University of Washington

Chelsea Cooper is a junior majoring in History and Anthropology with a minor in Near Eastern studies. She is currently interning with the Arab Center of Washington. In her own words, she describes the internship and how it relates to her academic work: The project I am working on is a research paper on Palestinian wom- en's rights. It is a comparative paper that incorporates my own personal background as an African-American and compares the conflict Palestinians face today with African-American struggles for rights in the United States during the 20th century. I hope to shed light on the human rights violations committed in daily life encompass- ing education, healthcare, politics, socio-economic rights, and the imprisonment of Palestinian women living in the Occupied Territories, Israel, and in the Diaspora. By drawing connections with the struggles of African-Americans in the United States, and how those struggles were addressed, we can learn lessons that might help end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and promote Palestinian rights. Being a history major has prepared me to write a quality research paper. Taking courses on Israeli, Middle Eastern, and African- American history have all helped to give me background knowledge and resources to frame my research questions and guide my study. The History Fellows Program has provided valuable insight into what makes an applicant stand out whether applying for gradu - ate school or entering the workforce. It gives Fellows training and connections to great resources within the Career Center and the greater Seattle Community that are necessary to be successful in post-graduation life. It encourages us to pursue our passions." Debra Pointer is a senior, graduat- ing this year with her BA in history. She is currently interning at Planned Parenthood of the Greater Northwest in Seattle. More from Debra on her internship project and the History Fellows program: I am working on collecting stories for Planned Parenthood's centennial celebration in 2016 by sifting through their archives for hidden gems. In addition, I will have the chance to gain some experience at grant writing. My internship research has required me to utilize the skill of recognizing broad themes and assessing how they have changed over time. It also has required me to identify how those themes are still relevant today. Another skill that I developed as a history major and have applied in my internship is the ability to efficiently skim through vast amounts of reading material in a very limited time. I think there is a lot of misinformation out there that if you have a History degree you are only prepared to teach, be a lawyer, or serve fries. The History Fellows program not only helps undergrads to recognize their unique individual skills, but those that they have developed through their pursuit of a History degree. After the internship I would like to explore working in a non-profit organiza - tion. Given the great and various needs in our world today, I want to help make a positive change through the practical application of my education." Next year the Department will expand the History Fellows pro- gram to prepare more students for a variety of career options after graduation. The combination of a rigorous undergraduate cur- riculum and concerted efforts on behalf of faculty and staff to help history majors think about pre-professionalization before gradua- tion is turning out to be a great success. Undergraduate Profiles – History Fellows Program This year, the Department of History embarked on a new pilot program to help majors identify the marketable, real-world skills that come with studying history and put those skills to use in internships. Called "History Fellows", the program has been very successful, and we are profiling two current Fellows who held internships in Spring 2014. " " East Berlin immediately after WWII. She will give a paper "Living 'in between': Wolfgang Leonhard's Coming of Age in the Soviet Union, 1935-1945," at the GSA's 38th Annual Conference in Kansas City, Missouri in September. She also received the Aldon Duane Bell Award in Women's History for Autumn Quarter 2014 and will be a Hanauer Fellow in 2014-15. Catherine Warner published an article, "Flighty Subjects: Sovereignty, Shifting Cultivators, and the State in Darjeeling, 1830- 1856" in Himalaya: The Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies (Spring 2014). She also taught in the Corcoran Department of History at the University of Virginia during spring 2014. Sarah Zaides will present the findings from archival research in Jerusalem supported by a Research Grant from the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa at their annual confer- ence in October of 2014. She will conduct dissertation research in Jerusalem and examine archives in Istanbul in 2014-15 supported by a Fritz-Boeing Fellowship, a Schwartz Fellowship for Dissertation Research as well as the Felix Posen Fellowship from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Graduate Student News.. (cont'd from page 6) PAGE 8 University of Washington

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