Current Fellows

Selima is a junior majoring in Classical Studies (Classical languages and Literature) and Linguistics.  Her research focuses on Ciscaucasian representations in Greco-Roman antiquity (in contrast with the historical, lived realities). She plans to spend the summer advancing her Russian ability and translating relevant excerpts by authors like Strabo and Plutarch.  In addition to MMUF, Selima serves as the Editor-in Chief of Discentes, Penn’s classical studies publication, and the Co-President of the Penn Shotokan Karate Club.

Jack is a junior majoring in History.  His research focuses on the history of Islam in South Asia, particularly Mughal architecture in predominantly Hindu cities.  He asks why certain contested religious sites become prominent flashpoints while others remain obscure, with particular attention to the cultural and religious ideas surrounding each site and to the way the historical archive has been shaped over time.  His current project centers on mosque architecture in Varanasi, India.  In addition to MMUF, Jack is a research assistant at the Penn Cultural Heritage Center and enjoys providing tours at the Arthur Ross Gallery.

Jacob is a sophomore majoring English and East Asian Languages and Civilization.  His research is centered on diasporic identity, transnormativity, institutional legibility and queer subject formation across Anglophone and Sinophone literature.  Jacob is particularly interested in comparing the way different structures of power keep the records of legally unstable and/or racialized queer adolescents and the way those subjects negotiate their own positions within those structures through self-authorship.  In addition to MMUF, Jacob also performs with the Excelano project, Penn’s premier spoken word poetry collective.

Jaimee is a senior majoring in Africana Studies and History with a concentration in African American Studies. For their thesis, Jaimee is researching the historical-geographic applications of Black spiritual traditions in Philadelphia during the late 19th and 20th centuries. Following the intellectual traditions of abolitionist geographers Celeste Winston and J.T. Roane, as well as ethnographer Savannah Shange, Jaimee is interested in how contemporary radical organizations can draw upon these historically Black spiritual practices in their community work. Through their research, Jaimee wants to understand how Black Philadelphia’s communities have historically exercised existential aliveness and embodied spiritual liberation for the most marginalized groups. They see their thesis project as a bridge connecting historical Black freedom struggles to Philadelphia’s current grassroots organizing projects. Outside of Mellon, Jaimee is a research assistant for the Africana Studies Department and a Robeson Cooper Scholar. At Penn, they are the Music Co-Director of The Inspiration A Cappella and Student Recruitment Chair of Ase Academy. Jaimee is also on the Africana Undergraduate Advisory Board and a W.E.B. Du Bois Movement School for Abolition and Reconstruction alum.

Sierra is a senior double majoring in Cultural & Linguistic Anthropology and Linguistics, with minors in East Asian Languages and Civilizations (Japanese concentration) and Cognitive Science. Her research explores hybrid identities, diaspora, race, ethnicity, and creolization, with particular interest in the Japanese and Caribbean diasporas (especially Guyana), as well as Indigenous representation and museum ethics through the Penn Museum’s Ainu collection. At Penn, she is a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow, a Penn Museum Exhibition Intern, a Research Assistant at the Trueswell Language Learning Lab, and the Assistant to the Curator of Civic Engagement: Cultural Heritage Projects Assistant at the Kislak Center. She previously served as a SHIP Summer Intern at the Penn Cultural Heritage Center. Sierra plans to pursue graduate study in anthropology and museum curation while working to expand ethical and community-centered practices in heritage institutions.