Penn Undergraduate

Undergraduate Research Fellowships

The Wolf Humanities Center is the University of Pennsylvania's main hub for interdisciplinary humanities research and public programming. Each year, the Wolf Humanities Center explores a new topic and welcomes students and faculty who are conducting humanities research related to the theme, as well as leading scholars, artists, scientists, and more who share their unique perspectives on the topic in a wide-ranging series of public events.

Undergraduate students who join the Wolf Humanities Center as Fellows of the Undergraduate Humanities Forum (UHF) conduct research in the humanities on the Center's annual topic and become part of a group of interdisciplinary scholars and the greater Wolf Center community, which also includes Penn and Regional Faculty, Postdoctoral, and Doctoral Research Fellows. Wolf's Undergraduate Research Fellows meet regularly to share and workshop their research, pursue various cultural activities of common interest, and occasionally meet in special receptions with the Wolf Humanities Center's distinguished guest speakers. The year's program culminates in organizing a spring undergraduate research conference, at which students give formal presentations of their research projects. The Undergraduate Humanities Forum provides an excellent environment for work on research projects that students develop independently (with faculty supervision) or as a part of their independent studies courses, capstone seminars, or honors theses under the guidance of faculty specialists. 


Join us in considering our common stake in the "thinking arts."

Responsibilities of Wolf's Undergraduate Research Fellows include attending and participating in regularly scheduled meetings and outings, as well as organizing and presenting at the annual Undergraduate Humanities Forum Research Conference. Applicants from all of Penn's schools are welcome to apply, provided their project fits the intellectual agenda of the Wolf Humanities Center, and must be full time, on campus for the full academic year of the award, and in good academic standing. Fellows receive $1500 awards paid in two installments (December and May).

Two Executive Board positions are available to Fellows who work closely with the UHF Faculty Director and the Wolf administrative staff to organize and plan meetings and outings throughout the year, as well as the spring research conference. Executive Board Fellows receive $2000 awards paid in two installments (December and May).

The annual call for applications opens each November and closes in mid-March. Questions about the fellowship program should be sent to Wolf Humanities Center associate director Sara Varney

5 undergraduate research fellows with Undergraduate Humanities Forum director Josephine Park at MoMA
2024–25 Call for Applications
2023–24 Undergraduate Research Fellows
2023–24 Undergraduate Research Seminar
Former Fellows and Faculty Directors

TESTIMONIAL | Work with the Wolf Humanities Center has been incredibly rewarding, and I've found interdisciplinary exchange to be one of the most important, if unexpected, parts of the experience! As a senior pursuing majors in international relations and Russian regional studies, I can be guilty of falling into the rut of my own academic niche. The repetition of certain research methods, theoretical frameworks, and analytical perspectives can become so ingrained. Engagement with other disciplines has been so helpful to resist this and open my eyes to other modes of inquiry. Wolf Fellowship seminars have introduced me to work in different disciplines among the humanities which are reinvigorating my own research. I had no prior experience reading from art history, musicology, or museum studies, and yet our group has been able to workshop each others' writing and bring helpful, fresh perspectives to the table. The greatest benefit is that the fellows are always learning from one another - improving our individual projects, but also having fun discussions about art and the humanities on campus! Oh, and there's free food!
– Roseline Gray, CAS, 2023 (International Relations, Russian and Eastern European Studies)