The Brackenridge Fellowship provides an engaging, multidisciplinary, scholarly community where new perspectives form and disciplines further converge. Through my interactions within this tightly-knit scholar community, I want to stimulate complex angles in my project and its interpretations to gain insight into a larger worldview. The diverse scope of projects, especially in my cohort, allows me to explain and perceive my project from new perspectives.

Specifically, in my cohort, a few of the projects have caught my eye. The questions, issues, and solutions that arise from these multidisciplinary approaches to these projects supplement my education and understanding. For example, Dionna is writing creative short stories that capture the essence of language discrimination in a college environment; while acknowledging the larger worldview which it affects. Emily Rothermel examines the history of environmental waste and the consequent illnesses in her hometown, Reading, PA. Eric’s research studies Russian propaganda in Turkey and the political and socio-cultural consequences. Other projects in my cohort touch upon topics in healthcare, medical humanities, and astronomy.

For my project, this interaction with the social sciences and humanities is crucial towards research methodology, creative avenues towards instrumentation development, and tackling social issues in sizable chunks for public consumption. A benefit of this scholar cohort is the ability to explore different mindsets and disciplines to test out ideas, concepts, and research approaches. Another added benefit is the social interactions that a scholar community gives, something we seem to be vying for during the pandemic. Some obstacles are explaining a project in a way that these different mindsets can grasp and interact. Some projects are more quantitative or qualitative, where mine is more of a mixed-methods approach. However, communication at a scholarly level is something I hope I can work on during this fellowship.