Faculty Research Grants

The Melton Center offers an annual Faculty Research Grant program to support research in Jewish Studies associated with any part of a scholarly or artistic project.

The recipient of the 2025–2026 Research Grant is:

Gabriella Modan —

Professor, Department of English

Professor Galey Modan received a Melton Center Faculty Research Grant to conduct fieldwork in Amsterdam on Jewish Amsterdammers' perspectives on Yiddish words in the Amsterdam dialect. She held focus group discussions with 75-to-90-year-olds and 30-to-40-year-olds to explore generational differences regarding word use, perceptions about whether particular words could be characterized as Jewish words, Amsterdam words, or Dutch words more generally. Additionally, she investigated differing perspectives about the socioeconomic class connotations of particular words and attitudes towards Jewish vs. non-Jewish uses. She hired a graduate student to transcribe the interviews, who is now also transcribing life stories Professor Modan collected from people who were in hiding as children during the war.