University of Oregon students Claire Jones and Michelle Rogers have been named 2026 Undergraduate STEAM Summer Fellows by the Center for the Study of Women in Society.
Launched in 2025 with funding from our 50th anniversary Duckfunder campaign, this undergraduate fellowship creates opportunities for cross-disciplinary collaborations among science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) faculty and students on campus and to enhance pathways for underrepresented students in STEAM to succeed.
A senior majoring in biochemistry and minoring in bioengineering, Jones will conduct summer research for her project, “Understanding Female Specific Factors in Osteoarthritis” under the supervision of Associate Professor Nick Willett in the Willett Lab at the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact. The purpose of her project is to increase understanding regarding how female-specific factors contribute to degenerative joint diseases such as osteoarthritis, which is characterized by chronic low-grade inflammation that can cause degradation of joint cartilage.
From experiences as female athlete in male-dominated sports, Jones knows how important it is to “empower girls to take up space and play confidently,” she noted in application materials. She now takes these life lessons into the male-dominated space of science research.
“At times I have struggled and felt inadequate [in STEM],” Jones stated, “but I use the perseverance and resilience I developed from my early experiences to push forward. These experiences have shaped my commitment to increasing representation for women in science. Greater diversity within the field is essential for driving research for historically underrepresented groups. I am proud to contribute to this effort and be joining a lab that is committed to advancing research on female-specific factors.”
A junior majoring in dance and minoring in chemistry, Rogers will conduct summer research for the project, “Partitions for Performance: A Summative Model for Analyzing Gendered Connotations in Dance” under the supervision of Assistant Professor Amy Swanson in the School of Music and Dance. According to application materials, the project “aims to develop a more objective approach to choreographic analysis that renders commonalities among ‘feminine’ and ‘masculine’ movement patterns discreet enough to represent mathematically.”
Growing up as a genderqueer person, Rogers often felt out of place in the world and at first chose to major in chemistry for its reassuring predictability.
“[M]y own placement in the world made so little sense to me that I found agency and reassurance in being able to explain everything else besides myself,” Jones stated. “Despite the fact that chemistry is now my minor and dance is my major, I still feel a sense of childlike wonder when a new phenomenon or pattern surprises me with its existence in my elective [dance] classes. Its intricate beauty grounds me and gives me hope for the application of complex relationships to areas so widespread and ancient as the performing arts. There is little need, I feel, for artists to fear the sciences and vice versa, and I hope to show more and more people that they are capable of expanding their practices to new idioms through future works similar to this project.”
The CSWS Undergraduate STEAM Summer Fellowship provides grant funding for undergraduates ($3,000) and faculty mentors ($1,000) to partner on researched-based summer projects that support the Center's mission to create, fund, and share research that addresses the complicated nature of gender identities and inequalities. CSWS defines research as broadly encompassing all academic fields of study, including social sciences, humanities, arts, sciences, and disciplines in the professional schools. Final products for the fellowship may be in any genre, such as an article, website, comic, podcast, performance, or short film.