Six Students Awarded Kellogg Fellowships

Middlebury College has awarded Kellogg Fellowships to six students in support of senior research projects focused on the humanities. Fellows receive $5,000 for travel and research expenses over the summer and coming year.

“The Kellogg fellowship is a vital source of support for Middlebury’s commitment to independent student research,” said Lisa Gates, associate dean for fellowships and research. “It’s always energizing and impressive to see such exciting and diverse topics that our students propose for their capstone work.”

Following is a list of this year’s fellows with descriptions of their projects:

Charlotte Roberts ’26, who is majoring in both gender, sexuality, and feminist studies and English, will work on a project titled “To Be At Risk: Telling the Colrain Story and Learning from a History of Resistance” focused on a wartime tax resistance action that occurred in Colrain, Massachusetts near where she grew up. The case received national attention after the IRS seized the home of a local couple, spurring an occupation of the property by peace activists for 18 months. Roberts plans to continue writing a book about the case started in 2016 by her grandparents. “Taking up the draft of ‘To Be at Risk’ from my grandparents to tell the story of the Colrain action is the perfect capstone experience to my undergraduate career,” writes Roberts. “It sits at the intersection of theory, creative writing, and social justice—topics in which I have been invested throughout my time at Middlebury.” She will be working on the project with advisor Spring Ulmer, visiting assistant professor of English. 

Hannah Elefante ’26, who is majoring in history and Italian, will conduct research for a project titled “I Partigiani a Firenze: The Florentine Resistance in World War II.” The project will focus on how the resistance movement in Florence used propaganda, underground publications, and radio broadcasts to spread ideas, recruit new members, and challenge the Fascist regime. She is interested in two primary questions: how partisans in Florence engaged with local and national media to communicate their message during World War II; and to what extent the Florentine partisans’ relationship with the media changed between 1943 and 1945 during the German Occupation of Florence. “Engaging with these questions will direct me towards fascinating and intriguing primary sources that will reflect the changing relationship between the partisans and the media during World War II,” said Elefante, who will work with advisor Rebecca Bennette, professor of history.

Greta Costello ’25, a history of art and museum studies major with a minor in French, will explore the moral imagery of the Dutch manuscript “The Hours of Catherine of Cleves” in conjunction with the “Egmont Breviary”—a prayer book created around the same time (1440) for Catherine of Cleves’s husband. She plans to use a comparative visual approach of the two illuminated manuscripts to gauge societal expectations of ‘pious’ women of the time. “I am looking forward to using the financial support of the Kellogg Fellowship as a way to access collections of medieval manuscript illuminations in Europe and the United States, and hopefully see one of the two manuscripts at the Morgan Library in New York,” she said. Costello will be working with advisor Eliza Garrison, professor of history of art and architecture.

Sajia Yaqouby ’25.5, a history of art major with a minor in gender, sexuality, and feminist studies, will work on a project titled “Visualizing Poetry: A Comparative Study of 19th-Century Kashmiri Manuscripts of Hafiz’s Divan.” She plans to conduct a comparative analysis of three Kashmiri copies of the Divan written by Hafiz—a 14th-century Persian poet—housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Walters Art Museum, and the Smithsonian Institution. “Through analyzing several similar manuscripts, I hope to gain insights into the aesthetics, advancements, and cultural exchanges that characterized 19th-century Kashmir,” writes Yaqouby. “My project will engage with broader questions of cultural transmission and adaptation.” Yaqouby will work with advisor Cynthia Packert, Christian A. Johnson Professor of History of Art.

Elliote Muir, ’26, an environmental studies major with a minor in Spanish, will use the award to continue working on a project titled “Carrying the Flag: Tracing the Modernization of the Explorers Club Through Adventures of Past and Present.” Her plan includes writing a book proposal on the evolution of the Explorers Club—an adventurer’s society dedicated to field research, scientific exploration, and resource conservation—by highlighting the work and life of a present-day explorer who embodies the club’s current values, while also tracing the club’s evolution over the past 120 years. “I am eager to talk to club officials and members to understand how this change has come around and where they hope it will go, and to incorporate these insights into my work,” said Muir, who will work with advisor Daniel Brayton, Julian W. Abernethy Professor of Literature.

Madeleine Kaptein ’25.5, who is majoring in comparative literature with a minor in history of art, is working on a project titled “Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) and F.W Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922): Horror and Historical Anxieties in Innovative Art.” She will travel to England and Germany to conduct research based on historical archives, observational study of physical settings, and by visiting museums to better understand both works through historical, literary and visual analysis. “My project aims to dissect the core similarities and differences between the Vampire-centered Dracula text and the Nosferatu silent film; in particular I hope to identify details that embed them within the historical periods and locations in which they were created,” writes Kaptein, who will work with advisor Roman Graf, professor of German and comparative literature. 

The Kellogg Fellowship is administered by Middlebury College through its Undergraduate Research office. A selection committee composed of the associate dean for fellowships and research and faculty members drawn from different disciplines reviews student applications and selects fellows each spring. For more information, visit the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Research.