Rwanda

Rwanda. Photo credit: Göran Höglund (Kartläsarn)

The Stroum Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Washington is delighted to announce the winners of our Winter and Spring 2018 Opportunity Grants. For undergraduate students, the primary goal of the Opportunity Grants is to support undergraduate engagement with Jewish Studies through UW study abroad experiences and accredited academic opportunities in the US. For graduate students, the Opportunity Grants are intended to support research, conference attendance, and courses in topics related to Jewish Studies, either domestically or abroad.

The latest Opportunity Grant winners represent the diverse departments, disciplines, and backgrounds of Jewish Studies students at UW. All of the winners are required to write blog posts about their experiences, so keep an eye out for future postings!

Want to apply for the next round? The deadline for Opportunity Grants for experiences taking place in Spring or Summer 2018 is March 1, 2018. Find out more here.

Gilbert & Miriam Roth Opportunity Grant Winners

Miriam Roth (L) and Gil Roth (R) with friend Sonny Gorasht (center)

Miriam Roth (L) and Gilbert Roth (R) with friend Sonny Gorasht (center)

We are grateful to Gilbert and Miriam Roth, Stroum Center honorary board members, for their support of graduate student excellence in Jewish Studies.

Bios of Gilbert & Miriam Roth Opportunity Grant Winners

Pablo Jairo Tutillo Maldonado

Pablo Jairo Tutillo Maldonado hails from Connecticut and is pursuing an MA in Middle East Studies at the Jackson School. Pablo obtained his BA in International Relations with 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.  With his grant, Pablo will continue his research in Israel on the political and historical narratives of Jewish refugees from the Arab world. He speaks conversational Arabic, Hebrew and Turkish.

Picture of Lawrence Koster

Lawrence Koster

Lawrence Koster is a third-year doctoral student in the Political Science department and Graduate Fellow at the Washington Institute for the Study of Inequality and Race (WISIR). His research interests include social movements, comparative politics and political communication with a special focus on the use of text as data, network analysis to predict message dissemination, and computational social science. With Opportunity Grant support, Lawrence will conduct research in Tanzania and Rwanda on how foreign direct investment as well as other financial interventions in the economies of developing states affect perceptions of donor states (including Israel) as well as how those perceptions are disseminated across the public.

Stroum Center Opportunity Grant Winners

Bios of Stroum Center Opportunity Grant Winners

Özgür Özkan

Özgür Özkan is a PhD candidate in the Jackson School of International Studies’ doctoral program. He holds a BS in Systems Engineering and an MA in Regional Security Studies from the US Naval Postgraduate School. Ozgur’s research covers nationalism, ethnic politics, and civil-military relations in the Middle East. He has been conducting research on non-Muslims’ experiences in the Ottoman Army in the early twentieth century. With his Opportunity Grant funding, he will continue to research Sephardic Jewish heritage in the northern Aegean and southern Marmara, especially in Canakkale and its vicinity.

Image of Claire Carlson-Jurich

Claire Carlson-Jurich

Claire Carlson-Jurich, a Foster School student pursuing an MBA and Global Business Certificate, will use the support of the Opportunity Grant to visit Israel to learn from local business owners about the innovations at the forefront of Israeli commerce, and further understand the cultural context of conducting business in the region. A Seattle native, Claire received a BA in International Affairs and certificates in Business and Leadership from the University of Colorado-Boulder.

The Stroum Center congratulates all of these award winners and wishes everyone safe travels and fruitful academic explorations!

Links for Further Exploration

  • Read articles by former winners of Jewish Studies Opportunity Grants, who have traveled to Prague, Jordan, Israel, the Black Sea, and elsewhere.
  • Learn more about our Winter 2016/Spring 2017 Opportunity Grant Winners.
  • Interested in applying for an Opportunity Grant? Read more about the application process here. Applications for opportunties taking place in Spring or Summer 2018 are due March 1, 2018.
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⇒ Learn more about the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Washington, our Sephardic Studies Program, or our Israel Studies Program.
Note: The opinions expressed by faculty and students in our publications reflect the views of the individual writer only and not those of the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies.