2018–2019 Kenneth I. Juster Fellows
The Weatherhead Center is pleased to announce its 2018–2019 class of Juster Fellows. Now in its eighth year, this grant initiative is made possible by the generosity of the Honorable Kenneth I. Juster, former chair of the Center’s Advisory Committee, and recently appointed United States Ambassador to India. Ambassador Juster has devoted much of his education, professional activities, public service, and nonprofit endeavors to international affairs and is deeply engaged in promoting international understanding and advancing international relations. The Center’s Juster grants support undergraduates whose projects may be related to thesis research but may have broader experiential components as well. The newly named Juster Fellows—all of whom will be undertaking their international experiences this December and January—are as follows:
Philip Balson, a senior history concentrator, will conduct archival research in London for his thesis on Southeast Asian dynamics and President Lyndon B. Johnson's Vietnam policy in 1963.
Julia Bunte-Mein, a junior social anthropology concentrator, will travel to India and Guinea to conduct thesis research on sustainable agriculture and agency of smallholder farmers.
Tom Osborn, a junior psychology concentrator, will travel to Kenya to conduct research using a study with Shamiri, a mental health and wellness intervention program in Kenya’s Kibera slums.
Isabel Parkey, a senior joint concentrator in history & literature and folklore & mythology, will conduct research at the UNESCO archives in Paris on the political utilization of cultural heritage in postconflict Mali.
Christina Qiu, a senior applied mathematics and economics concentrator, will travel to Paris to gather the remaining dataset that she needs for her thesis on the diffusion of welfare in Roma informal settlements of Île-de-France.
Russell Reed, a junior geography and development concentrator, will travel to Brussels, Belgium to begin research for his thesis on racial science and gorilla conservation in the Albertine Rift in central Africa.
Jinyuan Ryan Zhang, a sophomore social studies concentrator, will travel to Indonesia to conduct research on how the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has shaped the treatment of Chinese Confucians, an ethnic and racial minority, in Indonesia.