Four graduate students in the Department of History were selected by the Illinois Global Institute to receive research awards and language fellowships. They are amongst 29 students selected across the university.
Mariana Kellis and Terra Zhang were selected for summer research awards, which awards Illinois graduate students with up to $3,500 to support travel outside the United States, thereby contributing to the development of a dissertation or thesis project that draws on international research. Kellis will travel to Estonia for her project “From Unfree to ‘Free’?: ‘Long Emancipations’ in Russian Imperial Estonia and Spanish Puerto Rico" and Zhang will travel to Senegal for her project “Arabic Historiography in Senegambia.”
Dengyang Liao and Rebecca Stover received a graduate language fellowship, which provides a $22,000 stipend for the 2026-27 academic year for language training needed to conduct research or to meet other professional development needs. Liao will use the funds to study Swahili and Stover will study Chinese.