Call for Applications: Beth and Arthur Lev Student Research Fellowship Summer 2021

The USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research invites research proposals from USC undergraduate students and USC graduate students for the 2021 Beth and Arthur Lev Student Research Fellowship.

The fellowship provides $1,000 support for USC undergraduate students or $3,000 support for USC graduate students doing research focused on the testimonies of the USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive and/or other related USC resources and collections for one month during the summer of 2021. The fellowship is open to USC undergraduate students and graduate students of all disciplines.

The USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive is a collection of over 55,000 audiovisual testimonies of survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides, including the Rwandan, Armenian, Guatemalan, Cambodian genocides, the Nanjing Massacre in China, and anti-Rohingya mass violence. The majority of testimonies are life history interviews in which interviewees discuss their lives before, during, and after genocide and mass violence. With interviews conducted in 65 countries and in 43 languages, testimonies capture both the individual experience of mass violence and the social and cultural history of the 20th century on a global scale. Learn more about the Visual History Archive and its collections here.

The Beth and Arthur Lev Student Research Fellow will be expected to spend a month in residence at the USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research during the summer of 2021, to play a role in the activities of the Center, and to give a public presentation based on their work and findings during the following academic year (2021-2022). The determination of whether the residency will be in-person or virtual depends on the ongoing impact of COVID-19.

Award decisions for the fellowship will be based on the originality of the research proposal and the centrality of USC resources to the research project. USC is the home of internationally unique and growing research resources, which include not only the USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, but also a Holocaust and genocide studies collection at Doheny Memorial Library with over 30,000 primary and secondary sources, including the Nuremberg Trials papers and a class action lawsuit against New York Life regarding the Armenian genocide; and a Special Collection containing private papers of German and Austrian Jewish emigrants from the Third Reich.

Applications are due by April 11, 2021. 

To submit an application:

Visit the Fellowships page of the Center’s website: https://sfi.usc.edu/cagr/fellowships

Click "Read More" on the Beth and Arthur Lev Student Research Fellowship.

Click "Apply."

Upload the following materials:

• cover letter (including proposed dates of residency)
• current CV
• research proposal (1-3 pages), which should include a project outline and description of methodology
• recommendation letter from a faculty advisor (Your advisor may also submit the recommendation letter directly to cagr@usc.edu.)

For questions, please contact cagr@usc.edu.

For more information about the Center, please visit: cagr.usc.edu.

Download the Call for Applications here.