Our Staff
- DPhil (PhD), History of Art, University of Oxford
- MSt, History of Art, University of Oxford, Awarded with Distinction
- MA, Interdisciplinary Studies: Philosophy of Religion and Aesthetics, Marylhurst University
- BA, History of Art, Seattle Pacific University
Dr. Nichole Fazio is the founding Executive Director of the College Center for Research and Fellowships (CCRF), the first center at the University of Chicago dedicated to supporting College students in their research activities and applying to nationally competitive fellowships. In this role, she leads a team of talented educators committed to excellence in undergraduate education. In recent years, she has advanced undergraduate research initiatives in the arts and humanities, including the co-creation, launch and leadership of the College Summer Institute in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CSI), as well as a new major - Inquiry and Research in the Humanities (IRHUM). Nichole teaches IRHU 20100: Introduction to Humanistic Inquiry and Research Design and IRHU 29600: Research Proposal Colloquium annually. She is also Associate Dean of Undergraduate Research and Scholars Programs in the College, and a lecturer in the Humanities Collegiate Division.
Previous to her appointment at Chicago, Nichole held a similar position at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where she built its first Office of National Scholarships and Fellowships and helped university leadership institutionalize undergraduate research. There she also taught honors courses in the History of Art and co-designed and led the Haslam Scholars' research-based summer program at the University of Edinburgh. She began her career supporting undergraduate research and fellowships in 2001 at the University of Washington, working to build and lead its Undergraduate Research Program and Undergraduate Scholarship Office. Nichole was twice honored by the University of Washington for excellence in undergraduate education and in 2014 received the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and Advising from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Nichole completed her doctorate in the History of Art at the University of Oxford, specializing in 19th-century visual and material culture, with a focus on photography. She was a postgraduate fellow at Trinity College and supported by an Oxford Overseas Research Scheme Fellowship (ORS/Clarendon Award). Her book, Julia Margaret Cameron: a poetry of photography (Bodleian Library Publishing, 16 November, 2023), celebrates the expansive collection of Cameron photographs held at the Bodleian Library and across the University of Oxford.
- BA, Business Economics, University of Chicago, 2026
Julia Liu is the Undergraduate Student Assistant for National Fellowships and Undergraduate Research and is currently studying Business Economics and Data Science at UChicago. On campus, she serves as the President of the Taiwanese American Student Association, which aims to explore, engage, and educate the UChicago community on Taiwanese culture, and she is a part of the Trott Business Program, a three-year program focused on building business acumen through workshops and coursework at the Chicago Booth School of Business. In Spring of 2025, she plans to study European Civilization abroad in Paris. At the CCRF, Julia maintains the database of research and fellowship opportunities, runs the social media accounts, and supports the office's outreach activities.
- MLS, Library Science, Indiana University Bloomington
- BA, English Literature, Indiana University Northwest
Annabella Melvin is Program Manager in the College Center for Research and Fellowships. She received her Master of Library Science from Indiana University (IU) in 2021, where she worked as a research and writing assistant for departments like the Center for Learning Analytics and Student Success, Writing Tutorial Services, the Groups Scholars Program, and the Herman B Wells Library. Annabella was also an editor for The Publishing Circle, an independent publishing company, and Spirits, the literary magazine of Indiana University Northwest. While at IU, Annabella was awarded both the Indiana Library Federation William Gresh Memorial Scholarship and the IU Information and Library Science Technology Scholarship after heading interdepartmental collaborations with the goal of providing additional research assistance to students.
Undergraduate Research
- PhD candidate, Cinema and Media Studies, University of Chicago
- MA, English, North Carolina State University
- BA, Film Studies, University of North Carolina Wilmington
Tiya Bolton is the Graduate Assistant for Undergraduate Research. She investigates Blackness through cinema, fandom, new media, and digital culture. Tiya is particularly interested in the space(s) where those categories converge. It is in those overlapping spaces, she argues, where we come to know more about things like race, gender, sexuality, and culture—not as prescription or imperative. Instead, as speculation, possibility, play, and abstraction. She hopes her work at UChicago will lead her into further research, teaching, and public programming. Tiya was the Graduate Student Assistant for the CCRF's 2022 College Summer Institute in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences; she will serve in a similar capacity this coming summer as well.
- PhD, English Language and Literature, Yale University
- AB, Literature, Harvard University
Dr. Andrew Karas is Deputy Director for Undergraduate Research in the College Center for Research and Fellowships, and Assistant Dean in the College. Andrew came to Chicago from Northeastern University in Boston, where he served as associate director of the University Scholars Program and the Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships, which he played a key part in establishing. In these roles, Andrew facilitated distinctive research, service, leadership, and mentorship opportunities for recipients of the university’s premier merit scholarship, and he developed new initiatives and programs to engage undergraduates broadly in the university’s research and creative enterprise. Andrew also advised applicants for an array of national and international fellowships, including many who became the first from the institution to earn these awards. Andrew previously worked in career services at the University of Pennsylvania and taught writing seminars at Harvard and Yale. A specialist in modern poetry, Andrew received his doctorate from Yale, where he shared the 2013 English Department Dissertation Prize.
- PhD, Anthropology, University of Illinois at Chicago
- MA, Anthropology, University of Illinois at Chicago, Concentration in Latin American and Latino Studies
- BA, Anthropology, University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC)
Dr. Elizabeth Obregón is the Assistant Director of Undergraduate Research in the College Center for Research and Fellowships (CCRF). Elizabeth received her PhD with funding from the Inter-University Program for Latino Research/ Mellon Fellowship. Her ethnographic research critically explores the biological and genetic ideas that shape understandings of race and race-making across Western Cuba and the Cuban American diaspora. Her work has been published in Ethnic and Racial Studies and SAPIENS.
Prior to joining CCRF, Elizabeth served as the Fellowship Coordinator for the Crossing Latinidades Humanities Initiative, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and hosted at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). As the fellowship coordinator she worked one-on-one with 32 doctoral students enrolled in 16 R1 Hispanic Serving Institutions across the nation and their individually appointed faculty mentors. She also managed the professionalization workshops devoted to navigating graduate school, publication knowledge, and professional development. At UIC, Elizabeth taught courses in Introduction to Biological Anthropology, and the Human Skeleton, drawing on her earlier undergraduate and graduate research training in bioarchaeology and anthropological genetics.
National Fellowships
- PhD, Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology, Bryn Mawr College
- MA, Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology, Bryn Mawr College
- BA, Classical Languages and Literature, Earlham College
Dr. Johanna Best is the Assistant Director of National Scholarships and Fellowships in the College Center for Research and Fellowships (CCRF). She earned her PhD in Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology in 2015 with a dissertation focused on roadside religious spaces in Attica, Greece. Before joining the CCRF team, Johanna was an ACLS/Mellon Public Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution, serving as the Program Manager for Scholarly and Public Engagement in the Smithsonian Provenance Research Initiative. With strong interests in cultural heritage, the arts, and education, she has conducted archaeological fieldwork in Greece and facilitated object-based learning as part of the Academic Engagement Department at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Johanna was awarded the Doris Sill Carland Excellence in Teaching Award at Bryn Mawr College and has served as a mentor and supervisor to students in museums and on excavations. Johanna has been a recipient of nationally competitive fellowships, including a Fulbright Research Grant to Greece.
- PhD candidate, Bible, Divinity School, University of Chicago
- MA, Study of Religion, Divinity School, University of Chicago
- BA, Classics-Religion, Reed College
Kelly Holob is the Graduate Student Assistant for National Fellowships in the College Center for Research and Fellowships (CCRF). She is a PhD candidate in the Divinity School. Her research interests include ancient Christian literature, magical spellbooks from Egypt, and capital punishment in the Roman empire. In her dissertation, she investigates how ancient understandings of living and dead criminals can help us rethink early martyrdom traditions. Her work has been published in Apocrypha. Before joining CCRF, Kelly interned for UChicagoGRAD’s Fellowships Office, where she advised international and domestic Master’s and PhD students in finding and identifying fellowships appropriate to their unique situations. Interested in bringing people together for collegial and fun discussions, she also co-coordinated the Early Christian Studies Workshop and enjoys mentoring students interested in graduate school and academia. Her research has been supported by the Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion Junior Fellowship.
- PhD, Germanic Languages, Columbia University
- MA, Germanic Languages and Literatures, New York University
- BA, Germanic Languages and Literatures, New York University
Dr. Arthur Salvo is the Deputy Director National Fellowships for the College Center for Research and Fellowships (CCRF), and Assistant Dean in the College. Arthur received his PhD in 2015, and his scholarship focuses on German literature around 1800, aesthetics, and visual culture. Prior to joining CCRF, he mentored and advised students, taught courses in German, and introduced undergraduates to the humanities by teaching in the Core curricula of Columbia University, Colgate University, and the University of Chicago. At Columbia, he was named the Robert Belknap Core Faculty Fellow and received the Core Preceptor Award in recognition of his teaching. A recipient of a Fulbright Research Award and a research fellowship from the Berlin Program for Advanced German and European Studies, Arthur provides fellowships advising to third and fourth-year students and supports CCRF’s outreach initiatives.
- PhD, Classics, University of Chicago
- BA, Classics, Vassar College
Dr. Jenna Sarchio is an Assistant Director of National Fellowships in the College Center for Research and Fellowships. She completed her PhD in Classics at UChicago, where her work on Latin erotic poetry of the early Roman empire was supported by Mellon and Elder Olson grants. She comes to the CCRF from an appointment as a Humanities Teaching Fellow at the University. In this role, she leveraged her interests in Ancient Greek and Latin poetry, literary genres, and reception, translation and adaptation to teach language classes in the Classics department and Core classes in the Greece & Rome: Texts, Traditions, Transformations sequence. As both a graduate student and instructor, she worked closely with students on substantial research and writing projects, and she is excited to parlay her enthusiasm for this kind of academic and personal mentorship into helping UChicago’s undergraduates identify, articulate, and pursue their interests through fellowship and scholarship opportunities.
- PhD Student, Music History & Theory, University of Chicago
- MA, Music, University of Chicago
- BA, Music & Philosophy, Fordham University
Melani Shahin is a Graduate Student Assistant for National Fellowships in the College Center for Research and Fellowships (CCRF). She is a PhD Student in Music History & Theory program in the Music Department. Her dissertation explores nineteenth-century German-Jewish music scholars’ reception of early modern Christian Hebraist treatises that discuss music in the Bible and Jewish music traditions more broadly. Her research interests include the intellectual history of Jewish music research, the history of music theory (especially in German-speaking lands), and the formation of scholarly disciplines and archives. Her research has been supported by the Greenberg Center for Jewish Studies at UChicago. Melani is a lover of old books and music manuscripts and previously worked as a Rare Books Assistant in Special Collections at the Regenstein Library and as Assistant to the Music Bibliographer. Before coming to the University of Chicago, Melani was a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Germany where she had the pleasure of teaching enthusiastic and kind students at a bi-national German-Czech Gymnasium. She is eager to help UChicago students explore and prepare for fellowship opportunities that align with their goals, skills, and strengths.
CCRF Staff Emeritus
- Appointment following tenure with the CCRF: Senior Lecturer, Director of Yiddish and Ashkenazic Studies, The Ohio State University
- PhD, Germanic Studies, University of Chicago
Matthew Johnson was the Graduate Student Assistant for Research and a PhD candidate in the Department of Germanic Studies from 2020-2022. He has taught language and literature courses in the College and served as the Graduate Assistant in the Vienna Study Abroad Program. He has also served as a Teaching Consultant with the Chicago Center for Teaching and as a member of the student advisory board of the Greenberg Center for Jewish Studies. In this latter role, he helped to initiate and organize the Undergraduate Colloquium in Jewish Studies. Matthew’s research has been supported by the Fulbright Program, the IFK Vienna, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, the Posen Society of Fellows, the Yiddish Book Center, and the German Literature Archive in Marbach.
- Masters of Public Policy candidate, University of Chicago, 2024
- Masters of Business candidate, University of Chicago, 2024
- BAs, International Political Economy, Latin American and Latino Studies, Fordham University
Rosalyn Kutsch is the Graduate Student Assistant for Fellowships and 2nd year MPP/MBA student at the Harris School of Public Policy and Booth School of Business. Rosalyn earned her BAs in International Political Economy and Latin American and Latino Studies at Fordham University. At Fordham, Rosalyn received an undergraduate research grant to study the impact of social enterprises on indigenous female weaving cooperatives in Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. She is the recipient of a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Award (2019-2020) to Spain and returned as a Fulbright Mentor (2020-2021) to implement the Global Classrooms program in Madrid's bilingual public schools. Through her coursework at Harris and Booth, Rosalyn is exploring the relationship between policy and business as it relates to financial inclusion, social entrepreneurship and international development.
- PhD candidate, Astrophysics, Columbia University, current
- BS, Astrophysics, University of Chicago, 2023
Alexandra Masegian was the Undergraduate Student Assistant for National Fellowships and Undergraduate Research and a B.S. candidate in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics. Her research focused on the evolution of stars and galaxies. During her time at UChicago, she was a two-time recipient of both the Astronaut Scholarship and the Goldwater Scholarship, and she was named as a Student Marshal for the class of 2023. She served as President of UChicago's Women in Science RSO, which aims to provide resources and support for students pursuing STEM careers, and Editor-in-Chief of the Spectrum, UChicago's science-focused e-publication. At the CCRF, she maintained the database of research and fellowship opportunities, runs the social media accounts, and supports the office's outreach activities.
- PhD, Classics, University of Chicago
Kate Miller was the Graduate Student Assistant for Undergraduate Research and a PhD candidate in the Classics department. She has worked as an instructor in the Athens Study Abroad program as well as the Ancient Greek and Latin language sequences at UChicago. She previously served as an editorial assistant for Classical Philology, a leading academic journal in classical studies, and as a workshop coordinator with the Council on Advanced Studies. At UChicago, her work has been supported by the Ephron, Neubauer, and Elder Olson Funds, and as an undergraduate she received a Franke Undergraduate Research Fellowship in Science and the Humanities and Jeffrey R. Lewis Junior Research Fellowship at Yale University.
- Masters of Public Policy, Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago
- BA, International Studies, Morehouse College
Christian Navarro was the Graduate Student Assistant for Fellowships and a 2nd year student at the Harris School of Public Policy. Christian earned his BA in International Studies from Morehouse College where he received the Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship. As a Pickering Fellow, Christian intends to pursue a career with the U.S. State Department as a Foreign Service Officer. Through his coursework at the Harris School, he hopes to gain the necessary tools to promote positive change domestically and abroad. Prior to attending the University of Chicago, Christian has had previous experience working at Wells Fargo, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and has attended the American University in Dubai as a William Jefferson Clinton Scholar.