The Marcus Undergraduate Research Fellowship

The Marcus Undergraduate Research Fellowship award supports research and creative activity conducted by undergraduate students in partnership with a faculty mentor. Recipients of the Marcus Fellowship will be part of a cohort of fellows engaged in programming that supports research throughout the course of the fellowship. This fellowship opportunity is aimed at undergraduates interested in working closely with a faculty member to develop, complete and present a research project.

 

Student Eligibility

  • Students must be declared undergraduate majors in the College of Liberal & Creative Arts. LCA minors can apply if their project is housed in the LCA and their mentor is an LCA faculty. Priority will be given to LCA majors.
  • Student must be enrolled during both the fall and spring semesters of the awarded academic year.
  • Students must not be studying abroad in 2023-24.

Faculty Eligibility

  • The faculty mentor must be a tenured or tenure-track full-time faculty member in the College of Liberal & Creative Arts.
  • The faculty mentor must commit to mentorship of the student fellow across a range of research or creative activities relevant to their discipline including project development and presentation of results.
  • The faculty mentor must commit to meeting weekly or biweekly with the student.

Project Requirements and Expectations

Receiving Units

  • Projects may be in conjunction with or independent of existing, scheduled coursework
  • If independent, then the project may lead to course credits (e.g., 699 units)
  • If in conjunction with a course then the project must involve significant activity beyond the course requirements

All recipients of the Marcus Fellowship are expected to participate in the following activities:

  • An orientation event and periodic meetings among the Marcus Fellows, faculty mentors, and program coordinator.
  • An opening reception at the beginning of the Fall 23 semester.
  • An outreach event to connect with potential future applicants.
  • A recognition event near the end of the 2023-2024 academic year.

Deliverables

  • Student recipients are expected to attend at least one conference to present their work; this may be a student research conference such as the LCA Undergraduate Research Showcase, or the student section of a professional conference. 
  • At the end of the spring semester, the fellows are expected to submit a report (1000 words) summarizing their year-long project, and all other materials that pertain to their work, i.e. a paper, portfolio, etc.

Marcus Research Fellowship Grant: Current and Past Winners

Developing Postmodern Feminism via Transliteration of Kawakami Mieko’s "Breast and Eggs": The Transculturation of Anglophone and Japanese Feminist Rhetoric
Breanna Barton-Shaw
Department of Comparative & World Literatures
Faculty Mentor: Chris Weinberger

Blackbook Stories: Visual Scripts and Community Narratives within San Francisco Graffiti Subcultures
José Hernandez
School of Design
Faculty Mentor: Ellen Christensen

Learning to Read Petrarch: A Diary Study on Language Learning in Diverse Learning Environments
Gabriella Melton
Department of English Language and Literature
Faculty Mentor: Maricel Santos

Democratic Queer Theory: Extending LGBTQ+ Civil & Social Rights Globally
Ki Singh
Department of Political Science
Faculty Mentor: Amanda Roberti

Examining Direct-To-Consumer Advertising and Health Culture Through the Lens of Presidio Archaeology
RJ Stevens
Department of Anthropology
Faculty Mentor: Meredith Reifschneider

Remixing Philosophy: A series of videos applying ancient ideas to modern times
Alexander Vahied
School of Cinema, Department of Philosophy
Faculty Mentor: Kimbrough Moore

Gerrymandering and Voter Disenfranchisement - How District Lines are Used to Suppress the Vote and How We Might Fix It
Gillian Welcher
Department of Political Science
Faculty Mentor: Rebecca Eissler

“The Latin American Landscape: Identity and Ancestry in the works of Regina José Galindo, Ana Mendieta, Delilah Montoya and Aline Motta.” Student: Quitéria Conte (School of Art). Mentor: Professor Santhi Kavuri-Bauer.

“Brimful World: An Avaricious Humanity is Destroying a Helpless Planet.” Student: Alexis Doukakis (School of Cinema). Mentor: Assistant Professor Rosa Park

“Through the Wire: Negotiating Identity through History, Cinema, and the Japanese American Incarceration Experience.” Student: Kevin Kodama (School of Cinema). Mentor: Assistant Professor Mayuran Tiruchelvam.

“The Metamorphosis of The Gender Non-Conforming.” Student: Carlos Osoria (Department of Comparative & World Literature). Mentor: Assistant Professor Leslie Quintanilla.

“Latinx Waves in K-pop.” Student: Giselle Peralta, (Department of Anthropology). Mentor: Associate Professor Dawn-Elissa Fischer.

“Inside-Out: Literature’s Bearing on the Political Identity of Taiwan And How We Are to Understand It.” Student: Samantha Reinard (Department of Comparative & World Literature). Mentor: Associate Professor Chris Weinberger.

“A Price on Pride: Understanding the Commoditization of the Queer Identity in San Francisco”
Student: Maximilian DeNembo (School of Design)
Mentor: Hsiao-Yun Chu

“Defining Rurality: An Exploration of the Rural-Urban Connection in Different Parts of the United States”
Student: Fiona DeWitt (Political Science Department)
Mentor: Rebecca Eissler

“Explorations of Gesticulation-Based Upper Limb Appliances”
Student: Levi Gilbert (School of Design)
Mentor: Silvan Linn

“Everyday HEROs: Public Health Research during COVID-19 Shelter-in-Place”
Student: Gurjot Gill (Anthropology Department)
Mentor: Peter Biella

“Objectivity and Epistemic Commitment: Polanyi’s Critique of Reductionism”
Student: Aydin Jang (Philosophy Department)
Mentor: Arezoo Islami

“Korean American Cinema (1990s – Present): Confronting History and Myths in the Diaspora”
Student: B. Kim (School of Cinema)
Mentor: Scott Boswell

“Attainability of Official CSU Intended Outcomes: A Student Experience-Based Study”
Student: Ysenia Martinez (School of Design)
Mentor: Tara Lockhart

“Decline of the Latino Media in the San Francisco Bay Area”
Student: Adriana Morga Oregel (Journalism Department)
Mentor: Laura Moorhead

“The Semiotics of Power: Linguistic Structures of Neoliberal Hegemony”
Student: Mikey Pagan (School of Humanities and Liberal Studies)
Mentor: Teresa Pratt

“Battles, Bridges and Books: The Pursuit of Higher Education After Military Service”
Student: Janelle Scarritt
Mentor: Martha Lincoln

“Development of a Hybrid Motorcycle Conversion Kit to Reduce Pollution in Low-Income Urban Areas”
Student: Anucha (Poh) Maga
Mentor: Silvan Linn

“Does State of Residence Influence Concerns about Economic Inequity”
Student: Hannah Galindo
Mentor: Ronald Hayduk

“Embodiment in XR: Using Research through Design Techniques in VR to Explore New Approaches to Attention, Interaction Rituals and Spatial Metaphors”
Student: Crystal Candalla
Mentor: Joshua McVeigh-Schultz

“Gender’s Corporeality: Deconstructing Trans-Boundaries in Cinema”
Student: Lindhan Le
Mentor: Elizabeth Ramirez-Soto

“Ireland and the Rise of Left-Wing Nationalism”
Student: Mikayla Cordero
Faculty member: Amy Skonieczny

“Potential Wilderness”
Student: Duriel Meisner
Mentor: Sean McFarland

“Social Media Usage and Political Behavior: Understanding How Situational Context Impacts Participation”
Student: Jorge Urroz
Mentor: Francis Neely

“The Construct of Love and Sexuality in 17th-Century Japan”
Student: Kayla Ratliff
Mentor: Laura Lisy-Wagner

“The Value of Life”
Student: Jamila Hayes
Mentor: Celine Parreñas Shimizu

 

 

 

The Marcus Undergraduate Research Assistantship Grant

The Marcus Undergraduate Research Assistantship Grant is an initiative aimed at promoting student research in collaboration with a faculty mentor.

Faculty Eligibility:

  • Must be a tenured/tenure-track full-time faculty member in the College of Liberal & Creative Arts.
  • The faculty mentor should commit to meeting weekly or biweekly with the student research assistant(s).

Student Eligibility:

  • Must be declared undergraduate majors in the College of Liberal & Creative Arts.
  • Must be enrolled during both the fall and spring semesters of the awarded academic year.
  • Must not be studying abroad in 2023-2024.

All tenured and tenure-track full-time faculty members in the College of Liberal & Creative Arts are eligible to apply. This grant promotes scholarly activity conducted by undergraduate students and a faculty member in a partnership. Projects must involve mentoring across a range of research activities.

Research projects are broadly construed to include all disciplines represented in the College of Liberal & Creative Arts, and in all cases, students must be learning and practicing research/scholarship skills appropriate to the field of inquiry. 

Expectations

  • All student recipients will present results of their project at the Spring 2024 LCA Undergraduate Research Showcase.
  • Both the student(s) and the faculty member will also submit a one-page report at that time that reflects on their experiences.

Marcus Research Fellowship Grant: Current and Past Winners

Queering the Newsroom: Using Engagement Strategies to Improve Coverage in the Bay Area
Josh Davis
Department of Journalism
Student researchers: Nicole Buss, Myron Caringal

From the Bay to the Valley: California Politics in Context
Marcela García-Castañon
Department of Political Science
Student researchers: Arturo Avila, TBD

Animation Matters: Interrogating Diversity in Mainstream Animated Features
Mihaela Mihailova
School of Cinema
Student researcher: Madisyn Montoya

‘It’s my job’: Scientists Working with Journalists and the Medialization of Science
Laura L. Moorhead
Department of Journalism
Student researchers: TBD

Under-Represented Cinemas in The Archive
Greta Snider
School of Cinema
Student researchers: TBD

“Forging A Deeper Democracy?: Assessing Participatory Budgeting in the Bay Area.” Mentor: Ron Hayduk (Department of Political Science).

“Big Apple 80s: A Geolocated Audio Trip to the Birth of MTV.” Mentor: Elizabeth Bradley Hunter (School of Theatre & Dance).

“Decolonizing Linguistics: Computer-Mediated Communication as an Inclusive Gateway to the Discipline.” Mentor: Jenny Lederer (Department of English Language and Literature).

“Finding the needle, re-thinking the haystack: A systematic review of labels and descriptors of ‘low-skilled’ populations in U.S. health literacy research.” Mentor: Maricel Santos (Department of English Language and Literature).

“A New Critical Edition of ‘Romeo and Juliet’: A Digital Humanities Project”
Students: Jason Bolich, Nicolaz Ruiz
Mentor: Kurt Daw (School of Theatre and Dance)

“Shakespeare’s ‘Lear’: A VR/Live Performance Hybrid”
Students: Nicole Carlson, Jo Rhoades
Mentor: Elizabeth Hunter (School of Theatre and Dance)

“Lexical Variation and Sociolinguistic Style in a Bay Area High School”
Students: Ana Abarca, Shane Cueva
Mentor: Teresa Pratt (English Language and Literature Department)

“The Unpublished Works of Elizabeth Anscombe”
Student: Ivan Manriquez Jr.
Mentor: Jeremy Reid (Philosophy Department).

“From the Left or the Right? Anti-Semitism in Germany Since 2002”
Student: Nicolle Mariani
Mentor: Scott Siegel (International Relations Department).

“A Juggler’s Choice: Agendas and Attention in the Modern Presidency”
Student: Elizabeth Wedel
Mentor: Rebecca Eissler

“China’s Multilateral Activism and the Postwar Order: Rule Taker, Rule Shaper, Rule Breaker or Rule Maker?”
Student: Samuel Catania
Mentor: See-Won Byun

“Is It Teasing or Bullying? Interactional Practices and Blurry Lines”
Student: Austin Schutz
Mentor: Leah Wingard

“Vegetarian Indian Restaurant or Indian Vegetarian Restaurant: Order of Attributes in Search Queries”
Student: Lauren Baker
Mentor: Anastasia Smirnova

“What They Bring with Them: Pre-Migration Experiences and Trajectories in American Politics of American Immigrants”
Student: Yvette Osio
Mentor: Marcela García-Castañon