LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ (05/26/2011)(readMedia)-- Jennifer Sorensen of Bridgewater, N.J., a junior Secondary Education and History dual major, was recently named as one of the five student recipients of Rider University's Undergraduate Research Scholars Award (URSA).
Each year, the URSA Committee presents $5,000 research scholarships to Rider students in the colleges of Business Administration; Liberal Arts, Education, and Sciences; Continuing Studies and the Westminster College of the Arts.
Under the advisement of Dr. Lucien Frary, associate professor of History, Sorensen will spend the 2011-12 academic year working on New Currents of Fascism: Neo-Nazism in the Russian Federation. Sorenson will examine neo-Nazism in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Although the subject of neo-fascism is generally ignored by scholars, in Russia the movement has seeped into the political sphere, creating an environment too dangerous to ignore. Sorenson seeks to explore the endurance of neo-Nazism in Russian politics and society, and illuminate how Russia has become home to half of the world's active neo-fascist groups.