Pardee Grad Students Awarded Travel Grants
After a competitive process open to all graduate students at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, five students were selected to recieve Graduate Research Travel Grants that will take them to India, Paraguay, Europe, and Washington DC to pursue research projects, and to the 2015 Western Political Science Association to present their research.
The five students selected to recieve seed grants to support research related travel are:
Daniel Conroy, MA candidate in International Relations. Conroy will travel to New Delhi, India to study naval cooperation between India and the United States.
“I am excited for the ability to expand my research beyond published sources and to have the ability to conduct field research,” Conroy said. “By integrating the actual views of Indian government officials and researchers into my analysis, I hope to create a much more nuanced contribution to the security studies body of literature.”
Sarah Dorman, MA candidate in International Relations, will travel to a selection of cities in Europe to conduct research on NGOs providing educational Internet access in sub-Saharan Africa.
“I feel very honored to receive this grant since my final semester at BU is turning out to be the most exciting yet,” Dorman said. With this money I will be able to conduct observations and interviews, immensely improving the overall data quality for my thesis. I am very excited to get started.”
Karla Leon Espinosa, MA candidate in Latin American Studies, will travel to Nevada to present her paper, “Give me a Twitter account, and I will become President” at the 2015 Western Political Science Association annual meeting.
“It’s an honor to be granted this award, since it represents an incredible support in my academic life,” Leon Espinosa said. “Thanks to this I will be able to participate and present in my first academic conference.”
Kenneth Rayner, MA candidate in International Relations, will travel to Paraguay to research the State Partnership Program between the National Guard and the Paraguayan military. Rayner is himself a first lieutenant in the Massachusetts Army National Guard.
“I am excited for the opportunity to conduct research in Paraguay that will greatly enhance my Master’s thesis,” Rayner said. “Traveling abroad is an integral portion of the international affairs education and I am grateful for the Pardee School of Global Studies offering me this experience.”
Jill Richardson, MA candidate in International Relations and Communications, will travel to Washington DC to interview world finance figures on the branding of BRICS consortium nations.
“I am thrilled to be given the opportunity to travel to Washington DC and conduct further research into how the emergence of the “BRICS brand” is challenging the dominance of traditional western-oriented institutions,” Richardson said. “By interviewing key policy analysts and spokespeople I expect to gain more insight into this shifting dynamic in global affairs… insight that will undoubtedly be a cornerstone of my final thesis.”
All awardees will complete their travels in 2015.
Pardee School Dean Adil Najam, who served as one of the members of the committee that selected the final awardees, said that he was “delighted by the quality as well as breadth of the winning proposals.” He said that the Pardee School offers a diverse set of rigorous Master’s degree programs and “one of our priorities is to further strengthen our Master’s offerings and to provide our students with encouragement and opportunity to understand global dynamics in deep and meaningful ways.”