Alumna Kelli Swazey graduated from the University of New Hampshire summa cum laude in 2005 with a B.S. in anthropology. Currently at the University of Hawai’i Manoa completing her master’s degree, she is a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow and an editor of Explorations, the University’s graduate journal of Southeast Asian Studies. She is also an East West Center student affiliate in the Department of Anthropology.
Kelli began investigating New Hampshire’s Indonesian Christian community in 2003, and will complete this phase of her research when she defends her master’s thesis at the University of Hawai’i Manoa in spring 2008. “Research is always a challenging and invigorating process,” she says. “It’s certainly not always fun; there is a lot of hard work and as an anthropologist flexibility is a must. But it’s usually always fascinating.” Kelli hopes her commentary will “encourage other students to have faith in their abilities to contribute to the academic conversation and to the communities around them by engaging in research through the UROP program.” She will continue to focus on Indonesian Christians as she pursues her Ph.D.
Deborah Winslow, associate professor of anthropology, served as Kelli’s faculty mentor for her UROP research project and has been teaching at the University of New Hampshire for thirty years. She specializes in economic anthropology and South Asia, particularly Sri Lanka. Dr. Winslow “learned a great deal about Indonesians in New Hampshire” through Kelli, and notes that Kelli’s research also showed her just how much a determined, motivated individual can accomplish. “Kelli Swazey is an extraordinary researcher, student, and human being,” said Winslow.
Read Kelli Swazey's commentary Traversing Islands of Experience: How Undergraduate Research Helped Me Navigate through Graduate School and Beyond >>
