The International Institute at the University of Michigan has announced that three doctoral candidates received U.S. Department of Education Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowships for the 2018-19 academic year.
The highly competitive fellowships, which total more than $67,000, cover travel, living costs and research-related expenses for six to 12 months, with the goal to deepen knowledge of areas in the world not generally included in U.S. curricula.
Nationwide, 100 individual DDRAs were awarded at 40 institutions. Fellowship advisers with the International Institute work with applicants to put forward strong, competitive applications for funding consideration.
“These fellowships give our doctoral students the ability to not only enhance language skills, but also to undertake intensive research necessary for degree completion,” said Beth Dutridge-Corp, fellowships coordinator and Fulbright program adviser with the II. “These three students are outstanding representatives of the leaders and best who help create a community of excellence at U-M.”
The DDRA fellowship is part of the larger Fulbright-Hays Program, which dates to 1961 when the late U.S. Sen. J. William Fulbright sponsored legislation for several programs that aim to increase mutual understanding between the United States and the rest of the world.
2018-19 U-M Fulbright-Hays DDRA Fellows
Josh Greenberg, advised by Hoyt Bleakley, Department of Economics
Dissertation: “Governance, Citizenship, and Accountability: Community-Centered Development in Uganda”
Greenberg’s specialization is in the economics of health, human rights, and development, and his project targets the widespread management and accountability gaps in the Ugandan health sector that result in countless preventable deaths each year.
He will spend one year in Uganda carrying out a pilot study of an intervention that fosters increased citizen participation through quarterly reporting meetings with local politicians to discuss health service quality. His goal is to give citizens a platform to actualize their rights by better holding their community leaders accountable for shortfalls in the health sector.
“I am truly honored to receive the DDRA award and look forward to the opportunities ahead. The fellowship will make a critical contribution toward my ability to carry out my thesis project,” he said.
Katie Browne, advised by Maria Carmen Lemos, School for Environment and Sustainability
Dissertation: “How Politics and Power Shape Adaptation: Three Cases in the Western Indian Ocean”
With a specialization in both climate adaptation and climate change policy, Browne will spend 10 months in Madagascar exploring how climate adaptation is understood and implemented in different political systems and cultures.
“The DDRA fellowship is critical to my dissertation. Its support will enable me to conduct my research, creating a better understanding of how the politics and culture of this highly vulnerable country shape its governance and capacity to adapt,” she said.
Jo Osborn, advised by Joyce Marcus, Department of Anthropology
Dissertation: “The Development of Specialized Fishing Economies on the Peruvian Coast”
Osborn specializes in archaeology and is also associated with the university’s Museum of Anthropological Archaeology. She will spend seven months is Chincha, Peru, studying the phenomenon of “specialized economies” in pre-Hispanic Peru, in which individual communities were dedicated to certain types of economic activities, like fishing or agriculture.
Specifically, she’s interested in exploring the origin of this phenomenon, which has been documented throughout the Peruvian coast. Osborn will be excavating at a site called Jahuay, occupied by the Topará culture from around 350 B.C. to 0 A.D., and hopes to determine whether the development of specialized economies was linked to the emergence of permanent sociopolitical hierarchies, with elites capable of administering the movement of goods between numerous communities in the region.
“This award will allow me to remain in Peru much longer than I could otherwise, gather much more data, and really make the most of my dissertation research,” she said.
“I’m especially excited because there has not been a ton of research done on Topará, compared to other pre-Hispanic Peruvian cultures like the Inka or Moche. It’s great to know that I will have the resources to really do justice to this site and to this amazing culture.”
