Humanities Research Intensive

Humanities Research Intensive

This course, taught over spring break, introduces freshmen and sophomores to the excitement of humanities research. It will prepare you to develop an independent summer research project, to work as a research assistant for a Stanford professor, or to apply for undergraduate research grants.

Over seven days, you and your thirty classmates will take a deep dive into some of the most important methods and questions driving scholarly research in the humanities today. Your laboratory will be the archives and museum collections at Stanford, where you’ll work closely with Professors Usha Iyer (Film and Media Studies), John Kieschnick (Religious Studies), Emanuele Lugli (Art and Art History), and Rose Salseda (Art and Art History), doing hands-on research on ancient and modern books, manuscripts, artifacts, and monuments.

You will learn the following about humanities research:

• How to formulate a solid research question
• How to gather the evidence that will help you to answer that question
• How to utilize Stanford archives, museums, and collections
• How to write up research results
• How to evaluate the research of your fellow students and offer useful feedback
• How to deliver your results in a public setting
• How to write an effective grant proposal

Why Participate in HRI?

Students who complete this course become Humanities Research Intensive Fellows and are eligible to apply for special HRI grants to support follow-up research during the summer or following academic year. In addition, they receive post-program mentorship during spring quarter and ongoing opportunities to engage with humanities faculty and advanced undergraduates. They become part of the broader intellectual community of humanities researchers at Stanford.

Fellowship Details

• Two-unit course. Pass / No Credit. Units count toward spring quarter. (Note: you must be enrolled during spring quarter to participate in HRI).
• Frosh and sophomores only. Transfer students are also eligible if they have completed 1 full-time quarter at Stanford and no more than 1 full year at their previous institution (or transferred in no more than 60 units, not including AP credit) by the time of application.
• Open to all majors, as well as undeclared students.
• Program dates: Spring Break 2024: Sunday, March 24 through Saturday, March 30.
• Contact email: jschweg [at] stanford.edu (jschweg[at]stanford[dot]edu)
• See our FAQ for more details.

Application deadline: Sunday, November 5, 2023, 11:59 pm

Apply Here

2024 HRI Faculty

Usha Iyer is an Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies. Her research and teaching explore intersections between cinema, performance, and gender and sexuality studies. She is especially interested in body cultures and in Global South cultural traffic along the vectors of race, gender, caste, and religion. Her first book, Dancing Women: Choreographing Corporeal Histories of Hindi Cinema, examines constructions of gender, stardom, sexuality, and spectacle in Hindi cinema. She is currently working on a new book exploring the reception of Indian Cinema in the Caribbean.

John Kieschnick is The Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Professor of Buddhist Studies. He specializes in Chinese Buddhism, with particular emphasis on its cultural history. For this class, his most relevant work is a book called The Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Material Culture, in which he examines the wide-ranging and sometimes surprising ways that Buddhism shaped the material culture of China, including its role in the history of icons, relics, prayer beads, books, bridges and chairs. His course The Religious Life of Things attempts to introduce the study of comparative religion through objects.

Emanuele Lugli is an art historian who specializes in late medieval and early modern Italian painting, urban culture, trade, and fashion. His research and writing span a wide range of topics, from the history of measurement, to concepts of beauty and desire in Renaissance Florence, to the history of coloring books. He also regularly writes for magazines and newspapers such as The Guardian, Slate, Il Sole 24 Ore, Domani, Vogue, and Vanity Fair.  

Rose Salseda is an Assistant Professor of Art and Art History, with affiliations in African and African American Studies and Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity. She specializes in the fields of African American, African Diaspora, and U.S. Latinx art, with a focus on the politics of race, identity, and representation. Her first book, Unrest: An Art History of the 1992 Los Angeles Riots, explores how artists have challenged racially polarizing media portrayals and accounts of the 1992 uprising. She is also interested in intersections of visual and performance art with popular music, especially strategies of appropriation used by Black and Brown artists to critique discrimination and inequities in society. Professor Salseda is a first-generation college student, as well as the fourth generation of her family to have been raised in South Central Los Angeles and its surrounding neighborhoods. Her family, art, and community ties in Southern California continue to inspire and motivate her work.

Questions? Email the HRI Fellowship Advisor, Jeff Schwegman: jschweg [at] stanford.edu (jschweg[at]stanford[dot]edu)