS strives to foster research, teaching and public engagement related to bias, inequity and inequality in the law. It brings together faculty and graduate students working across campus on law and society topics that are vital to domestic governance, such as access to justice for vulnerable populations, how court decision-making shapes public policy and the relationship between law and new technologies.

SBS RISE coordinates programs for SBS undergraduates who identify as being of the first generation of their families to obtain a four-year degree; as Black, Indigenous or a Person of Color (BIPOC); and/or come from an economically disadvantaged background. SBS RISE is also a part of SBS Pathways, which provides SBS students with useful academic and career resources and opportunities throughout their undergraduate years.