2025 University of Virginia Research Fellow Grace Theriot Conducts Research at the Center

Through a new cooperation between the USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research and the Jewish Studies program at the University of Virginia, the Center is welcoming two research fellows to the Center this summer. Grace Theriot is the 2025 University of Virginia Undergraduate Summer Research Fellow in Holocaust Studies. The fellowship enables an outstanding undergraduate student to conduct original research at the Center utilizing the Visual History Archive and other unique resources and collections at USC.

Grace Theriot is a rising senior at the University of Virginia, where she is double majoring in Public Policy and Leadership and Jewish Studies, with a concentration in Holocaust Studies. She is also minoring in Global Studies in Education. During her two-month residency at the Center, she is conducting research for a project exploring whether key elements of the “coming-of-age” experience – such as insecurity, physical development, and romantic feelings – persist in contexts of extreme violence and persecution such as the Holocaust. Exploring survivor testimonies, diaries, and other sources, she is examining how these themes emerge or are transformed under catastrophic circumstances.

At the University of Virginia, Theriot is a Counselor with the University Judiciary Committee, a fellow with the Jewish Studies Department, and an intern with the Brody Jewish Center Hillel. In previous summers, she interned with the global non-profit organizations Ready To Lead Africa and TurnUp Activism, and completed coursework at University College, Oxford. Her academic excellence has been recognized through awards including the National P.E.O. STAR Scholarship and UVA’s Global Internship Scholarship.

Watch her discuss her research at the Center below.