Juniper Shelley: Around the World in 70 Days
Juniper Shelley once thought the “cool” research happened in windowless STEM labs, not in the social sciences. But after joining Professor Sally Nuamah’s lab, she realized research can also mean nearly everything she loves: traveling, talking to people, and exploring challenging questions.
This summer, Shelley, a junior in the School of Education and Social Policy, will take that work global after winning Northwestern University’s Circumnavigators Travel-Study Grant. She will study how men in different cultures experience loneliness, masculinity, and emotional connection.
With the once-in-a-lifetime $10,000 grant, jointly awarded by Northwestern's Office of Undergraduate Research and the Chicago Chapter of the Circumnavigators Club, Shelley will visit five countries — Mexico, South Africa, Sweden, Japan and Australia — over 10 weeks, crossing every meridian.
“For students with a wide range of interests, undergraduate research is a fantastic way to pursue academic passions without having to take classes or declare a major,” Shelley said. She is currently abroad in Australia, working on her practicum. “There are also so many ways to get involved — research doesn’t need to look like working in a lab on campus.”
Shelley, of Montclair, New Jersey, first began doing research in Nuamah’s lab, studying how Black girls are disciplined in Chicago Public Schools. At the same time, she completed an independent research project examining how a person’s immigration status predicts their experience with the health care system.
Working on the two projects simultaneously showed her that using a variety of research methods can provide nuance to complicated questions. “It encouraged me to think outside of the box when considering research opportunities, leading me to an interdisciplinary, mixed-methods approach,” said Shelley, who presented the work last spring at the Midwest Association of Public Opinion Research Conference.
The ManKind Project
Shelley began thinking about the emotional lives of men after seeing social media posts about the “male loneliness epidemic” and reading Boys and Sex by Peggy Orenstein. “The scale of the problem really struck me, she said. "After some research, I realized there weren’t many solutions."
As she prepared her proposal, Shelley sent more than 100 emails and spoke with at least 20 members of the ManKind Project, an international nonprofit that facilitates men’s groups in more than two dozen countries.
She quickly noticed that men from countries with vastly different cultural models of masculinity were describing similar feelings of isolation.
“Hearing how deeply these patterns affected men’s mental health and relationships made me want to understand not only the problem, but what kinds of community-based solutions actually help,” she said.
Shelley’s project, Rewriting Manhood: Cross-Cultural Approaches to Male Connection and Growth, involves connecting with group leaders in each country and collecting observational, survey, interview and focus group data.
To date, the ManKind Project has had mixed success, and there is little research on what works and why. Shelley ultimately hopes to produce a white paper with strategies to help the organization adapt more effectively across cultures.
Lauren Tighe, a School of Education and Social Policy instructor and one of Shelley’s mentors, said Shelley has the maturity, professionalism, initiative and dedication required for an international research project of this scope.
“Engaging with global partners involves cultural sensitivity, meticulous care and planning, and the capacity for rejection,” Tighe wrote in a letter of recommendation. “In my class, she has consistently met every deadline — usually very early — adapted to new content and technical challenges, and sought out learning opportunities beyond course requirements.”
Though only a third-year student, Shelley plans to attend graduate school, where she expects to continue conducting research, before pursuing a policy-focused career in international aid.
Talking to people, she said, is her favorite part of the research process — and a skill she expects to use wherever she lands.
“The type of research I like relies on other people’s expertise to answer challenging questions,” she said. “Projects like the Circumnavigators Grant allow me to learn from people all over the world and understand how their unique experiences inform answers to very complex questions.”
Previous SESP Circumnavigator Winners include:
2018: Hannah (Whitehouse) Muzzi (Music20,BS20)
Muzzi, who earned a master’s in education at Harvard and was recently with the Cleveland Orchestra, studied the Venezuelan music education program El Sistema.
Countries: England, Greece, India, the Philippines, New Zealand and Kenya to research the Venezuelan music education program El Sistema.
Project title: “Global Perspectives on the El Sistema Movement: Social Change through Music Education.”
2015: Jonathan McBride (BS16), now an anesthesiology resident at the University of Michigan, researched sexual assault policies and related resources for students.
Countries: Brazil, Portugal, Spain, Netherlands, Turkey, South Africa, and Australia
Project title: “The American Sexual Assault Crisis in a Global Context: Policies, Resources, and Student Engagement”
2010: Meixi (BS11): Now an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota’s College of Human Development, Meixi studied schools that have a dual objective of academic development and social justice. She wanted to understand how a school's definition of success translates to change for individuals and communities.
Countries: Guatemala, Venezuela, Slovakia, Ghana, South Africa, Singapore
Project title: “Education as Transformation: The Power of Schools"