Senior Sydney Rensel ’25 was one of 10 students granted a 2024 Summer Research Fellowship at Westminster College. Rensel, an English major from Evans City, Pa., spent her summer months working on her project, “Hidden Casualties of War: How Anti-War Novels Highlight the Unseen Casualties of War.” She conducted her research with guidance from Dr. Robert Craven ’13, assistant professor of English. Rensel is president of the English honors society Sigma Tau Delta and is a member of the Kappa Delta sorority. She is also active in Book Club and the Sexuality and Gender Alliance club (SAGA) on campus.  

 
Why did you apply for the Summer Research Fellowship?
I applied for the fellowship because I wanted the opportunity to have undivided research time with an expert in the areas of literary criticism and ecocriticism that I was interested in studying. My project also covers areas of literature that are not commonly represented in classes, so I wanted to find information and references for science fiction, ecocriticism and anti-war novels to have a good foundation for my project.

Can you briefly describe your project?
I am looking at the unseen casualties of war with a focus on the environment in the anti-war science fiction novels, “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut and “The Word for World is Forest” by Ursula K. Le Guin.

What did you learn from your collaboration with Dr. Craven? What kinds of insight and support did he contribute to your project?
Dr. Craven taught me so many useful research methods and tricks that have really helped me to build an amazing, annotated bibliography. He is also very well versed in ecocriticism and science fiction reference, so I learned a lot from him about my subject matter. He helped me to grow as a researcher and encouraged me a lot throughout the project, telling me that the work I am doing is important.

What aspects of research were your favorite and/or most challenging?
My favorite part was being introduced to so many authors who were writing similar research questions to my own. It made me feel confident about my own research questions and it was cool to learn from similar thinkers. I made so many important discoveries for my project this summer and look forward to writing my capstone paper this fall.

How do you think your work as a student researcher will shape your future student and/or career success?
This experience helped me improve my research skills, which will be helpful to continue my capstone research on my own and in other classes at Westminster. It also taught me how to work within a smaller time frame and still accomplish a lot of work. This has given me the confidence to go into my capstone project knowing I will have more than enough time to complete it after accomplishing my fellowship research in four weeks. I learned good time management skills and surprised myself with how much I was able to learn in a short period of time.

What is your favorite thing about being a Westminster student?
I love meeting so many amazing people that help nurture my interests and curiosities like Dr. Craven, as well as students and staff from all different backgrounds, who have taught me a lot about myself and made me a stronger person.

What are your future plans?
I plan to use my research and apply it to my capstone this fall. I intend to expand my research into a creative portion of the project. For the creative portion, I will be writing a short science fiction story of my own taking the themes and ideas I learned and applying them to the modern-day conflicts in Ukraine and Palestine. Beyond my project I aspire to get my work published since I am an advocate that science fiction deserves a place in the literary canon.  

Sponsored by the Drinko Center for Undergraduate Research, Summer Research Fellowships at Westminster College allow students to conduct hands-on research and creative projects under the guidance of our experienced faculty mentors.

For more information about Westminster’s English major, please visit www.westminster.edu/english.
 

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