Fellow Focus: Adelaide Rosene

2024-25 Undergraduate Humanities Honors Fellow and History major Adelaide Rosene recently graduated from Emory University and plans to work at the Wisconsin Historical Society before continuing her research in graduate school.

In this conversation with Communications & Outreach Coordinator Karl-Mary Akre, Adelaide talks about graduate school, Sundown Towns and the realization that her hometown used to be one.

KARL-MARY AKRE: Could you give me a brief introduction of your thesis project?

ADELAIDE ROSENE: I’m investigating how a city of about 50,000 people imagined and enforced an unwritten law to exclude non-white people from living in the community or residing there after dark. My project is basically a history of my hometown and I’m using a lot of newspaper records and census data to talk about a place and a history that’s very close to me, but one that no one really talks about and that I wasn’t familiar with until recently. ⁠ 

How would you say that the Fox Center Fellowship, especially the interdisciplinary environment, has impacted the research you're doing?

At the Fox Center, it’s been really helpful to have a space to hear about how other students’ projects are progressing and to check in. I’m also collaborating with students who have completely different projects, and I have an opportunity to share what I’m learning to make sure my research resonates students outside of my field. ⁠

What's your favorite part of the fellowship so far? 

One of my favorite parts of the fellowship was a panel about career planning and graduate school, hosted by some of the graduate fellows. That was super informative and helpful for me because I decided to take a gap year. It was very affirming to speak to people who experimented with being in the ‘real world’ before returning to academia. I really valued the support of the graduate fellows in that way.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.