Portraits of 2018-2019 Graduate Fellows as a collage

2018-2019 Graduate Fellows in Jewish Studies

The Stroum Center for Jewish Studies is excited to introduce the 2018-19 cohort of Graduate Fellows in Jewish Studies. Fellows receive mentorship from Jewish Studies faculty, attend workshops on public scholarship and Jewish Studies, and share their research with the community through public presentations and articles published on the Stroum Center website. Funding for the annual Fellowship program is generously provided by community supporters.

Portrait of Vincent smiling, wearing glasses, in suit and tie, with bushes behind

Vincent Calvetti-Wolf, Mickey Sreebny Memorial Scholar

Vincent is a first-year student in the Near and Middle Eastern Studies Interdisciplinary PhD Program. He holds a BA in Liberal Arts from The Evergreen State College and obtained a Master of Arts in International Studies, with a focus in Comparative Religion, from the University of Washington in 2017. His research explores the histories and politics of social movements led by Mizrahi Jews in Israel. His current project focuses on the strategies used by grassroots movements in Israel to raise awareness about the Yemenite, Mizrahi and Balkan Children Affair that took place in the early 1950s. Vincent is graduate student co-coordinator of the Israel/Palestine Research Colloquium.

Portrait of Kerice smiling, wearing dangling earrings and a sweater

Kerice Doten-Snitker, Rabbi Arthur A. Jacobovitz Fellow

Kerice is a doctoral candidate in Sociology at the University of Washington. She double-majored in Sociocultural Studies and International Relations at Bethel University (Minnesota) before completing an MA in Sociology at the University of Washington. Her scholarly interests include processes of inclusion and exclusion in society. Her current work examines the roles of political institutions, economics, and religion in the exclusion of Jews in medieval times, focusing on the Rhineland (western Germany). In Fall 2017 she was a visiting student at the Arye Maimon Institute for Jewish History at Universität Trier in Trier, Germany, funded by the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD). In addition, she works at the University’s Center for Evaluation and Research for STEM Equity, which focuses on increasing equity — and the participation of systematically excluded students and professionals — in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.

Portrait of Berkay in collar shirt, smiling, long black hair falling over her shoulder

Berkay Gulen, Robinovitch Family Fellow

Berkay Gulen is a PhD candidate in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies. She received her MSc degrees in International Relations from the Middle East Technical University, Turkey, and in International Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. Berkay’s academic interests led her to conduct research at the Moshe Dayan Center of Tel Aviv University in 2013 and the Institute of National Security Studies in Tel Aviv in 2018. Her doctoral research is on foreign policy decision-making and Turkey-Israel relations after 1991.

Portrait of Hayim Katsman in T-shirt and jacket with mustache and goatee, looking thoughtful

Hayim Katsman, I. Mervin & Georgiana Gorasht Fellow

As a PhD student in International Studies, Hayim researches the interrelations between religion and politics in Israel/Palestine. Focusing on the religious-Zionist movement and the settlement enterprise in the West Bank and Gaza, Hayim’s research shows how developments in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have affected religious Zionists’ theological interpretations of the Israeli state. Before coming to the University of Washington, Hayim lived in a Kibbutz on the Israel/Gaza/Egypt border, where he works/ed as a car mechanic. Hayim received his BA in philosophy from the Open University of Israel and completed his MA thesis on the theology of Rabbi Yitzchak Ginzburg at the Department of Politics and Government at Ben-Gurion University.

Portrait of Pablo smiling, wearing glasses, in suit and tie

Pablo Jairo Tutillo Maldonado, Richard M. Willner Memorial Scholar

Pablo Jairo Tutillo Maldonado, who hails from Connecticut, is a second-year MA student in Middle East Studies at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies. Pablo obtained his BA in International Relations and a minor in Arabic Studies from Connecticut College. Pablo has studied at Alexandria University in Egypt and at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel. At the University of Washington, Pablo has been researching the intersection of history and politics in countries in the Middle East, particularly the political and historical narratives of Jewish refugees, Syrian refugees and other forced migrants from the Arab world. He speaks conversational Arabic, Hebrew and Turkish.

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