"Our students successfully compete for some of the most distinguished research awards that are available at the doctoral level of study," said Jason Springs, director of doctoral studies. "These accomplishments reflect a high level of excellence in their respective disciplines. But they are all the more impressive in that each meets--and surpasses, really--the demands of interdisciplinarity and integrative scholarship that uniquely characterize the best work in peace studies and peace research. Congratulations to all."
Anna Fett (history and peace studies) has won an Outstanding Graduate Student Teacher Award bestowed by The Kaneb Center for Teaching and Learning and the Graduate School. The award recognizes graduate students for their excellence in teaching at the University of Notre Dame.
Rieti Gengo (anthropology and peace studies) has received a Dissertation Fieldwork Grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation to support his dissertation research at the Kakuma Refugee Camp in northern Kenya. Rieti will combine ethnographic, social network, nutritional, and neuroendocrine biomarker analyses to explore how undocumented asylum seekers adapt--both behaviorally and physiologically--to life outside the boundaries of institutional recognition or support.
Kristina Hook (anthropology and peace studies) has been awarded the Human Rights Defender Travel Award for 2017 by The Society for Applied Anthropology. The travel scholarship offsets the expenses of attending the Annual Meeting of the Society in Santa Fe, NM, and recognizes the significance of Kristina’s conference paper on the Bykivnia Soviet mass grave site, the current war with Russia, and liminality theory.
Kristina has also been awarded two grants to support her fieldwork in Ukraine in 2018. A USAID/Notre Dame Global Development Fellowship will allow Kristina to partner with the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy's Center for International Human Rights to examine the causes and legacy of the 1930s Holodomor mass atrocities. Additionally, an Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts Graduate Student Research Award (ISLA GSRA) will enable her to conduct preliminary research and test pilot methodologies for her work on the Holodomor in Kyiv this summer.
Leslie MacColman (sociology and peace studies) has been awarded a Fulbright Student grant for study in Argentina. She will examine how large-scale police reform, initiated in 2016 in Buenos Aires, impacts police practices in different parts of the city based on the unique characteristics of police precincts and the diverse neighborhoods they are tasked with policing.
Emily Maiden (political science and peace studies) has received a Fulbright award to Malawi. Emily will spend approximately ten months there conducting fieldwork on the policy implementation process regarding child marriage. Through interviews, data collection, and participant observation, she will determine what an effective implementation strategy might look like that could combat child marriage.
Emily has also received a USAID/Notre Dame Global Development Fellowship. She will travel to Malawi to determine what an effective implementation strategy might look like that could strategically combat the issue of child marriage. She will also be supported by Professor Bleck.
The Kroc Institute partners with six Notre Dame departments to offer six distinct but related doctoral degrees: Anthropology and Peace Studies, History and Peace Studies, Political Science and Peace Studies, Psychology and Peace Studies, Sociology and Peace Studies, and Theology and Peace Studies. Students are fully credentialed in one of the six disciplines and trained in interdisciplinary peace research. The degree prepares students for positions in research, teaching, and peacebuilding.
Contact: Jason Springs, (574) 631-0931, Jason.A.Springs.2@nd.edu