In Rome, a history major explores how Italian Fascists used architecture to promote their view of the “Fascist new man.”
Meanwhile, in Rio de Janeiro, an anthropology and English double major uses observation and semi-structured interviews to understand how European cultural capital influences race and class identity in contemporary Brazilian society.
These are just two of the more than 200 student projects supported this year through the Pomona College Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP), which provides students a generous stipend for up to 10 weeks of full-time work as a professor’s research assistant or to carry out their own research initiatives.
Such international projects include extensive on-site research.
Becoming Immersed in History
Last fall, Kobe Leonor ’27, a transfer student from New York, came across an online database that lists every Fascist-era monument, building and statue in Italy. It piqued his interest in how the Mussolini regime “used architecture to construct an ideal of youth, athleticism and the conception of a modern, masculine ‘Fascist new man,’” he says.
SURP funding is making it possible for Leonor to spend most of July in Rome engaged in a research project titled “Embodied Strength: Italian Fascist Architecture & Political Technology.” He is delving into personal archives such as those of architect Enrico del Debbio, builder of projects including the Foro Italico, an outdoor athletic complex in the Italian capital constructed between 1928 and 1932. By studying plans, drawings, correspondence and publications, he hopes to discover the intentions behind the Fascist-era building projects and the values they were meant to embody.
“My academic experience has been undoubtedly improved by this research opportunity,” Leonor has already found. “In doing this project, I have learned the fundamentals behind independent undergraduate research, the path that a researcher takes in answering their questions, what it means to interact with archives, and a deeper understanding of the historical period in which I hope to focus my senior thesis,” he says.
Exploring the historical artifacts is also broadening Leonor’s understanding of what it means to be a history major. In fact, he says he is discovering that “experiencing the history myself, alongside the contemporary world of Italy, empowers me to connect the dots on my own and see what it is to not just study history, but to immerse myself in it.”
Pey-Yi Chu, associate professor of history, is mentoring Leonor, and the rising senior says she “has been monumental in my understanding of what it is to be an independent researcher. Without her, this work would not be possible.”
Bringing Theory and Literature to Life
Zena Almeida-Warwin ’28 says Brazil is often considered a nation where races mix harmoniously, a pattern the current government encourages through what she says are “some of the most ambitious racial equity policies in the Americas.”
Still, the anthropology and English double major notes, a post-colonial preference for “whiteness” persists and is seen in what she calls “new institutional laboratories: private universities, Western cultural centers, security-fortified shopping malls and exclusive nightlife spaces.”
Almeida-Warwin’s SURP-supported research project is titled “Colonial Hangovers: Race, Nostalgia, & Elite Culture in Brazil” and it focuses on the gap between progressive public policy and social life in Rio de Janeiro organized around Europeanness. She is using observation and semi-structured interviews to explore how cariocas—residents of Rio de Janeiro—retain old social hierarchies “not primarily through explicit ideology,” she says, “but through the use of European and Western cultural, linguistic and lifestyle markers to claim legitimacy.”
“This research is an incredible opportunity to integrate my academic training with immersion in a place I care deeply about,” says Almeida-Warwin, who is spending much of the summer in Rio. “Being here in person has already been invaluable in bringing theory and literature to life and in building the kinds of relationships with research participants that ethnographic work depends on.”
Almeida-Warwin’s research mentor is cultural anthropologist Omer Shah, assistant professor of anthropology. “I’m excited to refine my research approach and insights with Professor Shah’s mentorship, and to continue reckoning with my own background and perspective and how it shapes my experiences and interpretations throughout the summer,” she says.