Kelmer Roe Fellowship
Rona Kaufman, English Department Faculty and Kyomi Kishaba ’20 present research from their Kelmer Roe project at University of Washington.
The Kelmer Roe Fellowship funds a student to work with a Humanities faculty on a joint scholarly project that “bring[s] the wisdom of the Humanities disciplines to bear on enduring human questions and the contemporary problems of our time.”
- The Fellowship may cover the summer or work over a regular academic year, but in either case, the student can expect to work approximately 200-250 hours.
- The Fellowship includes a $3,500 stipend for the student, along with funds for travel and research expenses.
- Eligibility: Continuing students (i.e., not graduating seniors) who have declared a major in Humanities (English, Languages and Literatures, Philosophy, Religion), or in an interdisciplinary program.
A Kelmer Roe Fellowship is an excellent way to delve more deeply into the research of your faculty, to make a real and lasting contribution to knowledge, and to build your own CV or resume. For more information, see application materials below or talk to a professor in the Humanities!
History of the Kelmer Roe Research Fellowships
Kelmer Roe was Associate Professor of Greek and Religion at PLU from 1947-1967 and his family members Naomi and Don Nothstein and David Roe, all PLU alums, gave a generous gift to help establish the annual Kelmer Roe Fellowships for student-faculty research in the Humanities in 2003.
The Kelmer Roe fellowships illustrate a vital partnership between past and present generations of PLU students, supporting significant collaborative work between students and faculty in the Humanities.
Building Relationships, Building Scholars – PLU Prism article discusses the importance of Kelmer Roe Fellowships
The 2022-23 fellowships have been awarded. Information for 2023-24 materials will be shared in Spring ’23.
Kelmer Roe Projects
2004:
- Samuel Torvend & Matthew Tabor, “Religious Responses to Hunger and Poverty in Western Washington”
2005-6:
- Patricia Killen, Roberta Brown, & Asha Ajmani, “Early Washington in the Letters of A.M.A. Blanchet, Bishop of Walla Walla and Nesqually, 1846-1879”
- Eric Nelson & Steve Erbey, “A Troubled Look: An Investigation of the Eye and Face in Ancient Medicine and Literature
- Doug Oakman & Ronan Rooney, “Q, Literacy, and the Galilean Jesus Movement in Social Perspective”
2006-7:
- Bridget Yaden & Caroline West, “Bilingualism and Biliteracy: Linguistic Minorities and Educational Policies in Oaxaca”
- Paul Manfredi & Amanda Anuraga, “Contemporary Chinese Art in Global Perspective”
- Erin McKenna & Lindsey Webb, “Our Next of Kin: Metaphysical and Ethical Questions” PLU News Article: Next of Kin
2007-8:
- Claudia Berguson & Christy Olsen, “Norwegians and Peacebuilding: Cultural Values, Identity, and Practice”
- Pauline Kaurin & Calvin Moore, “Moral Implications of Non-Lethal Weapons in War”
- Kathi Breazeale, Troy Storfjell & Britta Helm, “Selling Wind: Sámi as Witches and Witches as Sámi in Northern European Religious Imagination”
2008-9:
- Carmina Palerm & Jackal Talorn, “Roots of Migration vs Roots of Community Branches of Survival in a Global Economy” PLU News article: Rethinking the Global Citizen
- Louis Komjathy & Jeff Rud, “Asian Religions in the Pacific Northwest”
2009-10:
- Brenda Llewellyn Ihssen, Kevin O’Brien, & Anna Duke, “Natural Disasters as Moral Lessons: Contemporary Social Ethics and the Church Fathers”
2010-11:
- Erin McKenna, Danielle Palmer, & Jonathan Stout “Philosophy and Farming” [Also funded by Wiancko Environmental Studies Endowment]
2011-12:
- Paul Manfredi & Leif Nordquist, “Chai-Na” (“Tear it Down”): Documenting the End of the Blackbridge Art Village” PLU News article: Tear it Down
- Tony Finitsis & Jessica Reiter, “A Critical Apparatus for a Modern Greek Edition of the Book of Job”
- Marit Trelstad & Kristen Lee, “The Role of Lutheran Theology and Lutheran Church in the Namibian Independence Movement”
- Rebecca Wilkin & Sonja Ruud, “Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Reader of Gabrielle Suchon?” PLU Prism article mentioning Wilkin and Ruud’s collaborative research
2012-13:
- Art Strum & Jessica A. Lewis, “Religious Practice, Reading Habits, and Humanistic Learning”
- Lisa Marcus & Nina Hartsel, “Fictions of Jewishness in American Literature”
- Rona Kaufman & Paula McFadden, “Language Acquisition in the United States”
2013-14:
- Chuck Bergman & Nevis Granum, “Laundering Birds: Exposing the Relations between Legal and Illegal Wildlife Trafficking in Parrots” PLU News Article: Free as a Bird – At Last
- Seth Dowland & Clayton Brachts, “Sports, Christianity, and Manliness”
- Pauline Kaurin & Peter Joyce, “Moral Considerations in Jus in Bello” PLU Celebrates Student-Faculty Research: news article overviews 2013-2014 Kelmer Roe projects
2014-15:
- Erin MckKenna & Kelli Blechschmidt, “Living with Livestock: Food, Fiber, and Friends”
- Brenda Llewellyn Ihssen, Kevin O’Brien, and Jacob Brock, “Ethics, Now and Then: Patristic Sources and Contemporary Christian Ethics”
- Elisabeth Ward & Ericka Michal, “Material Identity: A Study of The Scandinavian Cultural Collection and Scandinavian Immigrants of the Puget Sound Area”
2015-16:
- Suzanne Crawford O’Brien, Troy Storfjell, & Kelly Hall, “Language Revitalization and Critical Indigenous Pedagogy”
PLU News article: Kelly Hall – Indigenous Studies Major - Adela Ramos & Clay Snell, “The Lives of Animals: Humans, Pets, and Literary Form in Eighteenth-Century ‘It-Narratives’”
- Leihua Weng & Danielle Villanueva, “Dynamics of Cultural Politics in the Feminist Campaigns in Contemporary China”
- Wendy Call & Hilary Vo, “Sense of Place on the Page: Research for a New Creative Writing Guide”
2016-17:
- Nancy Simpson-Younger & Julianna Schaus, “Quotations in the Wimsey-Vane Novels of Dorothy L. Sayers”
- Michael Zbaraschuk & Haley Gredvig, “The Final Papers of William Hamilton”
2017-18:
- Art Strum & Matthew Salzano, “Social Justice, Deliberative Democracy, and the University.”
- Carmiña Palerm & Riley Dolan, “Memory Sites: Mapping the Remembrance of the Indigenous Genocide in Guatemala.” PLU Prism article: The Importance of Global Research
- Bridgette O’Brien & Collin Ray, “Gender, Dark Green Religion, and Civic Activism: Exploring Ultra-Endurance Runners’ Role in the Development of a Planetary Citizenry.” PLU Prism article: The Trail to Social Justice
2018-19:
- Rona Kaufman & Kiyomi Kishaba, “Homeland in the Jungle? Jewish Refugees in Uruguay in the Twentieth Century”
- Erik Hammerstrom & Peter Bomann, “Pedagogical Uses of Role-Playing and Simulation Games in College-Level Religion Courses”
- Christian Gerzso & Elizabeth Postovoit, “Tweeting Authoritarianism: An Analysis of U.S. Political Discourse, 2015-2018”
2019-20:
- Wendy Call & Mathilda Magga, “Sense of Place on the Page: A Writing Guide”
- Erik Hammerstrom & Janelle Brockman, “Dissemination of Buddhist Imagery to the West via East Asian Popular Culture”
2020-21:
- Jen Smith & Emery Kim, “Post-Human, Post-Pandemic: Unlocking the Liberatory Potential of a Trans Heuristic in the Time of COVID-19“
- Ayana Freeman & Giovanna Urdangarain, “We Were Here First: Traditional Ecological Knowledge of Indigenous Peoples and Spanish Colonialism in Trinidad and Tobago”
2021-22:
- Brenda Llewellyn Ihssen & Marit Gjelde-Bennett, “Embracing Puerperal Purgatory: Margery Kemp, Religious Identity and Reproductive Health”
- Michael Schleeter & Keegan Dolan, “A Classical Liberal Critique of Economic Inequality”