Summer 2025 CESTA Undergraduate Research Program Applications Open Again!
We are excited to announce that applications for the Summer 2025 Undergraduate Research Program are open! Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis throughout February.
Important Note: If you applied in December 2024 for the Summer program, there’s no need to submit another application. All applications from both rounds will be reviewed, and decisions will be shared by early March. If your plans have changed since submitting your application in the first round, please let us know by emailing cesta_stanford [at] stanford.edu (cesta_stanford[at]stanford[dot]edu). We look forward to reviewing your applications!
CESTA's Undergraduate Research Internship program empowers students to apply technologies across the Humanities and Social Sciences in ways that enhance our understanding of the world.
As Stanford's digital humanities center, CESTA cultivates research at the intersection of computing, design, and the humanities. The Center utilizes digital and computational methods to investigate cultural records, objects, and historical phenomena through space and time. CESTA projects explore the history of technologies, preserve and explain the written and artistic records of peoples across the world, and bring new life to the stories of individuals who helped build America.
The Undergraduate Research Internship provides opportunities for undergraduates to work on these projects throughout the academic year. Through structured research training, experimentation with cutting-edge technologies, and faculty mentorship, students develop valuable academic and professional skill sets. Work on lab projects allows students to apply their developing expertise in data science, GIS, and web development in tandem with humanities skills in critical thinking, creative problem-solving, and ethical decision-making.
You can read about the experiences of recent interns in CESTA's 2024 Research Anthology.
Summer 2025
- Full-time, in-person commitment (40 hours per week)
- Regular in-person program sessions at CESTA (meetings with the full cohort of interns)
- Full-time interns will work in-person in the CESTA space, and there will be a program of social events and activities
- Many project and professional development opportunities, including working extensively with faculty members
- Possibility to get accustomed to many computational, digital, archival, and humanistic methods and tools!
All research interns are compensated for their participation in the program. Compensation can take several forms, including hourly pay, stipends, and academic credit (at the application stage, students are asked whether they are open to working for academic credit). Interns will receive information about their specific arrangement in their offer letters. Generally speaking, research assistants will be offered hourly positions via their project's faculty lead. Interns working full-time will be offered stipends. Students who qualify for Federal Work-Study awards in 2024-25 should let us know about their eligibility at the time that they apply.