Globe in Suzzalo Library. Photo by Katherine Turner.

The Stroum Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Washington is delighted to announce the winners of its Opportunity Grants for Summer and Autumn 2016. For undergraduate students, the primary goal of the Jewish Studies Opportunity Grants is to support undergraduate engagement with Jewish Studies through UW-approved study abroad experiences and accredited academic domestic opportunities. For graduate students, the Opportunity Grants are intended to help support research, conference attendance, and further study in topics related to Jewish Studies domestically or abroad.

The 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 your eye out for future postings!

The next round of applications will be due October 14th to fund opportunities during Winter and Spring 2017. You can find out more here. Please contact Lauren Kurland, Director of Student Engagement, with any questions.

Oscar Aguirre Mandujano is a PhD candidate in the Interdisciplinary Program in Near and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Washington. With his Opportunity Grant funding, Oscar will travel to Istanbul to trace the history and stories behind five Sephardic treasures, which he looks forward to sharing with the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies community upon his return.

Canan Bolel and Berkay Gulen will both be attending Middlebury Language School this summer to study Hebrew. Canan is a PhD student in the Interdisciplinary Program in Near and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Washington. Her research uses digital humanities techniques such as mapping to recreate the urban spaces of 20th-century Jewish childhood in Seattle. Berkay is a PhD student in International Studies in the Jackson School, focusing on contemporary Turkey’s foreign policy towards Israel.

Yarrow Linden, a Jewish Studies minor and Health Science major, is heading to the University of Melbourne this summer.

Yarrow Linden, a Jewish Studies minor and health science major, is spending the summer and fall at the University of Melbourne, where she anticipates taking courses in Conflict and Peace in the Middle East as well as Holocaust studies, and learning more about Jewish life in Australia.

Oded Oron, a PhD student in International Studies, will use the Opportunity Grant funding to support field research he is conducting in Tel Aviv on irregular immigrant movements.

Katja Schatte will participate in the Voice of Witness oral history training in San Francisco this summer, and will later present at the International Oral History Conference at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Emily Thompson, a Masters student in the Information School, used her Opportunity Grant funding to attend the fourth annual ucLadino Judeo-Spanish symposium in Los Angeles and to visit libraries in Los Angeles to learn more about their experiences cataloguing community resources.

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

• Read articles by former winners of Jewish Studies Opportunity Grants, who have traveled to Prague, Jordan, Israel, the Black Sea, and elsewhere.
• Read the press release announcing the new Opportunity Grants and explaining how the application process works.