Faculty Mentor
Ian Hurd, Professor of Political Science, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences
2024–25 Buffett Undergraduate Research Fellows
Launched in 2024, the Buffett Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program provides undergraduates at Northwestern University with the opportunity to become meaningfully involved in a faculty mentor’s international research project and learn how collaborative research is conducted in or across disciplines. For the program's inaugural cohort, the Buffett Institute matched 32 undergraduates with research assistantships for 21 faculty members' research projects, which span 16 disciplinary departments across six schools at Northwestern. Learn about the 2024–25 cohort of Buffett Undergraduate Research Fellows and their faculty mentors' projects below.
Dilemmas of World Order
There is a long history of schemes to bring peace, order and good governance to global affairs. From Immanuel Kant to Anne-Marie Slaughter, countless writers claim to have identified the sources, causes and mechanisms of world order, and they advertise their insight as useable knowledge for policymaking. This project will examine the theory and practice of world-order thinking through a skeptical lens, arguing through a forthcoming book that world order is a myth: there is no stable, universal, good-for-everyone state of affairs, neither to aspire to nor work toward.
Research Fellow
Cansada Barlow, Economics and International Studies, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences '26Hurd and Barlow shed light on the laws and politics behind the Olympic Games in a three-part series in the Chicago Tribune in summer 2024.
AI and Social Movements
Social movements evolve over time, and their varied activities, aims and formations play a significant role in shaping our world of experience. However, there are few reliable platforms that allows journalists, researchers and policymakers to gain a robust understanding of how social movements evolve and what impacts they might have in their communities. This project of the Buffett Institute’s AI and Social Movements Global Working Group aims to address the limited and fragmentary information we have of social movements by building the models necessary to comprehensively track their life-cycles.
Faculty Mentor
Aaron Shaw, Associate Professor of Communication Studies, School of Communication
Research Fellow
Vaibhav Rangan, Mathematics and Economics, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences '27Best-Laid Plans: The Rise, Fall and Return of National Development Planning
The number of countries with an active national development plan doubled between the mid-1990s and 2006, and then doubled again between 2006 and 2018 (reaching a total of 134 countries). Despite the resurgence of development planning, there is no systematic study of the evolving content and priorities in national development plans since the practice became widespread in the 1950s. This project fills that gap.
Faculty Mentor
Stephen Nelson, Associate Professor of Political Science, Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences
Research Fellow
Ingrid Yeung, Statistics, Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences '27
The Changing Face of Foreign Correspondence
The proliferation of new media outlets and the rise in citizen journalism have led to questions about the viability and need for foreign correspondence. This is particularly true for Anglophone news coverage of North Korea, as international journalists are rarely able to travel there. This study will explore identity, proximity and longevity in Anglophone journalism coverage of the country.
Faculty Mentor
Helen Cho, Visiting Assistant Professor of Asian American Studies, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences
Research Fellows
Sarah Han, Political Science, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences '26 (left)
Jane Yu, Journalism, Medill School of Journalism; International Studies, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences '27 (right)
Children of the Revolution
The book Children of the Revolution is a follow-up to Zayd Dohrn's Tribeca-winning podcast Mother Country Radicals, which tells the true story of the Weather Underground and the Black Liberation Army—and how a group of young people, practically kids themselves, went to war against their own country to fight racism and try to change the world. This project will broaden the focus of the book beyond the U.S. to explore what domestic radicals saw in the wave of revolutionary struggle then sweeping the globe. It will examine international solidarity and movement building, both then and now—why American radicals have so often looked beyond our own borders to find models of what might be possible.
Research Fellows
Keira Embler, Political Science, International Studies, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences '25 (left)
Simon Carr, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications, Medill School of Journalism '26 (right)
China-America Reel Ecology Project
The project will connect students from Northwestern University and Tongji University in Shanghai, China in collaborations to produce new works of media art that directly engage our most pressing and universal global challenge: climate change. The two-year project will first support two classes each year during the Spring term. Then, each summer, the two classes will come together in-person as a “Field School” to collaborate on hands-on production of media arts projects.
Faculty Mentor
J.P. Sniadecki, Professor of Radio/Telivision/Film, School of Communication
Research Fellows
Ashley Kim, Journalism, Medill School of Journalism; Asian Languages and Cultures, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences '25 (left)
John Xu, Journalism, Medill School of Journalism; Pyschology, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences '26
Delhi Painters in the Shadow of Empire
This project will shed light on a little known group of painters who changed the course of Mughal painting in the 18th and 19th centuries as Indian society grappled with the rising dominance of British colonial power and waning Mughal sovereignty. Through an analysis of the visual culture of this period as reflected in the paintings, manuscripts and fashion accessories, the project will tackle questions of modernity and indigeneity through a study of the role of Indian painters working for both the Mughal court and British East India Company merchants in the capital city of Delhi.
Faculty Mentor
Yuthika Sharma, Assistant Professor of Art History, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences
Research Fellows
Vicky Wang, Art History, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences '27 (left)
Elizabeth Lowry, Journalism, Medill School of Journalism; English Literature, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences '26
Digital Nomadism: Examining Novel Forms of Organizing
Digital nomads, as they are called, are location-independent individuals who use technology to perform their job. The aim of this project is to understand the nature of digital nomadism work practices, how individuals are using it, the kinds of individuals who are adopting this work practice, and the degree to which digital nomadism enables short versus more permanent changes in work practices.
Faculty Mentor
Leslie DeChurch, Professor of Communication Studies, School of Communication
Research Fellows
Indra Dalaisaikhan, Journalism, Medill School of Journalism '26
Lana Quach, Economics and Cognitive Science, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences '26 (right)
Dry Ocean
In Orhan Pamuk’s novel "The Black Book," the Nobel Prize-winning author imagines the seawater receding from the Bosphorus Strait. In Pamuk’s depiction, this Turkish waterway full of sailboats and charming reflections turns into a muddy valley, and people start living there. The valley becomes a sketchy part of Istanbul hosting small and dirty businesses. The opposite of what Pamuk imagined, the rise in sea levels is a consequence of global warming and human overpopulation. In the time scale of geological epochs, our planet may survive and eventually recover, but humans could become rare or extinct. Dry Ocean is a data-driven projection art piece about sea level rise, population increase, consumerism, the fuel-driven plastic economy, and marine pollution.
Faculty Mentor
Özge Samancı, Associate Professor of Radio/Television/Film, School of Communication
Research Fellow
Evan Bertis-Sample, Computer Science, McCormick School of Engineering '26Europe’s Hydrogen Economy as Inspiration for Modeling Energy Systems
The U.S. is investing heavily in hydrogen as a fuel that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the energy sector, but compared to Europe, the U.S. is a latecomer to the hydrogen economy. This project will investigate Europe’s hydrogen economy to identify strategies to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions that can be applied to the lower Great Lakes region of the U.S.
Faculty Mentor
Jennifer Dunn, Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, McCormick School of Engineering
Research Fellow
Kevin Zhang, Industrial Engineering, McCormick School of Engineering '26Grassroots Struggles, Global Visions: Black Power in Britain
This project examines how grassroots activists in Britain navigated transnational webs of Black politics during the late 20th century with particular attention to Black Power activism taking place outside of London. This project also intends to work collaboratively with local organizations and community heritage practitioners in the U.K. to understand how histories of Black Power are preserved, archived and invoked in the present.
Faculty Mentor
Kennetta Hammond Perry, Associate Professor of History, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences
Research Fellow
Zosia Alarr, Psychology, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences '25GODDS: Global Online Deepfake Detection System
2024 will see more elections than any other year in human history. We expect to see an increasing wave of deepfakes (images, audio, video, multimodal) to be used to influence these elections. To mitigate risks to democracy, the Northwestern Security & AI Lab (NSAIL) has been developing a human-AI collaborative framework where a trained set of analysts will work with advanced technology to ascertain whether a given artifact is real or fake. This project aims to understand the best ways in which humans and technology can combine together to find deepfakes quickly and correctly.
Faculty Mentor
V.S. Subrahmanian, Walter P. Murphy Professor of Computer Science, McCormick School of Engineering
Research Fellows
Isabel Gortner, Political Science and Legal Studies, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences '26 (left)
Luke Fosdick, Social Policy, School of Education and Social Policy; Musicology, Bienen School of Music '27
The Kalunga Line: A Study of Revivalism, a Contemporary Afro-Christian Religion in Urban Jamaica
This project centers the stories of members of Revivalism, an indigenous Afro-Christian religion practiced in urban communities in Jamaica. The project will entail interviews, site visits and documenting the material archives of a prominent Revivalist in Kingston, Jamaica. The goal is to publish an article that accompanies a digital exhibition and short film.
Faculty Mentor
KB Dennis Meade, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences
Research Fellows
Atarah Israel, Journalism, Medill School of Journalism; English, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences '26 (left)
Luke Jordan, Journalism, Medill School of Journalism; International Studies, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences '25
Newborn Essential Solutions and Technologies (NEST360)
Newborn Essential Solutions and Technologies (NEST360) is an international alliance united to end preventable newborn deaths in African hospitals. The project will support African governments in implementing a package of care that includes affordable technologies, training for clinicians and biomedical technicians and locally-owned data to deliver high-quality small and sick newborn care.
Faculty Mentor
Kylie Dougherty, Postdoctoral Fellow, Medical Social Science, Feinberg School of MedicineResearch Fellow
Katerina Claud, Biological Sciences and International Studies, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences '25The Temporality and Geography of Climate Change in U.S. News (2000–2021)
Questions of temporality are at the heart of global climate change discourse. If it hasn’t yet, when should we anticipate climate change to affect us? By when must we take action to prevent its worst consequences? This project aims to formally measure the temporal horizons used to discuss specific ecological phenomena and their consequences in public discourse and investigate how these temporalities depend on the geographic context.
Faculty Mentor
Oscar Stuhler, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences
Research Fellows
Ady Lam, Cognitive Science and Environmental Policy and Culture, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences '27 (left)
Haarika Palacharla, Political Science, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences '27 (right)
Trauma, Music and the Breath: The Music for Childhood Wellbeing Initiative
This project will explore the impact of an eight-week group singing and intentional breathwork intervention on elementary school children ages 9–11. The project's interdisciplinary team has adopted an innovative research approach, blending biometric, psychological and behavioral methodologies to provide a holistic, biopsychosocial understanding of the impact of group singing and breathwork with children.
Faculty Mentor
Sarah Bartolome, Associate Professor of Music Studies, Bienen School of Music
Research Fellows
Ellie Elizabeth Panko, History and Psychology, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences '27 (left)
Felicia Mou, Neuroscience and Psychology, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences '25 (right)
Using Implementation Science to Address the Global Mental and Behavioral Health Treatment Gap Among Adolescents and Young Adults
This project sets out to explore how implementation science processes and approaches can be applied to improve the adoption, reach and sustainment of evidence-based mental and behavioral health interventions among vulnerable populations of youth residing in South Africa.
Faculty Mentor
Faith Summersett Williams, Research Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Feinberg School of Medicine
Research Fellows
Emily Lynott, Neuroscience and Global Health, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences '25 (left)
Ella Kuffour, Journalism and Psychology, Medill School of Journalism '25 (right)
United Nations Policy and Indigenous Peoples
This project is focused on researching and following data about Indigenous Peoples international law and policy related to climate change and biodiversity at United Nations (UN) forums and resolutions, as part of Professor Reynaldo Morales' participation at two global Indigenous Peoples committees at UNFCCC (Article 6 negotiation) and UN-CBD (Digital Sequence Information of Genetic Resources-DSI).
Faculty Mentor
Reynaldo A. Morales, Assistant Professor of Journalism, Medill School of Journalism
Research Fellow
Oliwia Kaluzna, Legal Studies and Economics, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences '27Exploration of Tethered Supramolecular Luminophores
This project will explore possibilities for the design of supramolecular species — very large molecules that are built from many smaller ones — that can deliver a dose of multiple drug molecules to an injured tissue site to promote healing. Potential applications include better treatment for chemical burn injuries or rheumatoid arthritis. In collaboration with researchers at the University of Münster in Germany, Northwestern researchers will experiment with incorporating a luminescent chemical compound to track these supramolecular species as they enter tissues to better observe them.
Faculty Mentor
SonBinh Ngueyn, Professor of Chemistry, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences
Research Fellow
Vincent Xiong, Chemistry, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences '26A Sword, Not Peace: Shevardnadze and the Problem of Russian Imperialism
Despite the West's hope for prolonged peace with Moscow, the end of the Cold War did not mean the end of Russian expansionism. The last foreign minister of the Soviet Union, Eduard Shevardnadze, became the president of Georgia in 1992 believing that Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who championed democracy in the Soviet Union’s final days, would be a partner in promoting peace and cooperation in their newly independent countries. But Yeltsin’s military and security forces had another agenda — soon after arriving in Tbilisi, Shevardnadze was fighting against Moscow-armed, pro-Russian separatists in Georgia. This project will explore the problem of Russian imperialism through the lens of Shevardnadze.
Research Fellow
Maria Chebli, Economics and Political Science, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences '26Four Directions Documentary Film Series
This documentary film series will explore how the United Nations’ goals for sustainable development, such as zero hunger and clean energy, intersect with Indigenous Peoples’ rights, territories, resources and constitutional recognition in different countries and contexts. The series will give voice to key Indigenous leaders across the globe, providing a platform for their positions and proposals. The series will focus on a range of topics and regions, such as Indigenous farmers’ protests in India and hydropower plants in Nepal.
Faculty Mentor
Reynaldo A. Morales, Assistant Professor of Journalism, Medill School of Journalism
Research Fellow
Zella Milfred, Journalism, Medill School of Journalism '25Wanted: The Hunt for Fugitive Criminals
From the Nazi war criminals who fled Europe at the end of World War II to modern cases such as Edward Snowden and the Boston Marathon bombers, manhunts capture the popular imagination. While journalists have written a great deal on manhunts and fugitives, scholars have generally paid less attention to this important issue. This research project addresses the sources of success and failure in manhunts.
Faculty Mentor
Daniel Krcmaric, Associate Professor of Political Science, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences
Research Fellow
Regan Cornelius, Political Science and International Studies, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences '25The World We Don’t Know: Fallout from the Decline of Foreign Correspondents
Fewer and fewer news outlets are employing traditional foreign correspondents. Yet amid rising autocracy and authoritarianism, the work they do is more important than ever for democracies across the globe. This research project will explore the extent to which the profession is on the decline and analyze the business models transforming the journalism industry. The project will result in a book with insights into new models of global reporting that show promise for restoring Americans' interest in global affairs.
Faculty Mentor
Bob Rowley, Lecturer, Medill School of Journalism and School of Communication
Research Fellow
John Sisco, Journalism, Economics and Political Science, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and Medill School of Journalism '27With Stephen Franklin, a former foreign correspondent and labor writer for the Tribune, Rowley and Sisco co-authored an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune on how Americans are losing interest in our nation’s crucial role in the world.