For the summer of 2025, 10 students were selected for the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF), an SJNY-funded undergraduate research program that provides stipends of $4,000 for each student recipient to work on research projects, overseen by a faculty mentor.
With an overarching goal of alleviating the economic pressures that can prohibit strong students from actively engaging in academic research opportunities, the SURF program is open to students of all disciplines. Recipients conduct their research for 10 weeks over the summer and then present at the Student Research Symposium the following spring.
Welcome to the Riot Grrrl Movement
Brandon Ronquillo ’26, a History Adolescence Education and Economics student on the Long Island Campus, spent his summer researching Riot Grrrl, a radical feminist youth movement that originated in the 1990s. Stemming from his love of punk rock, both as a form of artistic expression and a commitment to feminism and social justice, Brandon sought to analyze the spread of the widely popular movement across North America and Europe.
“Conducting this research has been immensely meaningful because it thoroughly connects me with my professional aspirations as a future historian,” Ronquillo shared.
His research, broken into phases, involved visiting to the Fales Library archives at New York University and the People’s Archive in Washington, D.C., where Ronquillo would view and scan hundreds of sources such as magazines, correspondence, flyers, essays and personal writing from several collections dating back to the beginning of the Riot Grrrl movement.
From there, he’d input each source into a database and geocoded their origin and destination, composing a map to track the spread of the movement on an international scale. An analysis of these letters and materials allowed him to explore his research questions regarding the impact of Riot Grrrl.
“As I sifted through dozens of boxes full of so many lives, I often reflected upon the core reason why I have been drawn to history in the first place. History reminds us that we are not alone and that the past is human,” he continued.
Ronquillo’s faculty mentor during his research was assistant professor of history Nerissa Aksamit, Ph.D., who emphasized the importance of a movement such as Riot Grrrl during a seminal time in world history.
“Brandon’s project on Riot Grrrl takes a close look at a pivotal moment not just for punk music, but more significantly for feminism and feminist history — the rise of Third Wave Feminism,” said Professor Aksamit.
She continued, “The girls and young women of that movement were shaping and were shaped by the world around them. They were speaking out on issues like sexual violence, the patriarchy and sexism, and inequality all while addressing the shortcomings of their mothers’ feminist movement.”
Highlighting the Importance of SURF
For Ronquillo, being selected to participate in the SURF program felt like a culmination of all his hard work and experience since beginning his journey at St. Joseph’s. He also expressed his gratitude for his mentor Professor Aksamit in making the experience a pleasant one. According to Ronquillo, his mentor creates an environment where learning is meaningful and intellectually rewarding for her students.
“Dedicating myself to research over the summer, building upon my skills as a historian and realizing a project of my design is an unparalleled opportunity, exclusively facilitated through this program, and will undoubtedly shape the future of my educational and professional career,” he shared.
“I am honored to represent the History Department, proudly showing the skills and methodologies forged and honed within the program by my professors,” Ronquillo concluded.
This story is part of OnCampus’ “SURF Recipients 2025” series, centered on students conducting research at St. Joseph’s University, New York in anticipation of the University’s 2026 Student Research Symposium. To read more from this series, click here.
