TSSL Fall 2025 research fellowships are $15.25/hour, 5 hours a week, from August 31-December 12, 2025. Apply to open positions by clicking on the linked title.
Bad Bunny Syllabus/Latin Music Project Research Fellow
Faculty Lead: Petra Rivera-Rideau (American Studies)
Openings: 1
The Bad Bunny Syllabus is an online resource for educators and fans who would like more information to help contextualize Bad Bunny’s rise to fame. We provide academic readings, popular sources, podcasts, and other multimedia materials. In addition to the syllabus, we are working on two book projects. The first book, P FKN R: Bad Bunny and Resistance in Puerto Rico, aligns with the syllabus. The second is an ongoing research project about the global rise of Spanish language music in the past few years, especially musica, mexicana, and reggaeton.
This fellow will join the Bad Bunny Syllabus team consisting of Professor Rivera-Rideau, Professor Vanessa Díaz (Loyola Marymount University of Los Angeles), and students from Wellesley and Loyola Marymount. Potential projects include updating the website, lyric translations, transcribing interviews, and working on formatting, citations, permissions, etc. for book projects. The fellow will also work on our ongoing databases of popular press materials related to Bad Bunny and Latin music.
BASIRA Research Fellow
Project Lead: Bailey Ludwig (TSSL)
Openings: internal candidate
BASIRA, a newly launched database affiliated with the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies (SIMS) at the University of Pennsylvania, seeks a Wellesley student with an interest in art history, book history, and digital humanities to assist with creating and updating records in the database and gathering relevant sources at Wellesley College (and, potentially, other institutions in the Boston-area). This student will work with Bailey Ludwig.
Fred Lukoff Archives Research Fellow
Faculty Lead: Sun-Hee Lee (East Asian Languages and Cultures, Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences, East Asian Studies)
Opening: 1
This project investigates the legacy of Fred Lukoff (1920–2000), an American linguist whose foundational contributions to Korean linguistics and language education in South Korea remain underrecognized. After early work with Chomsky and Halle in generative linguistics, Lukoff devoted his career to developing Korean and English teaching materials and advancing linguistic scholarship in Korea. The student assistant will help analyze his textbooks and audio materials, gather archival sources, and support the preparation of research materials. This work seeks to revive Lukoff’s overlooked impact and reestablish his role in shaping the academic study of Korean linguistics and pedagogy. The research fellow will work with Professor Sun-Hee Lee.
History of Foreign Languages at Wellesley Research Fellow
Faculty Lead: Anjeana Hans (German Studies)
Openings: 2
Student researchers will work on tracing and documenting the history of foreign languages at Wellesley. We will ask them to put together archival and historical material and narratives that could be shared publicly. We hope to create a publicly accessible site, so that the Wellesley community and those outside it could engage with this historical research. This project will be overseen by Professor Anjeana Hans.
Korean Shakespeare Archival Research and Translation Fellow
Faculty Lead: Yu Jin Ko (English and Creative Writing, Medieval and Renaissance Studies)
Opening: 1
Professor Yu Jin Ko is seeking a Research Fellow in connection with his book project, which is tentatively titled “Shakespeare in Korea: From the Refugee Trail to the Globe.” In the coming academic year (25-26), he will be focusing on doing archival research related to Shakespeare performances in Korea during the Korean War Period (1950-53). The Fellow would assist in archival research as well as some translation (of Chinese characters into Korean).
Music Research Fellow
Faculty Lead: Claire Fotijn (Music, Calderwood Seminars in Public Writing, Medieval and Renaissance Studies)
Openings: internal candidate
Professor Claire Fontijn is preparing to teach a newly-formulated MUS 200 in Spring 2026 called Baroque Music as a Global Phenomenon. Traditionally understood as having encompassed the 1600–1750 period in Europe only, “the long Baroque” that extends back to 1550 actually involved the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. Explorers established a global network of knowledge of the wonders of the world that included music and musical instruments. This course presents a rich array of Baroque compositions. Prof. Fontijn is looking forward to the opportunity to do a literature survey with her Research Fellow in Fall 2025 in preparation for unveiling the course in the Spring.
Narrative Lab Research Fellow
Faculty Leads: Josh Lambert (Jewish Studies, Comparative Literature) & Nikhil Rao (History, South Asian Studies)
Openings: 4
Narrative Lab Fellows will participate in a semester-long research experience in the humanities. They will meet weekly with the faculty directors of the Narrative Lab, develop relevant background knowledge and research skills, and design and pursue research projects either individually or in faculty-student teams. The Fall 2025 Narrative Lab will be overseen by Professors Josh Lambert and Nikhil Rao.
Women’s College Shakespeare Research Fellow
Faculty Lead: Sarah Wall-Randell (English and Creative Writing, Medieval and Renaissance Studies)
Openings: internal candidate
The Archival Research Fellow will conduct research in the Wellesley College Archives in support of a book project Prof. Sarah Wall-Randell is working on about Shakespeare performance at historically women’s colleges in America, using primary historical materials like letters and other records related to student life at Wellesley from the 1870s-1910s.
Using particular collections of original documents, the fellow will screen for material relevant to Prof. Wall-Randell’s research and compile notes and reports.