Anya Lord
When Anya Lord was accepted into the University of Washington’s Master of Arts in Museology program, she didn’t expect to become a Stroum Center graduate fellow as well. Her journey to the UW and Stroum Center started at Carleton College in Minnesota where she majored in Art History and Educational Studies. Her undergraduate research included working with artists whose studios were destroyed during the Arab Spring. This research, at the intersection of art, modern history, and the middle east, foreshadowed where she finds herself now.
From Internship to Fellowship
Currently in her second year of her Museology program, Anya has focused much of her research on Holocaust museums and their efforts to engage more broadly with other historical genocides. As part of her course work, she spent much of last year interning with Seattle’s Holocaust Center for Humanity. It was a combination of her research, internship experience, and a desire to explore more courses related to Jewish Studies that led her to reach out to Stroum Center Director, Professor Noam Pianko. She took Professor Pianko’s Modern Jewish Thought class (JEW ST 358). After discussing her interests with Professor Pianko, he also encouraged Anya to apply for a Stroum Center for Jewish Studies graduate fellowship.
The result? In the fall of 2025, she received the Max Sarason Endowed Fellowship. Through the generous support of community members, the Stroum Center is able to offer selected fellows a $6,000 stipend to help cover their research related to Jewish Studies. The fellowship also enters recipients into an interdisciplinary cohort of M.A. and Ph.D. students from across the UW whose research connects to themes in Jewish Studies.
Nurturing Diverse and Supportive Learning Opportunities
Stroum fellows often cite the multifaceted backgrounds of their cohorts in helping create supportive learning environments rich in discussion and debate. This enriching learning environment is also supported by the Stroum Center’s broad and departmentally diverse faculty. One such person is Stroum Center associate faculty member Sarah Zaides Rosen who directs the fellowship program and leads the biweekly seminar class. Sarah taps into the Stroum Center’s large faculty pool to bring a diverse group of speakers to the fellowship class to discuss their research and the role it plays in Jewish Studies.
“It’s the one class where I leave wishing we had more time together, so much is being said”.
– Anya Lord, Stroum Center Graduate Fellow
The fellowship seminar also includes a series of readings, which Anya describes as “the best collection of picked-out readings I’ve ever had in class.” And those readings often lead to even more informative class discussions. “Our reading discussions can go really deep, and I really appreciate hearing the perspectives other fellows bring to the table, it gives me new perspectives to consider.” As the only master’s level student in the cohort, and the only one with an art history background, Anya appreciates learning from her cohort, many of whom have history backgrounds and are working on Ph.D.’s.
Perhaps influenced by her fellowship cohort, when asked about her future, Anya says she’s exploring the possibility of a Ph.D. program. But she could also see herself working at a Holocaust museum. Either way, she’ll be taking her experience as a Stroum Center graduate fellow — in-depth knowledge sharing and supportive faculty — with her.
