Six students smile for a group photo in a leafy outdoor setting while displaying certificates recognizing their Student Research Symposium achievements.

Undergraduate research presenters. Image courtesy of Meryl Shenker Photography

At the end of spring quarter, the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies hosted its first-ever daylong Student Research Symposium. The event highlighted the research of 11 different Jewish Studies undergraduate and graduate students, representing eight departments across the University of Washington, including History, Education, Museology, and Asian Languages & Literatures. The symposium featured four panels each supported by a Jewish Studies mentor: professors Devin Naar, Canan Bolel, Jason Groves, and Sarah Zaides Rosen.

From the history of Jewish and Muslim head coverings to the resiliency of American Jewish adolescents today, the event showcased the breadth and depth of Jewish Studies at the University of Washington. Stroum Center director Noam Pianko shared:

“What moved me most about our first Student Research Symposium was seeing the depth of our students’ engagement with Jewish Studies, sparked in our courses and nurtured through close mentorship with our faculty. Nearly every project began as an idea in the classroom, and the symposium offered a showcase to develop that work further and recognize the excellence of our students’ research. This is what the Stroum Center does best: we support our students as they discover in the Jewish experience a lens for illuminating the broader questions they care most deeply about, across past, present, and future.”

Panels:

Antisemitism: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (Chair: Devin Naar)

Three people smile for a photo indoors; two hold certificates of participation from the 2026 Stroum Center Research Symposium.

  • Chenxi Bi presented on her paper “Redemptive Antisemitism in the Nazi Curriculum: Tracing its Roots.” Chenxi is a senior double majoring in history and education, communities, and organizations. She is interested in studying how education has been used as a tool of mobilization, indoctrination, and restitution throughout modern history.
  • Melody Blankman presented her paper “Podcasts as a Platform for Hate: The Function of Antisemitism in Contemporary White Nationalist Ideology.” Originally from Oakland, California, Melody just completed her first year at the University of Washington, where she’s an undergraduate student in the College of Arts and Sciences. She is interested in a vast array of topics including visual arts, dance, drama, historical analysis, human rights, and environmental sustainability.

Global Jewish Experiences (Chair: Canan Bolel)

Three people pose indoors in front of a projection screen, with two holding certificates from a research symposium.

A presenter gestures toward a slideshow with fieldwork images during a research symposium presentation in a classroom.

Images by Meryl Schenker Photography

  • Tanvi Dua presented on her paper from her antisemitism course with Devin Naar on “Bene Israel: Israel’s own ‘Other within the Other’”. Tanvi is a History and Biology double major at the University of Washington. Her historical areas of interest are minority and diaspora populations across South Asia and the Middle East. She is interested in how diaspora communities interact with the dominant culture and preserve their own.
  • Avery Hallum presented her paper “A History of Head Coverings: The Purpose and Politics of Veiling in Central Asia” from her course on Jewish and Muslim Relations that she took with Sarah Zaides Rosen last year. Avery is majoring in History and International Studies. Her broader interests include national identity, culture in diaspora, forced migration, and minority persecution, alongside study of Russian and Arabic.
  • Moriel O’Connor presented “Chicha for Kiddush: Constellations of Andean Jewish Relationality in Ecuador.” Majoring in Comparative History of Ideas, Moriel has cherished undergraduate research involving transboundary and diaspora studies, optical physics, and the marine sciences. She was born in Baltimore, Maryland and works as an independent photographer, tutor, and project coordinator for United Indians of All Tribes Foundation across public elementary schools.

Annual Jewish Studies Paper Award (Chair: Jason Groves)

A woman seated indoors reads from a sheet of paper during a formal discussion presentation.

Recent graduate Gabby Payumo presenting her paper. Image courtesy of Meryl Schencker Photography

  • Gabby Payumo graduated this spring with a major in English and a minor in Jewish Studies. She presented a Jewish philosophy paper from her winter 2025 course with Gilah Kletenik called “Jewish Philosophy: Power, Politics, and Propaganda.” Gabby served as Jewish Studies student undergraduate ambassador and wrote extensively about Jewish Studies programs and events for the UW Daily.

Graduate Fellows Research Panel (Chair: Sarah Zaides Rosen)

A group of symposium participants sits around a meeting table with papers, laptops, and drinks, while a presentation slide for the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies is projected behind them.

Images of Stroum Center Graduate Fellows courtesy of Meryl Schenker Photography

A group of symposium participants sits around a meeting table with papers, laptops, and drinks, while a presentation slide for the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies is projected behind them.

  • Chava Fisicaro, Mickey & Leo Sreebny Memorial Fellow, presented “’El Fantasista’: Hizkia Franco and Rhodes’ Jewish Upper Class in the Fascist Italian Empire (1925-1946).” Originally from Milan, Chava is a Ph.D. student in Near and Middle Eastern Studies studying the Jewish communities of Italy, Libya, and Rhodes. Chava recently published on another research project here.
  • Micah Sprouffske, Ina & Richard Willner Memorial Fellow, presented “Synchrony: A Discourse of Politics in the Early Judeo-Chinese Community.” Micah is pursuing a Ph.D. in Asian Languages and Literatures, with an emphasis in Chinese linguistics. Read more about his research here.
  • Alexandra Ritsatos, Robinovitch Family Fellow, presented “Salonica: A City in a Shifting Landscape.” Alexandra just completed her third-year as a Ph.D. student in History. Her research delves into the dynamics of working-class Jewish Salonika with a particular interest in the relational dynamics that were present in the labor and leftist movements of the city. Read more about Alex’s research here.
  • Anya Lord, Max Sarason Fellow, presented on “Memory, Politics, and Pedagogy: A Framework for Representing Genocides in US Holocaust Museums.” Anya just completed her M.A. in Museology, where she interned with Seattle’s Holocaust Center for Humanity. Read more about Anya here and her research project here.
  • Sivan Komatsu, Ina & Richard Willner Memorial Fellow, presented her research on “Resilience and Life Satisfaction among American Jewish Adolescents.” Sivan is a Ph.D. student in UW’s College of Education. As a school psychologist, Sivan hopes to use her research findings to help Jewish families, educators, community leaders, and mental health professionals support Jewish teens amid rising antisemitism.

More photos of the day’s festivities and presentations below! We look forward to this becoming an annual tradition at the Stroum Center.

People sit around a conference table during a student research symposium presentation, with a projected slide titled “Redemptive Antisemitism in the Nazi Curriculum: Tracing Its Roots.”

A man in a brown jacket sits at a conference table listening during a classroom discussion, with other participants seated nearby.

A group of symposium attendees sits with handouts, notebooks, and water bottles while looking toward a speaker off camera.

Images courtesy of Meryl Schenker Photography