The Pluralism Project at Harvard University

Research Interns

Research Intern

Amrita Dani is a senior at Harvard College. She is concentrating in Literature, with a focus on Arabic and Francophone literature of the Middle East and North Africa. She spent last summer as a research fellow in Cambridge, UK working on an independent research project studying English Romantic poetry. During the academic year, Amrita is involved with the Phillips Brooks House Association program, BRYE, through which she volunteers as an ESL enrichment teacher in Dorchester for children of recent immigrants, as well as an on-campus peer counseling group focusing on issues of gender, identity, and relationships. She also sings with the Harvard Radcliffe Collegium Musicum, a mixed chamber choir that performs master works and a cappella repertoire on campus.

Research Intern

Sarah is a Master of Theological studies candidate at Harvard Divinity School, specializing in Islamic Studies, and women, gender, sexuality in religion. Her main areas of academic studies are interfaith dialogue, religious pluralism, religious tolerance, and ethics. She obtained a double BA from George Mason University in English and Religious Studies. During her senior year at GMU, she presented research at the George Mason University Research Symposium on spiritually egalitarian interpretations of Eve and Adam. In the future, she hopes to obtain a PhD in religious pluralism and master both Arabic and Hebrew.

Research Associates

Research Associate

Crystal Alburger is a Master of Divinity candidate at Harvard Divinity School, on the ordination track to become a Unitarian Universalist minister. As a Spiritual Activist Fellow with the Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry from 2011 to 2012, she lobbied for the Human Right to Water and advocated for immigration reform. Since its inception in 2011, she has also been a contributing writer for the Humanist Community Project and seeks to encourage conversation among interfaith, Humanist, and Unitarian Universalist movements. In June 2012, Crystal participated in the Building an Interfaith Leadership Seminar. This academic year, she will be working on content updates to On Common Ground: World Religions in America.

Research Associate

Paul Escobar, a graduate in the Rhetoric, French, and Religious Studies departments at UC Berkeley, is now a Master of Theological Studies candidate specializing in Philosophy of Religion at Harvard Divinity School. His main areas of academic interest and work are the intersections of cognitive neuroscience, religious experience and belief, and religion in the public sphere. Paul approaches these topics in a decidedly pragmatic (of the William James variety) philosophical perspective. After finishing at HDS, Paul intends to pursue another Master degree in Cognitive Neuroscience. As a Research Associate with the Pluralism Project, Paul will be updating the Religious Diversity Newsfeed and offering content and editing support for On Common Ground: World Religions in America.

Research Associate

Sara Lytle is a senior at Harvard College, concentrating in the Comparative Study of Religion with a secondary field in Psychology. She focuses on Buddhism and Religions in America/the Modern West and is currently writing her senior thesis on how Buddhist approaches to end of life care impact hospice caregivers in Malaysia and California. She has done work on interfaith interaction and immigration, the role of religion in identity and meaning making, and, most recently, on the role between religion and mental, physical, and emotional well-being. On campus, she is involved in mental health advocacy, theater, and the Harvard radio. She is also a teacher with Harvard STAGE, through which she teaches elementary school students theater and performing arts. At the Pluralism Project, Sara will be working on multimedia and photography updates for On Common Ground: World Religions in America.

Research Associate

Melissa is a Master of Theological Studies candidate at Harvard Divinity School, focusing on Islamic Studies. After graduating from Colgate University in May 2010 with a BA in Religion and South Asian Studies, she served as the Summer Intern at the Pluralism Project, followed by a year teaching in Abu Dhabi. This past summer, as a recipient of the Greeley International Internship fellowship, she worked at the Jordanian Interfaith Coexistence Research Center (JICRC) in Amman, where her research and outreach emphasized Arab Christian-Muslim relations and faith-based diplomacy. Her academic interests include understanding the ways in which and extent to which religious traditions affect culture and identity on a local and international scale. In her second year as a Research Associate at the Pluralism Project, Melissa offers administrative and research support to Dr. Diana Eck while contributing to various endeavors at the Project.

Senior Research Associate

Brendan Randall is a recovering lawyer and teacher studying religion, law and education as a doctoral candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE). He is interested in how schools can prepare students to live in a religiously diverse democratic society and his research focuses on religiously-motivated student speech on controversial social issues. Brendan also has a Master of Education from HGSE in school leadership and a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School in religion, ethics, and politics. Before returning to graduate school, Brendan taught history, applied ethics and comparative religion at the Emma Willard School, an independent, all-girls boarding school in Troy, NY.

Research Associate

April Winebrenner-Palo completed her BA in Religion from Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 2011. She is now pursuing her Masters in Theological Studies at Harvard Divinity School. While her academic background is in Celtic and Norse comparative mythology, most of her professional work focuses on multireligious community organizing. She has held leadership roles in interfaith campus and community projects, youth leadership development, and service work, including campaigns on labor rights, climate change, and refugee resettlement. As a Research Associate, April will be collecting fieldwork and working on content updates for On Common Ground: World Religions in America.