Princeton University undergraduate Alison Fortenberry has been awarded the Beinecke Scholarship, a program designed to support students pursuing graduate studies in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Fortenberry is part of Princeton’s Class of 2026 and hails from Philadelphia.
Fortenberry is majoring in African American studies and has minors in religion and English, along with a certificate in American studies. Her research focuses on 20th-century African American and American religious history. She conducted junior independent research on demographic changes within a Philadelphia church by mapping congregational migrations. After completing her undergraduate degree at Princeton, she plans to pursue a Ph.D. focusing on American cultural history, race, and religion.
At Princeton, Fortenberry holds several roles: she is a peer academic adviser for Butler College, a mentor for the Princeton University Mentoring Program, and an associate essay editor for “Mélange: A Journal of Prose Poetry and the Arts.” She was also honored with the Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence.
This year, Fortenberry is among 20 U.S. undergraduates who received the Beinecke Scholarships. The scholarship program was established in 1971 by the board of directors of The Sperry and Hutchinson Company.
