2023 Undergraduate Fellowship
In 2023, the Arts, Science + Culture Initiative selected 6 undergraduate students from a highly competitive pool of applicants to be in its pilot Undergraduate Fellowship Program. The selected students engage directly with ASCI Graduate Fellows and Grantees to gain exposure to a wide range of approaches to advanced research in the sciences, social sciences, and the humanities. Graduate students serve as mentors to the selected undergraduates.
The selected Undergraduate Fellows participate in four workshops over the course of the fellowship period to advance their understanding of and connection to the research process. At the completion of these workshops, the Undergraduate Fellows produce a research plan on an approved topic of their choice, using methods introduced by graduate mentors.
This Fellowship is generously supported by the College Curricular Innovation Fund.
Aashana Daru is a third-year undergraduate student in the College, with a major in the Biological Science and minors in English & Creative Writing and Gender & Sexuality Studies. On the pre-med track, her interest in health is interdisciplinary and intersectional; with a vested interest in global and public health and a newfound interest in medical anthropology, she is attempting to equip herself with the skillsets that will support her on her journey toward an MD/MPH.
Trent Davis is a fourth-year undergraduate double majoring in Neuroscience and Visual Arts. Combining his passions for both science and art, Trent brings these fields together on both fronts. He uses a variety of neuroscience-related concepts to inspire his own artwork, and his research at the Brainbridge Psychology lab asks: what makes a work of art memorable? His current project focuses on how a work of art becomes memorable and hopes that his findings serve as valuable tools for artists as well as better our understanding of how the brain processes visual stimuli.
Elaine Liang is a third-year undergraduate majoring in Philosophy and Allied Fields (BiologicalSciences) with a Chemistry minor. She is broadly interested in medical ethics, such as the values and beliefs that inform end-of-life care, and is excited to explore different approaches to advanced cross-disciplinary research. Outside of academics, she is involved with the UChicago Harm Reduction Project, which aims to mitigate the opioid overdose epidemic happening right in our backyard. When she is not scurrying between meetings, she can be found catching up with friends and exploring new study spots on campus.
Vespera Luo is a third-year undergraduate majoring in Geophysical Sciences and Philosophy. She's interested in studying cosmochemistry, planetary formation, and natural hazards like earthquakes and volcanoes. Apart from science, she also enjoys being an armchair philosophy student. She is constantly amazed by the thoughts of great thinkers like Kant and Aristotle, and gradually she became interested in how we could apply their ethical theories in a modern context, especially the possible ethical issues regarding space exploration. In her free time, she’s very judgmental about novels, food, and garden design.
Nicole Stachowiak is an undergraduate student at the University of Chicago, majoring in English Language and Literature and Media Arts and Design. Her area of study falls at the junction of narrative analysis and ludology, investigating the ways interactive storytelling involves and negotiates the player and avatar, particularly in Japanese Role-Playing Games. She also works to produce original games in conjunction with UChicago Game Design, which she is on the board of, writes arts reviews for the Maroon, and teaches debate to middle and high schoolers. Naturally, she is an avid enjoyer of video games in her free time, but also enjoys cooking and baking, drawing, and writing.
Claire Weber is a third-year student in the College, double-majoring in Psychology and Religious Studies. She is interested in how American Christianity interacts with different aspects of modern society, especially in the spheres of mental health and medicine. In addition, Claire is fascinated by the social and communal aspects of religious worship.