Meet the 2024 Summer in the Field Fellows
The Boston University Global Development Policy (GDP) Center is proud to present the 2024 Summer in the Field Fellows. These seven Boston University students are currently pursuing graduate degrees in various disciplines across the University, including social work, economics, public health, international affairs and political science.
The GDP Center Summer in the Field Program provides a $6,000-$8,000 stipend to a select group of qualified graduate students to participate in unpaid internships or conduct field research for a dissertation project during the summer. The program enables students to take advantage of unpaid internship opportunities or field research that would otherwise have been financially unfeasible.
Starting June 1, 2024, the Summer in the Field Fellows will spend ten weeks developing research skills and gaining professional experience by participating in a variety of research projects and internships. In line with the GDP Center’s mission of advancing policy-oriented research for financial stability, human well-being and environmental sustainability across the globe, the fellows will tackle topics like gender and transportation in Ethiopia, barriers to death registration in Ghana, women’s political participation in India and more.
The 2024 Summer in the Field Fellows are:
Christian Mazimpaka is a Summer in the Field Fellow, 2024, and a DrPH Candidate in the Public Health program at Boston University. He also serves as an Evaluation Coordinator at BUSPH’s School Health Institute for Education and Leadership Development (SHIELD).
For his Summer in the Field Fellowship, Christian will complete an internship studying the coverage and integration of Rwanda Mass Drug Administration (MDA) program for schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis into the primary care system and recommendations for program sustainability. He will employ the WHO Building Blocks Framework, focusing on six core components: service delivery, health workforce, information systems, access to essential medicines, health system financing and leadership/governance. Christian will collect quantitative data from program reports and program planning documents requested from the Neglect Tropical Diseases (NTD) program at the Ministry of Health and Rwanda Biomedical Center and collect qualitative data through key informants with NTD program stakeholders in Rwanda.
Anastasiia Arbuzova is a Summer in the Field Fellow, 2024 and a Ph.D. Candidate in Economics at Boston University, specializing in development economics and political economy. Anastasiia’s work in political economy focuses on institutions and policies in post-Soviet nations, exploring their impact on democratic processes and women’s economic opportunities.
For her Summer in the Field Fellowship, Anastasiia will travel to Ethiopia and continue analyzing transportation demands and travel burdens in Addis Ababa. She plans on continuing to investigate geo-referenced routes collected during the first phase of a prior randomized controlled trial. Additionally, in collaboration with her partner research organization, EconInsight, she plans to develop a pilot for the second phase of the study, which will involve designing a survey methodology to assess public transport utilization. Alongside her academic fieldwork, Anastasiia plans to collaborate with EconInsight and the World Resources Institute to develop solutions and policy recommendations through conversations with key stakeholders, such as the Ethiopian Ministry of Transport and the Addis Ababa City Roads Authority.
Seynedhee Avenie is a Summer in the Field Fellow, 2024 and an M.A. Candidate in International Affairs at Boston University.
During her Summer in the Field Fellowship, Seynedhee plans to study the extent to which mobility and travel demand vary by gender in Ethiopia, particularly for women, with the introduction of high-quality, on-demand, private transport. She intends to engage in several fieldwork activities by assisting in the rollout of in-depth interviews with households and transport providers, assisting with quantitative data collection and preparing for the dissemination of our study results to key local public stakeholders.
Vasudha Ramakrishna is a Summer in the Field Fellow, 2024 and a Ph.D. Candidate in Economics at Boston University.
For her Summer in the Field Fellowship, Vasudha plans interview a sample of government officials, religious leaders and households with a recent deceased family member to study the barriers to death registration in Ghana. She also intends to do research on collective action and caste in the context of India, planning to interview historians of caste and anti-caste activists. Vasudha also hopes to do archival research using newspapers from the late 19th century by accessing both digital and physical records available in archives in India.
Vidhu Priya Mukundan is a Summer in the Field Fellow, 2024 and a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Political Science at Boston University. Her research seeks to understand the understudied gendered element of clientelism in urban democracies. With her work, Vidhu aims to better understand the social and structural barriers to women’s access to the state and how women mobilize in response to these barriers.
For her Summer in the Field Fellowship, Vidhu intends to conduct fieldwork to understand how women participate in claim-making in Hyderabad, India and whether women’s social networks significantly improve their interaction with the state. She will leverage the presence of women’s Self-Help Groups (SHGs) in India to understand the role of social networks and their potential as political intermediaries. Vidhu plans to conduct a survey of 400 individuals residing in impoverished areas, followed by focus group discussions and shadowing SHGs to understand how they operate in the presence of clientelistic networks.
John Hassett is a Summer in the Field Fellow, 2024 and a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Economics at Boston University. His research is at the intersection of labor economics, political economy and industrial organization.
For his Summer in the Field Fellowship, John will travel to Mexico City to obtain data for his project on gender quotas in Mexican elections, joint with past Summer in the Field Fellow Laura Aquino. The project studies the implementation of gender quotas for political candidates in local Mexican elections. Using detailed data on election results and municipal governing outcomes, the project examines the effectiveness of the quotas, documents the strategic reactions of political parties and explores the effects of the sudden and large increase of women in elected roles on policy. John will collect detailed data on elected officials in order to study a wide range of policy outcomes.
Julia DeAngelo is a 2024 Summer in the Field Fellow and a Masters of Social Work Candidate at the Boston University School of Social Work, where she focuses on liberatory anti-oppressive clinical practice, research, program development and policy.
For her Summer in the Field Fellowship, Julia will conduct an evaluation project focused on the training and implementation of the Liberation Health Model by Greek front-line practitioners in social services. The Liberation Health Model is a clinical framework that acknowledges the socio-political factors that contribute to a person’s mental health challenges. While the theoretical clinical social work model has been successfully applied in the US for more than 20 years in various social service settings, her fellowship will mark the first time that the model has been extensively taught and evaluated abroad, with potential for learnings and best practices that extend to additional regions. Julia will provide trainings to a group of participating Greek social workers, conduct focus groups and site visits, and analyze results that will further help enable this clinical framework to be used globally.
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