Carlson Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship

Deadline: March 23, 2026, 11:59 PM CDT

Program Description:

The Humanities Research Center awards Summer Research Fellowships to undergraduates majoring in the School of Humanities and Arts. The fellowships support up to 200 hours of independent research or creative work grounded in their humanities and/or arts coursework, conducted under faculty mentorship.

Students may lead their own project with faculty guidance or contribute to a faculty member's research project. Faculty members in the School of Humanities and Arts must serve as the primary advisor; graduate instructors may not serve as primary advisors.

Selected 2026 fellows will receive up to $3,500.

In 2026, one Keith H. Lovin Fellowship will be awarded from the same application pool.

Eligibility:

Fellowships are awarded to select undergraduate students who:

  • Are majoring in the School of Humanities and Arts (single major or double major—at least one major must be in the Humanities and Arts)
  • Have demonstrated academic achievement and significant interest in humanities and/or arts research
  • Will be enrolled at Rice in the Fall 2026 semester

Application Materials:

1. Name

2. Research project description (200 words)
Provide a clear overview of your proposed research or creative project.

3. Connection to coursework (200 words)
Explain how your project connects to courses you have taken. What relevant background or expertise have you developed through your coursework that prepares you for this project?

4. Fellowship work plan (200 words)
Describe how you plan to use your fellowship time:

  • For research-based projects: Will you conduct archival research? Conduct more research around sources and objects? Write or revise a manuscript?
  • For creative projects: Will tou conduct background research? Create artworks (visual art, perfofrmance, film, etc.?
  • Time allocation: How will you distribute your 200 hours across these activities? (Rough estimate)

5. Fellowship timeline
Provide start and end dates for your fellowship period.

6. Other funding sources
List ALL other fellowships, internships, and funding you have applied for or received for summer 2026.

7. Unofficial transcript

8. Faculty endorsement
The endorsement should be a brief statement from a faculty member indicating:

  • Their knowledge and involvement in your project
  • How this fellowship will contribute to your scholarly or professional development
  • Their willingness to advise on the project

The faculty member should upload their endorsement to the following Box folder by the application deadline: https://rice.app.box.com/f/fde1ab060c394769a7172d3886d47983.

Deadline: March 23, 2026, 11:59 PM CDT

 

CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION

 

Questions? Contact Dr. Gabriela Garcia at gabriela.garcia@rice.edu.

2025 Fellows
 
  • Noor Ayache
    • Year: Junior
    • Major: Philosophy
    • Minor: Politics, Law, and Social Thought
    • Research Project: “Death Is Not the End: A Philosophical Exploration of Life and Death Within the Druze Community"
  • Annesha Dey
    • Year: Junior
    • Major: Philosophy
    • Minor: Medical Humanities
    • Research Project: “Healthy Skepticism: Using Oral Histories to Revisit Activist Movements and the Roots of Medical Distrust"
  • Avalon Hogans
    • Year: Junior
    • Major: English & Creative Writing
    • Minor: African and African American Studies
    • Research Project: “A Call to the Motherward"
  • Neha Kohli
    • Year: Junior
    • Majors: Philosophy and Economics
    • Minors: Spanish and Politics, Law, and Social Thought
    • Research Project: “The Philosophical Impacts of Food Insecurity & Aid on Indigenous Quechuan Communities in Bolivia"
  • Kalyani Rao
    • Year: Sophomore
    • Majors: Classical Studies and History
    • Minors: Latin Language and Literature and Art History
    • Research Project: “Women Empowered? Witches in Late Republican and Early Imperial Rome"
2024 Fellows
 
  • Dasseny Arreola
    • Year: Senior
    • Majors: English and Anthropology
    • Minors: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
    • Research Project: “Familiarmorphism: the Dog in Victorian Literature”
  • Riley Combes
    • Year: Senior
    • Major: English
    • Minor: Politics, Law and Social Thought
    • Research Project: “Specters of Surveillance: Turn of the Screw and the Phenomenon of Ghosts as Panoptic Figures in Literature and Media”
  • Sara Davidson
    • Year: Senior
    • Majors: German Studies and Political Science
    • Minor: Politics, Law and Social Thought
    • Research Project: “‘Letters from Wuppertal’: How Friedrich Engels Examined the Inevitable Rise & Fall of Industry in German Towns”
  • Tessa Domsky
    • Year: Senior
    • Majors: Art and Art History
    • Studio Art Project: “Young Femininity”
  • Saba Feleke
    • Year: Senior
    • Majors: Art and Mechanical Engineering
    • Studio Art Project: “Objects Found – Space & Sound”
  • Kalyani Rao
    • Year: Sophomore
    • Majors: History and Classical Studies
    • Research Project: “Creaturely Encounters in the Atlantic World, 1625–1789”
  • Max Scholl
    • Year: Sophomore
    • Majors: English and Anthropology
    • Minor: Politics, Law and Social Thought
    • Research Project: “Fictions of the Pandemic”
  • Hannah Son
    • Year: Senior
    • Majors: English and Sociology
    • Research Project: “Negotiating Emerging Biculturalism in Korean American Literature”
  • Ashley Wang
    • Year: Senior
    • Major: English (Creative Writing Concentration)
    • Minor: Transnational Asian Studies
    • Creative Writing Project: “Diaspora & Disappearance: Reconstructing Family History Through Archival Methods”