By: Hannah Adamson, Merisa Mattix, and Greta Roberson
George Mason's Office of Scholarship, Creativity, and Research (OSCAR) has specific funding for undergraduates to create projects to pursue their interests and goals through the Undergraduate Research Scholars Program (URSP). Recently, all three MHCR undergraduate team members applied for and received this funding to pursue their research interests over the Summer 2022 term under the mentorship of Carter School Ph.D. Candidate and MHCR Associate Director Nicholas Sherwood. There are two URSP funding levels available, the Summer Intensive URSP award totaling $5,000 for a full-time position and the Traditional URSP award totaling $1,000 for part-time work. Greta Robertson, MHCR Research Assistant, and Hannah Adamson, MHCR Program Officer, received the Traditional URSP award, requiring approximately 14 hours of work per week and amounts to $1500. Merisa Mattix, MHCR Development and Administrative Coordinator received the Summer Intensive URSP award, requiring approximately 40 hours of work per week and amounts to $5000. These awards are fantastic news for the MHCR team and an excellent opportunity for these students to expand their research skills while pursuing their undergraduate degrees.
Overview of the Awardees and their Projects
Hannah Adamson
My name is Hannah Adamson. I am a third-year student studying conflict analysis and resolution in the Accelerated Master's program with an undergraduate concentration in Building Peace in Divided Societies and a minor in Conservation Studies. I am interested in partnering reconciliation with environmental justice and sustainability, primarily through integrating practitioner wellbeing and trauma-healing.
I am excited to have been awarded $1,000 to continue and expand my collaborative research entitled, "Who are Insider Reconcilers? A Qualitative Investigation of Local Peacebuilders Engaged in International Reconciliation". With MHCR, I have been investigating the role of insider reconcilers–individuals connected to one or more parties in conflict actively working to bring people together after violence has occurred–over the past eighteen months. This student-led project is the first of its kind, interviewing insiders worldwide to understand their conceptions of reconciliation, their experiences facilitating reconciliation processes, and the impacts of such work on their health and wellbeing. Over the summer, I will interview insider reconcilers, develop insider reconciler profiles for publication on an international virtual learning hub, and synthesize salient insights in a final report to further empower insider reconcilers.
Within the Carter School, I have learned the importance of local peacebuilding approaches, and I am grateful for this opportunity to champion insider-reconciliation through this action-oriented research. Following this research period, I will continue supporting this project with the Transformation and Reconciliation Lab at MHCR to develop technical resources for practitioners and academic publications. I hope my research will contribute to a paradigm shift within the peacebuilding field to better support insider-reconcilers and practitioner wellbeing.
Greta Roberson
Hi! My name is Greta Roberson, and I am a third-year undergraduate at George Mason University pursuing a B.A. in Global Affairs with minors in Conflict Analysis and Resolution and Middle East Studies. My research interests pertain to transnational organized crime, political extremism, and international human rights law and diplomacy.
Recently, I started working as a Research Assistant with MHCR and am incredibly fortunate to continue research throughout this summer, thanks to the URSP award. I earned $1000 to work part-time on the Impact of COVID-19 on an International Sample of Religious Leaders: Present Challenges, Sources of Resilience & Unmet Needs. This study realizes that religious leaders are at a disadvantage in navigating the COVID-19 pandemic due to various obstacles affecting themselves, their families, and their communities. The information is gathered through interviews asking religious leaders about the challenges they have faced, how they have succeeded, and what else can be done to help.
The goal is to conduct several more interviews to accurately reflect religious leaders' experiences across the globe. Finally, the collected data from these personal testimonies will reveal how to best move forward through the pandemic and adapt to similar challenges in the future.
Merisa Mattix
I am Merisa Mattix, MHCR's Development and Administrative Assistant. I am in the Carter School's Accelerated Master's program, double concentrating in Justice and Reconciliation and PEacebuilding in Divided Societies in my B.A. and concentrating in Dynamics of Violence in my M.S. I am interested in investigating dehumanization, mass atrocities, and religious dynamics that contribute to conflict.
I applied for URSP funding in the hope of launching my first individual research project as well as exploring possible research to continue for my master's thesis. I am excited to announce that I was awarded the Intensive URSP award, totaling $5000. I will use my award funding to pursue a research project on political polarization in the American Christian Church through a case study on congregations in Lake Charles, Louisiana. The grant included a budget for my research, which will allow me to travel to Lake Charles and conduct my research in person and truly immerse myself in these communities.
I will identify two Christian congregations of the same denomination (e.g., Presbyterian) within the Lake Charles, LA community to use as case studies for this project. After identifying these congregations, I will interview congregants of several roles to understand their perception of political polarization and how one might address it within their congregations.
Through this research, I hope to gain a better understanding of political polarization within congregations and create proposed ways of addressing polarization in churches across the United States.
Closing
All of us are incredibly excited to take on these projects under the direct mentorship of the Associate Director and Ph.D. Candidate Nicholas Sherwood and the assistance of other MHCR staff. Also, during the summer, URSP will kindly invite us to seminars and discussions for academic and professional development in the research field. We hope to enhance our writing, interviewing, outreach, and analysis skills and contribute to a growing pool of knowledge in conflict and reconciliation with all this guidance.
By early August, we will present our projects at the OSCAR Celebration of Student Scholarship in addition to another regional or national conference. We recognize that it is an honor to be granted this opportunity and participate in an enriching program that will provide us with a sturdy foundation going into our graduate careers. Everyone here at MHCR is incredibly thrilled that each undergraduate staff was awarded and can pursue research this summer, and we hope you share in our excitement. Thank you for reading and watch out for more updates in the future regarding our projects!