Scholarship on Global Engagement

The Center for Research on Global Engagement seeks to facilitate and showcase innovative scholarship on global engagement. The current ’23-’24 CRGE grant awardees are highlighted here.

 

Bethany Marzella ’24 | Between Conflict and Coexistence: Intra Islamic Relations in Iraq

Major: International and global studies
Mentor: Dr. Sandy Marshall

Bethany Marzella, alongside her research mentor, Dr. Sandy Marshall, inquires how Saddam Hussein’s legacy of sectarianism and the current sectarian conflict impact Iraqi diaspora communities. She is also investigating whether memory of the Sunni-Shia relations during Saddam Hussein’s presidency has evolved and how the conflict is remembered by Iraqi diaspora communities. Beside analyzing media content and political speeches, Bethany conducted interviews with people from Iraqi diaspora communities, some of which occurred during her semester abroad in Jordan in Fall 2023. CRGE funding was used to interview Iraqi immigrants in London in the summer of 2023.

 

Sitare Sadeghi ’25 | Exploring the Pedagogical Piano Repertoire of Iran

Major : Music theater | Minor: Piano pedagogy
Mentor: Dr. Douglas Jur

In a world that privileges music from Western Europe, Sitare Sadeghi looks to diversify piano pedagogy by studying Iranian classical music and how to teach it. Researching and assembling important and powerful examples of Iranian pedagogical literature is just one aspect of the research project. Sitare and her mentor hope to create a catalog of teaching repertoire that includes unique aspects of Iranian classical music. They also hope to commission a pedagogical piece that articulates an aspect of Iranian musical culture for beginner or intermediate piano students. Her project will fill a gap in piano pedagogy by studying the rich body of piano repertoire from Iran, which can ultimately benefit piano teachers and students around the country. Her project also looks to uplift Iranian women as musicians and performers since they are not allowed to do that in Iran.

Claire Pryzbocki ’24 | Polish Catholic Nationalism and the Rise of Anti- Immigration Policy

Majors: Economics & International and global studies
Mentor: Dr. Brian Pennington

Claire Przybocki is investigating Polish Catholic nationalism and how this phenomenon impacts Muslim migrants at the border of Poland and Belarus. Claire used CRGE funding to support her travel to Poland for research during the summer of 2023. She traveled alongside her mentor, Dr. Pennington, and the director of the Multifaith Scholars, Dr. Allocco, for two weeks, and then embarked on her solo part of travel for the next five weeks. During this time, Claire traveled to 7 different cities and conducted over 40 interviews with scholars, religious leaders, foundations, non-profit organizations, and ordinary poles with exposure to the political contexts and migration issues in Poland. During her summer in Poland, her project evolved to include investigating the differences in treatment of Ukrainian migrants versus migrants from Middle Eastern and North African countries.

Daniel Scheff ’24 | Andal: Constructions, Expressions, and Subversions of Indian Womanhood through a Ninth-Century Woman Saint

Majors: Political science & Religious studies
Mentor: Dr. Amy Allocco

Daniel Scheff is researching a ninth-century Hindu religious figure named Andal, who was among twelve Hindu poet-saints called alvars. Specifically, Daniel is researching if and how interpretations and expressions of Andal are deployed to negotiate possibilities of Indian womanhood. Through interviews and participant observation, Daniel seeks to understand contemporary dancers’, scholars’, and devotees’ relationship to Andal. Secondly, Daniel is analyzing the extent to which diverse interpretations of Andal and her texts are responding to – and potentially challenging – dominant models of acceptable womanhood formulated in colonial and postcolonial India. Daniel traveled to Tamil Nadu, South India over the summer of 2023 to engage with various communities and do ethnographic fieldwork.