Awardees

Jen Shaneberger is conducting research for her PhD in International Relations/Comparative Politics with the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. This award will support her research on how political rhetoric impacts migrants’ ability to find and maintain employment in association with Linköping University. She plans to defend her dissertation in November 2024 and submit a chapter for publication in the Journal of International Migration and Integration. Her ultimate career goal is to become a Foreign Service Officer.

Cassandra Alvariño will use this award to support her research on Sweden’s bid to join NATO in association with the Department of Political Science at the University of Gothenburg as part of her dual Master’s degree in European Studies and Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She plans to pursue a career in diplomacy as a Foreign Service Officer.

Although his Fulbright research is focused on Capturing Neuroscience on the Nanoscale, Max will use the Sweden Project Support Award to support an exchange between artists at the Royal Institute of Art and scientists at SciLifeLab that will result in an exhibition “Scientific Research through an Artist’s Lens”. After completing his Fulbright research, he plans to pursue a PhD in Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics, focused on the interactions between atoms and light and the practical application to new technology. He is particularly interested in studying Bose-Einstein Condensate, a state of matter where atoms behave more like waves than particles. He hopes one day to run his own experimental physics lab.

Michael Monzon is currently working on his PhD in Entomology at Rutgers. His Fulbright research is focused on the application of Insect Science to Archaeology. The Sweden Project Support Award will support expanding the scope of his original Fulbright project beyond archaeological entomology to incorporate lithic analysis of stone tools produced in northern Sweden, an underserved area of Swedish archaeology. He plans for his research to be published as an article in the peer-reviewed Journal of Open Archaeology Data.

Radhika will use the Roth-Thomson Award for conducting research on maternal health among immigrant populations in Sweden. Her goal is to apply the research that she does in Sweden and intervention strategies that have been effective there to help women in the United States. Upon her return to the United States, she plans to enroll in a Master of Public Health and Juris Doctor joint degree program. After graduate school, she hopes to research and advocate for federal policies that will help immigrant women access quality, culturally competent perinatal care.

Hannah Ritchey is conducting research on Muslim immigration and integration in Sweden. She will use the Roth-Thomson Award for translation and interpretation services and travel to conduct interviews. She plans to pursue a career advising non-governmental organizations on how to care for migrants and assist their acclimation to their new community, while celebrating their history and culture.

Ben Orozco (University of Wisconsin, Madison), an artist specializing in neon and glasswork,is studying under Tommy Gustafsschiöld, Sweden’s only neon craftsman at The Glass Factory in Boda Glasbruk. Ben will use the Roth-Thomson Award to acquire the supplies, materials and tools needed for a solo exhibition that will highlight American neon and Swedish glass techniques and traditions. Upon returning to the U.S., Ben plans to teach neon and glasswork in New York City as a way to share his experiences in Sweden and continue exchanging ideas with other artists.

MaryClaire (Indiana University, Bloomington) is writing a dissertation on the Swedish avant garde movement. She will use the Roth-Thomson Award to extend her research to include the contributions of female artists that have been largely overlooked. Upon returning to the U.S., MaryClaire plans to expand her dissertation into a book to highlight the contributions of Scandinavian artists to European modern art.

Elise Kolle, of the New England Conservatory of Music, is conducting research on the historical harps housed at the Nydahl Collection in Stockholm. Elise is investigating the history of two nineteenth-century harps while learning about museum work from the Collection’s curators. Funds from the Roth Foundation will allow Elise to perform a series of lectures and recitals in which she will perform harp music and speak about Swedish instrument makers of the 19th century. Elise hopes that her work at the Nydahl Collection will enrich her experience as a scholar of music and help her further develop her career in musicology and museum work upon her return to the U.S.

Caitlin Vitale-Sullivan, of Idaho State University, is studying kulning, a type of traditional Swedish folk music used to call cattle and communicate over long distances. She is interested specifically in the interaction between landscape and sound, and the resulting potential to combine landscape sounds with vocal and instrumental music to create an ensemble. Funds from the Roth Foundation will support Caitlin’s enrollment in supplemental workshops that will deepen her experience of Swedish folk music and dance. Upon her return to the U.S., Caitlin hopes to pursue a doctorate in landscape architecture and agroecology, using her knowledge of nature’s interaction with music to promote the importance of green spaces in communities.

Elizabeth Doe Stone, of the University of Virginia, explored fin-de-siècle artistic and social connections between the US artist John Singer Sargent and Swedish painter Anders Zorn. Her award allowed her to expand her archival research in Sweden and Denmark.

Svea Larsen, of Pacific University, conducted research that explores how the return of Swedish immigrants in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries influenced Swedish rural society. Her awarded funded and exhibition on the movement of immigrants between Sweden and the U.S.

Kathleen Ernst, of the University of Tennessee, undertook research into the strengthening of climate services and social planning in Sweden. Through several case studies, she explored options for bridging the growing gap between the scientific community’s knowledge about climate change and the practical use of that information to plan for and adapt to the changing climate. Funds from the Roth Foundation allowed Ernst to attend the European Climate Adaptation Conference to learn from the European Union’s approaches to environmental issues.

Kirsten Santos Rutschman, of Duke University, conducted research on the concept of “folk” in 19th century Swedish music. During this century, Sweden’s boundaries changed dramatically, leading to a crisis of national identity. Rutschman’s research links this questioning of what it meant to be Swedish with the incorporation of folk melodies into various forms of music, including solo, choral and orchestral works. Traveling to Sweden offered the special opportunity to access to musical manuscripts of compositions that use folk song to trace the development of the use of folk melodies over time.

Tess Kurtasz, of the Pennsylvania State University, used her Fulbright Fellowship to situate the collections of Queen Christina of Sweden within the broader antiquarian markets of 17th-century Europe. By broadening our knowledge of this subject, Tess sought to illuminate the significance of art collecting as a sign of power and social status as well as explore the extent to which Queen Christina used it to fashion her own public image as a ruler, a sponsor of learning and an early modern woman. Additionally, Tess hoped that her research would clarify and challenge existing representations of Queen Christina’s legacy, both in scholarship and popular culture, which present her actions and lifestyle in an unflattering manner.

A photographer interested in the intersections of art and science, Clare Benson (Central Michigan University) worked with Sámi filmmaker Hans-Olof Utsi and the Swedish Institute of Space Physics—both in Kiruna, Sweden—in exploring the intersection of current astronomical investigations and ancient traditions and mythologies of indigenous Sámi culture. With her award she developed an inclusive event organized around the human relationship to the sky, sun, and universe, and returned to Sweden the following year with support from the American Scandinavian Foundation to carry out this project.

Aronson went to Sweden to create a social documentary film about Syrian refugees. By the time she applied for our support in fall 2014, Sweden had become the largest host country of Syrian and Syrian-Palestinian refugees outside of the Middle East and the only country to promise permanent residency to all Syrians seeking asylum. A 2007 graduate from Barnard, Lois Roth’s alma mater, Aronson’s Dreamland Sverige explores the subjective experience of migrating to Sweden, by exploring how the preconceptions of asylum seekers compare to their actual experiences as refugees. Her award helped her fund travel to different refugee communities within Sweden.

Political scientist Jeffrey Ziegler (University of Wisconsin-Madison), in Sweden to study electoral and party finance reform, was based at Umea University; he used his award to travel to Stockholm to interview civil servants, collect documents and attend conferences.

Evelyn Ansel spent her Fulbright year at the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, where she brought her unique skills in museum studies, art conservation and boatbuilding to their collection of 17th-century shipbuilding tools. Her Roth Foundation award allowed her to travel to, photograph and blog about shipyards, mills and metal shops elsewhere in Europe.