Want to Stretch Your Mind? Check Out Friday’s Jefferson Fellows Symposium

Andrew Kritzer talking to a crowd of people during a presentation

Jefferson Fellow Andrew Kritzer, a 2014 graduate of the Darden School, discusses the drivers of national debt in his presentation at last year’s Jefferson Fellows Symposium.

Graduate students often become so immersed in their disciplines that opportunities to engage with scholars in other fields can be few and far between. The Jefferson Scholars Foundation at the University of Virginia has set out to change that.

On Friday, from 1 to 3 p.m., 18 graduate students, studying across 14 departments and three schools at U.Va., will come together under one roof to present on a wide range of research topics as part of the 13th Annual Jefferson Fellows Symposium.

Free and open to the public, the symposium will feature presentations from students who are holders of the highly selective Jefferson Fellowship and who are studying in the departments of anthropology, astronomy, biology, classics, economics, history, music, philosophy, politics, psychology, religious studies and sociology in the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences; the departments of biomedical engineering and engineering physics in the School of Engineering and Applied Science; and the Darden School of Business.

“The purpose of this event is twofold,” said Bill Wilson, director of the Jefferson Fellows Program. “First, we want to showcase the scope and breadth of the work that is done by our fellows in the Jefferson Fellows Center every day. Second, we want to give all students and faculty at U.Va. the opportunity to step outside of their disciplines – and their comfort zones – and join this amazing group of scholars in an interdisciplinary exchange of ideas and perspectives.”

Jefferson Fellows are charged with furthering the quality of education, intellectual life and mission of the University. The annual symposium is an outcome of this goal and additionally serves as a recruiting tool for new students.

Among the audience members will be approximately 62 Ph.D. nominees from 53 undergraduate schools across the globe, all of whom are competing for the Jefferson Scholars Foundation’s merit graduate fellowships. 

For information about the 13th Annual Jefferson Fellows Symposium and for abstracts on each presentation, click here or call 434-243-9029.

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