2016-2017 Fellows
Michael Antosiewicz is a student in the School of Arts and Sciences Honors Program majoring in history and classics with focuses in both Greek and Latin. Michael is involved with a number of groups and organizations on campus. He is a proud member of the WRSU Rutgers Radio Sports Department, for which he calls the play-by-play for and produces Rutgers athletic events. He also is the Secretary for the Rutgers Undergraduate Philosophy Club, an Aresty Peer Instructor, and tutors at the Plangere Writing Center. At Rutgers, Michael has had wonderful opportunities to conduct research. He has worked with Professor T. Jackson Lears in locating primary-source documents for a book project concerning vitalism at the turn of the 19th century. He is also fortunate to serve as a research assistant to Professor T. Corey Brennan in the classics department for the Archivio Digitale Boncompagni Ludovisi project. Michael's intellectual interests have evolved at Rutgers and continue to do so. Michael increasingly gravitates towards cultural and intellectual history from the early-modern period through the nineteenth century. Although firmly an Americanist at heart, he is very interested in the nineteenth century's innovations and legacies on the Enlightenment and Classical traditions, as well as the historical memory of the time-period. He hopes above all to integrate his Classical interests with his historical ones in order to enrich his academic investigations.
Judah Axelrod is a student in the School of Arts and Sciences Honors Program majoring in Economics, with minors in Mathematics and Spanish. During his sophomore year he was a recipient of the SAS Academic Excellence award as well as an Aresty Research Assistant, receiving honorable mention for his project studying Social Impact Bonds with Dr. Steve Barnett. Judah is currently a research assistant at the National Institute for Early Education Research, focusing on the financing and economic benefits of early childhood interventions. His involvement on campus includes playing tenor saxophone in Rutgers Mason Gross jazz ensembles and serving as the Keller Athletics chair for the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. He hopes to someday pursue a Ph.D. in Economics and help contribute to policies that can effect positive social and economic change. Judah is a die-hard Boston sports fan and an avid reader and runner.
Talyah Basit is a School of Arts and Sciences student double majoring in English Literature and Political Science and minoring in Philosophy. She is a proud member of Douglass Residential College and the Honors Program, was the recipient of the SAS Academic Excellence Award, and has been on the Dean’s List for each semester in college. As an Aresty Research Assistant for Dr. Abena Busia in her sophomore year, she gained first-hand experience editing a manuscript on the intersections of poetry, academia, and the politics of exile. Previously she assisted the Expressive Arts, 4-H department in combining community engagement with the visual arts. She is currently interning at the Eagleton Institute of Politics and enjoying the gorgeous historical setting while working on an alumni outreach project. This year, besides participating in various artistic, cultural, and political organizations on campus, she will serve as the Expedition Head for the Artists’ Collective. She enjoys running, critically analyzing films, and reading feminist and postcolonial theory. She plans to continue studying literature in graduate school.
Shannon Gilbert is a student in the SAS Honors Program, majoring in Health Administration and Classics and minoring in Economics. She is a research assistant on the PRACCIS project, which aims to promote better reasoning skills among middle school science students, in the Graduate School of Education. She just returned from an archaeological dig in Italy where she helped to unearth villas from the Roman Republic and Empire. She already misses the gelato. She’s also had the pleasure of traveling to the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico through the SAS Honors Program. Her passion for other cultures, has also brought her to Ireland, France, and Anguilla. Through the SAS Honors Program, she is a Senior Honors Ambassador, member of the Student Advisory Board, and Peer Mentor. This Fall, you can find her teaching the “Exploring History” FIGS and sitting next to her grandmother in “Food and Drink in the Ancient World.” She is a recipient of the Rutgers Academic Excellence Award and the Ethel S. Cook Travel Grant. Previously, she served as a Treasurer and then President for Brett Hall through the Rutgers Residence Hall Association. She enjoys keeping Latin alive, traveling, and thinking of a third thing while listing stuff.
Pamela Hernandez is a student in the School of Arts and Sciences and Douglass Residential College majoring in Political Science and double minoring in International and Global Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies. She is also a scholar at the Institute for Women’s Leadership. On campus, her involvement includes serving as the treasurer of the Latin American Student Organization, the fundraising chair for Douglass Friends of UNFPA, and the parliamentarian for the Douglass Latina Network. In the spring, she will be interning at the Center for American Women and Politics. Pamela is extremely interested in learning different languages and human rights. She plans on pursuing a master’s degree in International Affairs. In her free time, she enjoys reading poetry and going for runs.
Melanie Hung is a student of the School of Arts and Sciences, double majoring in Political Science and Women and Gender Studies, and minoring in Digital Communications, Information, and Media. She is a member of the Honors Program, a recipient of the SAS Academic Excellence Award, and a member of the Dean’s List for each semester of college. Melanie is an Advocacy and Research intern at OutRight Action International, a LGBTIQ human rights non-governmental organization. She spent last spring semester at the National Taiwan University in Taiwan, studying international disability rights and international law. Previously on campus, Melanie volunteered at the Center for American Women and Politics in the Eagleton Institute of Politics, assisting in planning the NEW Leadership public policy summer program, and tutored expository writing at the Livingston Writing Center. On the weekends, Melanie enjoys going salsa dancing, baking cookies, and playing the yangqin, a Chinese folk instrument.
Arielle Kafker is in the school of Arts and Sciences Honors Program majoring in Political Science and double minoring in Arabic and French. She spent the summer living in Jerusalem, Israel learning about the political situation and interning at the Center for Near East Policy Research. She has also interned at the Middlesex County Democratic Organization and Compassion and Choices, advocating for aid in dying for the terminally ill in New Jersey. At Rutgers, Arielle serves as a Resident Assistant, Member-at-Large and Founding Mother of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Pi Colony, and a marketing intern for Rutgers Hillel birthright. She is also active in Rutgers Democrats and Rutgers Hillel. Arielle loves traveling, writing, and breaking social etiquette by discussing politics.
Jack Landry is School of Arts and Sciences double major in economics and political science with a minor in statistics. This summer he is an intern with the Institute of Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University, where he works on differential privacy under the direction of Dr. Kobbi Nissim. Last academic year, he was a research assistant for Professor Geoffrey Wallace investigating the determinants of violence against journalists. He also worked as an Aresty Research Assistant for Professor Andrew Murphy, providing research assistance for his forthcoming biography of William Penn. On campus he serves as editor in chief of The Jackass, the Rutgers Democrats magazine.
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Daniel Levin is a School of Arts and Sciences Honors student majoring in Political Science, Women's and Gender Studies, and Comparative Literature. He is a recipient of the Academic Excellence Award, and serves as the Senior Editor for The Anthologist Literary Magazine and Proteus: The Rutgers Comparative Literature Journal. In the past, he has worked with Casa Freehold, an immigrant rights organization intent on integrating newly immigrant persons into their communities and advocating for their health, work, and educational safety. Extending his compassion for human rights and dignity, he has also spent time visiting New Jersey detention centers in order to assist individuals with finding pro-bono legal representation. His academic interests aim to close the gap between theory and practice, philosophy and historicism, and the like. Such interests inspire research, which includes: fostering solidarity through a philosophy of praxis; the illiberal pursuits of democracy against the will of Central Asian republics and the people of the Caucasus in the Soviet era; and using Hegelian Philosophy and German Critical Theory as a framework for understanding contemporary phenomena.
Eli Liebell-McLean is a Rutgers Presidential Scholar in the School of Arts and Sciences Honors Program, majoring in English with a minor in Political Science. In the summer after freshman year, Eli studied abroad in England and subsequently interned as a research assistant in the New Jersey Senate Majority Office, where he compiled information on policing reform, public pensions, and NJ Transit for policy advisors. He worked during sophomore year as Aresty research assistant to Dr. Ben Sifuentes-Jauregui, studying the narrative structure and themes of Latin American and Hollywood melodrama, particularly the tension between traditional, conservative social forms and modern progressivism and supposed moral decay. Eli believes strongly in the political power of language: the words used to define actors and their actions contribute enormously to political attitudes and arguments (e.g. ‘terrorist,’ ‘assassination,’ ‘humanitarian’). He has served two terms as the Head Delegate for the Rutgers Model U.N. team from 2015-17 and will act as Director of Staff at Rutgers’ first collegiate conference in April 2017. Other interests include American national security policy, obscure graphic novels, and arguments of any and all kinds.
Sarah Lin is a Rutgers Presidential Scholar in the School of Arts and Sciences Honors Program majoring in Planning and Public Policy, and minoring in Education, International/Global Studies, and Psychology. This past summer she interned at the U.S. Department of Education, and the summer before that she worked as a research assistant through the Aresty Summer Science Program. This year she is teaching an accredited course on community service and public policy to first-year students as a FIGS Peer Instructor, serving as Regional Vice President for the Northeast on the International Justice Mission's National Student Leadership Team, and continuing to lead campus tours as a Scarlet Ambassador. Her other extracurricular involvement includes interning with the Town Clock Community Development Corporation; providing academic advising as a former peer-mentor-in-residence in the Honors College; and serving as a student leader in the Rutgers International Justice Mission chapter, RUnited campus ministry, and Institute for Domestic and International Affairs' Philadelphia Model UN Staff. Additionally, she has been previously recognized as a 2016 Harvard Public Policy Leadership Conference Fellow, 2016 Clinton Global Initiative University Invitee, scholar in the Rutgers Advancing Community Development program, and recipient of the SAS Academic Excellence Award. In her spare time, she enjoys singing, horseback riding, and spending time with family and friends.
Damilola Onifade is in the School of Arts and Sciences majoring in Political Science and minoring in Economics. I am a proud member of Douglass Residential College. I am a Peer Academic Leader in DRC housing and served as a Barbara Voorhees Mentor. I am also a member of The Scarlet Council. I have served as a legislative intern to Congressman Bill Pascrell and as a legal intern for the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission. I have been a member of RU Voting since my sophomore year and serve as the one of the student coordinators. Through RU Voting and various political science classes I am constantly reminded and encouraged of the role millennials have in ushering a new and productive change in our society and I am eager to be a part of that change
Lahari Sangitha is a student in the business school and the School of Arts and Sciences Honors Program majoring in supply chain management and minoring in political science. A recipient of the Rutgers Honors scholarship, she spent the past year as a research assistant for the Aresty Center under the guidance of Professor Andrew Murphy, researching the life and legacy of William Penn. She currently works part time at IQ Research as a Court Records Researcher where she researches criminal and civil records at the New Brunswick Superior Court for companies looking to hire new employees. She spent the summer as a Marketing Communications intern at GENEWIZ, a global genomics company that aims to advance life science and technologies.
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Yaffa Stone is a junior majoring in political science and economics and minoring in history. She is currently enrolled in the School of Arts and Sciences Honors Program and has received the SAS Academic Excellence Award, as well as a spot on the Dean's List each semester. Yaffa has worked with Professor Beth Leech in studying Political Action Committees and advocacy trends. Some of her work has even been used updating an Advanced Placement United States Government textbook. She hopes to continue her academic study and attend law school after graduation next spring. In her spare time, Yaffa proudly works as the President of Kol Halayla, the Premier Jewish A Cappella group at Rutgers University. When she is not on campus, Yaffa enjoys attending chamber music concerts, going on hikes, and traveling.
Shivram Viswanathan is a member of the School of Arts and Sciences Honors Program and is studying Economics and Mathematics. He is a recipient of the SAS Academic Excellence Award and is an active member of the Rutgers University Federal Reserve Challenge team. As a member of the Google Community Leaders Program, he sought to bridge the digital divide by using technology to address challenges and issues in the New Brunswick community. Shivram was on the team that planned and executed the 2016 Mark Conference -- an innovative leadership experience based on the tenet that we all have the opportunity to make our mark on the communities that we partake in. Shivram has a deep interest in economic policy, particularly its intersection with social justice. Among these things, he is also a passionate musician, a bona fide bibliophile, and basketballer from birth.
Elise Zhou is a student in the School of Arts and Sciences Honors Program who has received the SAS Academic Excellence Award while double majoring in Political Science and Philosophy and minoring in History. She was an Aresty Research Assistant to Dr. Mark Wasserman and studied the relationship between Jersey City political boss Frank Hague and New Jersey’s first Congresswoman, Mary T. Norton. Through this project, she won best poster in humanities at the 2016 Aresty Research Symposium. That summer, she studied abroad at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan and discovered a new interest in language and culture exchange in international relations. On the weekends, Elise can be found in the fast-paced atmosphere of the Rutgers University Debate Union, where she served as Public Relations Chair and Novice Mentor, or watching reruns of Parks and Recreation.
