Gould Sponsored Faculty Research
2025-2026 Academic Year
Professor Esther Chung-Kim and RA Prisha Kejriwal
Medicine and Spirituality in Early Modern Europe
While medicine and spirituality are sometimes considered opposing fields, scholars have recognized these two fields as increasingly interrelated. This research project shows that religious reform and medical reform were more closely related than previously thought. Just as religious reformers used spiritual rationale to support medicine practitioners, physicians also supported shifting religious views in their medical treatises. This year-long project examines the contributions of the Dutch physician, Levinus Lemnius, as a noteworthy example of a popular physician connecting spirituality to physical, mental and social health.
Professor Lynn Itagaki, RA Crystal Widado, and RA Ella Labarda
The Futures of COmparative Racialization
“The Futures of Comparative Racialization” is a multi-stage project in its 2nd year funded by the Gould Center that is comprised of (1) a 4-day conference that will bring 14 junior and senior scholars across the United States to workshop their original research at CMC; (2) an edited volume of the revised and expanded participant chapter contributions; (3) the volume’s co-authored introduction with Professor Rafael Pérez-Torres from UCLA; (4) a short book, co-authored with Rafael Pérez-Torres, to provide an overview of comparative racialization. This project is led by Lynn Itagaki, Associate Professor of Literature and Gender Studies, with two undergraduate research assistants, Crystal Widado ’27 and Kryster Carmela Labarda ’28. Comparative racialization examines how groups are racialized in relation to one another and how this interchange manages and prioritizes claims on the state. These RAs funded by the Gould will support foundational research on this project with the end goal in the development and publication of article- and book-length projects in the field of comparative racialization.
Professor Andrew Schroeder, RA Michelle Lee, and RA Sara McMurtray
Views of Science in the Political Philosophy/Theory Literature
Over the past 15 years, philosophers of science have increasingly agreed that the traditional picture of science, according to which it is ideally a dispassionate, “value-free” endeavor is mistaken. To replace it, they have proposed a picture of science according to which values play a limited but crucial role in the research process, and that these values can enhance (rather than compromise) scientific objectivity. In this project, faculty and students from CMC and Durham University (UK) are seeking to determine whether work in political theory, political philosophy, and political science journals has adopted the new, philosophically-informed picture of science; or whether it continues to employ the traditional, outdated view of science.
Professor Steven Zhou, RA George Chan*, and RA Jordan Nguyen**
The Pursuit of Multiple Callings - A Theory of Vocation, Identity, and Work
“Where Did Callings Start?”**
Historically, research on vocational calling has almost exclusively focused on how calling develops or changes in working adults. In our qualitative research paper, we will investigate how callings form in children prior to their adult working lives — that is, in childhood before the age of 18. Specifically, we will focus on integrating literature on parenting and cultural influences in development. We will test our theory using qualitative interviews of first-year college students who have identified a vocational calling.
“When Callings Collide”*
Historically, research on vocational calling has focused on the positive benefits in job satisfaction and sense of purpose and meaning. More recent studies have highlighted potential downsides of a strong identification of a calling, particularly in burnout and worker exploitation. In this theory paper, we will advance a conceptual model of when individuals might identify two or more callings — and moreover, when these callings might create tension and conflict within individuals. Our paper will review the relevant literature, integrate diverse research streams, and propose future research directions based on our novel theory of multiple callings.
Fall 2025
Professor Sarah Sarzynski and RA Georgia Alford
An Environmental History of the Colombian-Peruvian War, 1932-1933
Instead of depicting the Amazonian borderlands as terra nullius, or empty lands ripe for settlement, a borderlands approach renders visible the people who inhabited the region and the significant roles they played in the short border conflict. I examine the adaptations and collaborations between Colombian and Peruvian soldiers, Amazonian peoples and the Amazon itself during the war. Soldiers were both unequipped and under-resourced, often lacking appropriate support from the national armies, which meant that they had to adapt to lowlands Amazonia to survive. To do so, they often relied upon local knowledge to learn how to build appropriate structures, navigate the terrain and rivers, communicate, find food and treat wounds and illnesses. Some Amazonians also interacted with the troops, sometimes conscripted by force and other times volunteering laborers, guides, spies and soldiers. Georgia Alford is creating a historical map of soldiers’ paths by foot and by boat into the Amazon region to the garrisons and battle sites.