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Beyond the Classroom: Opportunities & Resources

American Studies VPUE Summer Research Internships

These internships give you the opportunity to develop your own research interests and skills, as well as a broader understanding of the various kinds of research scholars in American Studies do—and the various ways they do such research—as you apprentice with an American Studies-affiliated faculty member on tasks related to the faculty member’s current research interests or projects. The internship also includes time for you to develop your own research projects with the faculty member’s mentorship.

Details

Details about this internship are listed below, underneath in the first accordion menu. 

Expectations

Over the 10-week summer quarter, the student intern will spend approximately 25-30 hours per week apprenticing on research tasks related to the faculty member’s research topic or area, and another 10 hours per week pursuing the student’s own related academic interests or projects with the faculty member’s guidance. Faculty mentors are expected to meet frequently with their research interns over the summer and guide them in the research and tasks they will undertake.

Funding

Full-time Research Interns will receive a stipend of $8,500 for the Summer.

An additional $1,500 need-based supplement is available for qualified students

Eligibility

Current Frosh, Sophomores, and Juniors are eligible to apply.

Note: American Studies majors will be given priority for these positions, but others are welcome to apply, as well.

To apply

If you are interested, please submit an application here by Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026 at 11:59pm.

The application will ask you to:

  1. Identify which faculty you would be most interested in interning with (you may indicate up to 3).
  2. Write a short statement about your interest in the faculty member’s research project and how it would align with your own interests, experience, and learning goals.
  3. List the name, position/title, and email of a reference (typically a faculty member) who could speak to your aptitude for a research internship.
  4. Upload a c.v.

We will share these materials with matching faculty, who may follow up with interviews. We hope to complete the matching process before the end of Winter quarter.

If you have any questions, please contact our Assistant Director of Student Services, winnini [at] stanford.edu (Winni Ni).

Lerone A. Martin, Religious Studies; DAAAS (Topic/project: Impacts of deindustrialization in a small factory town)

Faculty Lead/Mentor:  Lerone A. Martin (Religious Studies, DAAAS)

Project Description and Tasks:  The student would help me conduct research on the effects of deindustrialization, particularly NAFTA, upon the small, factory town of Fostoria, OH. I have a book contract with Harper Collins to publish a book entitled Fostoria: a Town in the Middle of Everywhere. This book will examine the town as a microcosm of the broader social, political, and economic shifts wrought by NAFTA.

Student Learning Outcomes: The internship will provide students with historical, geo-spatial, and digital research and story-telling.

Location conditions: This research can be conducted remotely from any location.

Kathryn Gin Lum, Religious Studies (Topic/project: Ancestral memory and ideas of the afterlife in America, 1600-present)

Faculty Lead/Mentor: Kathryn Gin Lum (Religious Studies)

 

Project Description and Tasks:  I am writing a book tentatively titled THE ANCESTORS: AN AMERICAN HISTORY. It's a book intended for trade, and it covers five centuries -- from the Protestant Reformation to the present day. The book argues that the death of purgatory in the 16th century created a rupture between the living and the dead, and forced ancestors into a binary of heaven or hell, celebration or condemnation. It shows how America was colonized in the wake of this profound rupture, and looks at the repercussions of this theological shift on race relations, national identity formation, and battles over the past. 

Research tasks: Since the book covers so much chronological ground, a research intern's tasks could cover any area of particular interest to the student. This includes archival research (can be done through online databases if remote), secondary source research (finding and summarizing relevant material), and contemporary research in, e.g., Tiktok videos about recovering the ancestors, AI chatbots that promise conversations with the dead, etc. If the student has a particular interest in ethnographic research, this could also be a possibility, as I am hoping to interview and speak to Christian converts from historically non-Christian communities about how they understand their ancestors. Tasks could also include reading chapters in progress, as the book is intended for a general audience, very much including an undergraduate readership.

 

Student Learning Outcomes: Students will learn historical methodologies, such as finding and organizing archival sources and summarizing secondary literature. Students will also learn about the different stages of writing, including pitching and crafting a book proposal, and drafting chapters.

Location conditions: This research can be conducted remotely from any location.

Gavin Wright, Economics (Topic/project: History of Stanford Economics)s

Faculty Lead/Mentor: Gavin Wright (Economics)

Project Description and Tasks: I have agreed to write a history of the Stanford Economics Department and would like to have assistance in reviewing the archival record. Department records from 1900-1962 are now in the Stanford Archives, and they are largely untouched.

Student Learning Outcomes: Development of archival research skills would be first. Next would be knowledgeability in important episodes of Sanford history, such as the Edward Ross affair, the firing of Thorstein Veblen, and the persecution of Marxist economist Paul Baran.

Location conditions: This research requires the student to be on Stanford Campus.

Ari Kelman, Education (Topic/project: History of feedback, from cybernetics to wearable technology)

Faculty Lead/Mentor: Ari Kelman (Education)

Project Description and Tasks:  I am writing a book about the history of feedback (from cybernetics to wearable technology), and I would love a research assistant with background in American studies + STS or SymSys + history who can help me work through a whole mess of secondary literature and some primary documents. It will be mostly reading and summarizing, quote selection, and archival work.

Student Learning Outcomes: They will learn to read scholarly literature efficiently, conduct interdisciplinary research, produce scholarly summaries, conduct archival work, manage complex research workflows, communicate with a team of scholars, manage digital and paper sources, synthesize disparate sources of scholarly data, meeting deadlines, and they might learn a thing or two about mid-century cognition and technology.

Location conditions: This research can be conducted remotely from any location.

Richard Meyer, Art History (Topic/project: Andy Warhol)

Faculty Lead/Mentor: Richard Meyer, Art History

Faculty Lead/Mentor: Richard Meyer (Art History)

Project Description and Tasks:  The summer intern will engage in visual and textual research for my new book project, Andy Warhol’s Guide to Everyday Life. This will include a wide range of library and on-line retrieval, summarizing, and annotation of period (1970-80s) sources related to Warhol's life and observations. The intern will also be working extensively with the Stanford archive of Warhol contact sheets at the Cantor Arts Center. This archive represents the most comprehensive collection in the world of black and white exposures by Warhol from 1976 until his death in 1987.

Student Learning Outcomes: Students will learn how to shuttle between and integrate visual and textual materials and research. They will also work directly on a trade press book in progress and therefore learn about the processes of copyediting, design, promotion, and budgeting.

Location conditions: This research requires the student to be on Stanford Campus.

Estelle Freedman, History (Topic/project: Sexual assault/harassment in US women’s oral histories)

Faculty Lead/Mentor: Estelle Freedman (History)

Project Description and Tasks:  I am writing about accounts of sexual assault and harassment in 20th century U.S. women’s oral history collections. The study combines digital humanities tools and qualitative reading to understand how women from different backgrounds and regions recalled these topics and how the language, topics, and responses in the oral histories changed over time. Tasks include biographical research on narrators and bibliographical/citation assistance for publications. The student may develop an independent research project using the interview database. Useful background includes coursework in modern U.S. or women’s history and/or familiarity with digital humanities methods and spreadsheets.

Student Learning Outcomes: Historical research skills in using online archives and databases, substantive knowledge of the histories of women, sexuality, and feminism.

Location conditions: This research can be conducted remotely from any location.

 

Other Internships

Summer, Arts, Global and Government Internships

AMSTUD Research Internships at Stanford

The Program in American Studies, with generous sponsorship from VPUE, offers paid internships, typically during summer quarters, in which students work with various American Studies faculty on their research.   A full-time internship runs for 10 weeks, during which the student works 25-30 hours per week on research projects being pursued by the faculty member and an additional 5-10 hours per week pursuing personal research and education goals and opportunities, such as taking classes or engaging in research for an honors project.  Faculty mentors are expected to meet frequently with their research assistants and guide them in the research they will undertake.  An email soliciting applications will go out early in winter quarter.

Please contact the Assistant Director of Student Services for the most up-to-date information.

Interested in the Arts?  Check out the resources below!

Stanford in Government Fellowships

SIG offers dozens of fully-funded public service internships every summer in a range of organizations around the world. Undergraduates from all majors and years are encouraged to apply, as the fellowship placements include public service opportunities through a variety of disciplines.  For more information, see the SIG website.

Stanford Global Studies Summer Internships

Stanford Global Studies internships are open to students from all majors.  Please see the SGS website for more information.

Public Service Internships and Fellowships

A number of public service internships and fellowships are available through the Haas Center.

 

Grants & Funding

Funding Opportunities from American Studies and others

Funding from American Studies 

As a small program, American Studies has limited funds to offer students.  These are primarily earmarked for AMSTUD majors completing an honor thesis with the program. To apply for funding to support an honors project, please send an email to the Assistant Director of Student Services detailing your needs, the costs, and the purpose.

Other Sources of Funding on Campus

BEAM, Stanford Career Education

 

BEAM site

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