Congratulations to the winner of the 2024-2025 SPARK Fellowship: Cooper Sunderland!

We are thrilled to announce that Cooper Sunderland has been awarded a $4000 SPARK Fellowship for his independent summer study abroad project, Art – A Refuge Abroad. 

Dr. Andrew Zawacki reviewed the entries and concluded that Cooper's proposal was, "both fascinating and feasible."

When asked to summarize his project for this announcement, Cooper shared this statement:

Through this project, Dr. Uelzmann and I intend to document how Syrian refugees living abroad in Berlin have adopted the German language as a means of self-expression and how their status as asylum seekers has impacted their relationships with the broader German political sphere. To this end we have established contact with the Kreuzberg Kunstraum, one of the foremost cultural centers in the city of Berlin, and intend to spend much of the month-long research period interfacing with artists in collaboration with the center. The project itself will take the format of a written reportage summarizing my findings from over the course of the summer and will include several written translations of German-language prose, poetry, music, etc. I could not be more grateful for the opportunity, and I’m super excited to get started.

Cooper's project is supported by Dr. Jan Uelzmann, Associate Professor of German and the Study Abroad in Berlin Co-director. Of the project, Dr. Uelzmann shared, “This is an exciting and very timely project that I am thrilled to be a part of. I very much look forward to supporting his work and the encounters he will have with Syrian and other refugee artists in Berlin.”