Selected from a pool of highly competitive candidates, the Office of Graduate Studies has chosen 12 PhD students representing 7 graduate programs across the university to participate in the 2018 UMass Boston Transdisciplinary Dissertation Proposal Development Program. Among them include 4 students from the PhD Program in Global Governance and Human Security at the McCormack Graduate School – the largest number from any one doctoral program.With funds provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, this proposal development program is a collaboration between the Social Science Research Council and the University of Massachusetts Boston designed to expose doctoral candidates to the possibilities of transdisciplinary research, to develop proposals that are competitive for external funding, and to increase the support networks and retention of students at this critical stage in their careers.These doctoral students will participate in a dissertation seminar this spring led by Professor of Anthropology Rosalyn Negrón to help them prepare to defend their dissertation proposals in the next academic year. Students will develop cogent and fundable research proposals that draw on inter- or transdisciplinary theories, methods, or approaches. In addition to the dissertation seminar, the Office of Graduate Studies will also offer a summer bootcamp on transdisciplinary methods.
Students in this cohort will also earn a small stipend in summer research funds to support their dissertation proposal development.
McCormack Graduate School awardees include:
Anna Dubrova
Dissertation topic: Global governance of chemicals and waste: Assessing the effectiveness of global environmental conventions
Faculty Advisor: Maria Ivanova
Kundan Mishra
Dissertation topic: Distress, determinants, and decisions: A case study of decision making in seasonal migrant households
Faculty Advisor: Stacy VanDeveer
Jean-Pierre Murray
Dissertation topic: The migration security nexus: Exploring the securitization of Haitian migrants in the Dominican Republic
Faculty Advisor: Margaret Karns
David Sulewski
Dissertation topic: Peacebuilding and nonviolent resistance in post-conflict Colombia: A case study of Colombia’s Pacific coast
Faculty Advisor: Jeffrey Pugh
We congratulate these burgeoning scholars.