2022-23 Doctoral Research Fellows
 | Jennifer Babitzke Sociology Advisor: Jennifer is a fifth year doctoral student in the department of Sociology. Jennifer’s research focuses on the intersection of gender, family, caregiving, and the life course. Jennifer plans to investigate how caregiving behaviors in families are influenced by intergenerational processes, specifically in how subsequent generations use personal agency to disrupt historically gendered caregiving practices in families. She plans to conduct semi-structured interviews with men in the Midwest across various socioeconomic groups to better understand their decisions to engage in caregiving behaviors and how these decisions are informed by intergenerational experiences. The goal of this project is to highlight how families enact agency to replicate or disrupt intergenerational cycles of behavior which, in turn, influences sociocultural perspectives on gender roles within families over subsequent generations. |
 | Noelle Broughton School of Public Affairs & Administration Advisor: Noelle Broughton is a third-year doctoral student in the School of Public Affairs and Administration. Noelle’s research interests broadly surround the process and role of housing policy in racial justice. Specifically, the process through which cities pass tenants’ rights and the role these policies play in reducing evictions. Noelle also researchers the taking of property by the state through municipal tax sale, where delinquent taxes and utilities result in low-income homeowners of color losing their homes. Often, these properties are purchased below market value by investors, destabilizing neighborhoods and perpetuating a deep history of racist housing practices. Overall, Noelle’s research ties together literature from policy, administration, law, and sociology to work toward a more racially just housing landscape. |
 | Mohsen Fatemi School of Public Affairs & Administration Advisors: Mohsen Fatemi is a third-year doctoral student in the School of Public Affairs and Administration. His research interests include renewable energy policy and justice, collaborative governance, and local government. Mohsen currently serves as a member of the Sustainability Adivosity Board at the City of Lawrence. Also, he is an urban planner and architect with experience in climate action planning, energy-efficient design, and sustainability rating systems. |
 | Senjuti Mallik Geography & Atmospheric Science Advisor: Dr. Barney Warf Senjuti Mallik is a fourth-year PhD Candidate in the Department of Geography. She is a human geographer who studies vulnerable populations' health by integrating social theory into health geography research. Her PhD dissertation focuses on determining the likelihood of contracting COVID-19 among different social groups based on age, gender, caste, religion, income, and occupation within the slums of Kolkata, India. It also seeks to understand the treatment-seeking behavior of slum residents in the face of the pandemic. Senjuti is interested in understanding the role of ‘place’ in understanding health and the various health disparities specifically among vulnerable populations. This includes limits that the poor and disadvantaged communities suffer because of a lack of health and other services, as well as the risk of unfavorable health outcomes due to living in impoverished regions. |
 | Sreerupa Sanyal Communication Studies Advisor: Sreerupa Sanyal is a fourth-year doctoral student. Her research focuses on news exposure, engagement, and learning on digital devices in comparative democracies. She is currently working on her dissertation proposal. In her dissertation, she wants to investigate the impact of cognitive traits on incidental news exposure and engagement in the USA, India, and South Africa. |
 | Heeyoun Shin Sociology Advisor: Heeyoun Shin is a PhD student in sociology. Her research encompasses labor market inequality, family demography, quantitative methods, and policy initiatives. Currently, she is exploring whether family members perceive their social status in the same way and how deviations from traditional gender norms in family settings might influence their subjective social status. |
 | Tatsuya Suzuki Communication Studies Advisor: Tatsuya is a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Communication Studies. His research focuses on understanding the socio-political and technological barriers that shape participation in the digital public spheres – digitally mediated spaces in which the opinions of the public emerge through dissemination of information and communication in traditional and contemporary media environments. His dissertation focuses on unequal social power between dominant and social minority groups in the public sphere and studies attacks, appropriation, and dismissal communication capitalizing on mis- and disinformation, hate speech, conspiracy theory, and countermovement as a reaction to #StopAsianHate movement. |
 | Christabel Tsoto Geography & Atmospheric Science Advisor: Dr. Jay T. Johnson I am a fourth year doctoral candidate in the department of Geography and Atmospheric Science with a specialization in migration studies. I am interested in researching the nexus between migration and children as well as culture and childhood chronic illnesses. For my dissertation project, I am exploring the effects of parental migration on the well-being of children left behind in Zimbabwe. |
 | Marie Wagner Special Education Advisor: Marie Wagner, MM, MAT (she/her) is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Special Education in the Policy and System Studies specialization. Marie’s research focuses on redesigning teacher preparation according to democratic principles to prepare teachers to teach for difference and diversity. Her most recent study uses intersectional feminist theories to highlight how inequitable macro-level policies manifest in individuals and are perpetuated using social markers of difference such as ability and race. Marie’s experiences as a special education teacher in New York City and Kansas City inform her lines of inquiry. |
Click here to view past IPSR Doctoral Research Fellows.
Links on this page:
- ipsr@ku.edu