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Pere DeRoy's Academic Journey Profiled in the Guyana Chronicle

A recent profile in the Guyana Chronicle charts the personal and scholarly journey of Pere DeRoy from her working-class household in East Ruimveldt Guyana through her development as a doctoral candidate in the department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Under the direction of Dr. Hannah Britton (Political Science, WGSS), Pere is pursuing research on how anti-trafficking policies and services affect the nature of interpersonal and structural gender-based violence in Guyana. Pere's work is informed by years of professional experience in the design of public programs for working-class and rural populations in areas ranging from sexual and reproductive health & rights to employment and public assistance. She has conducted research for advocacy and policy reform on domestic and gender based violence prevention. Together, these experiences have given her a deep understanding of processes and drivers underpinning government policies as well as policies' social, political and economic impacts on individuals and communities. Read more about Pere's important work at the link below.
Link(s): https://guyanachronicle.com/2020/10/18/445719/

Morgan Farnworth Accepted to RWJF Health Policy Research Scholars

IPSR congratulates Doctoral Fellows alum, Morgan Farnworth, on her selection as a 2020 Health Policy Research Scholar through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. This program provides four years of mentoring and financial support to early stage PhD students whose research holds the potential to build healthier and more equitable communities. Under the mentorship of Dort Daley and Rachel Krause (SPAA), Morgan's dissertation research examines socio-economic and policy causes of the opioid crisis and barriers to accessing substance use treatment. Her work aims to identify opportunities to improve practice by tailoring interventions to the needs of marginalized communities. For more about the program and profiles of the 2020 Health Policy Research Scholars, visit the link below.
Link(s): https://healthpolicyresearch-scholars.org/meet-cohort-2020/

Elise Higgins Selected for Emerging Scholars Dissertation Fellowship

Elise Higgins has received a dissertation research award from the Society for Family Planning Research Fund. Under the 2020 Emerging Scholars in Family Planning fellowship Elise will examine the legislative debate around a 2020 state constitutional amendment to limit abortion rights in Kansas. She investigates how stigma is developed and deployed in these debates using participant observation, interviews and content analysis to understand how these discourses shape politics at the individual, state and national levels. Elise will receive comprehensive mentoring through the agency's network of researchers and practitioners. Elise's application was supported by their advisor, Alesha Doan, SPAA and WGSS. Read more about Elise's work at the link below.
Link(s): https://societyfp.org/awarded_grants/villains-and-victims-the-impact-of-abortion-stigma-in-kansas-abortion-politics/

Matt Comi Embarks on Research Supported by National Science Foundation

Matt Comi has been awarded a nationally competitive grant from the National Science Foundation to support his dissertation research project, "Exploring on-farm innovation, environmental change, and rural livelihoods in the US hop industry." Matt will investigate how farmers make decisions about the future of their farms as they navigate novel technology, environmental change, biodiversity loss and rising costs. Matt Comi is a PhD candidate in Sociology advised by Dr. Paul Stock and a 2019 alumni of the IPSR Doctoral Research Fellows. His application was assisted by IPSR's Nancy Cayton Myers. Read more about Matt's work in coverage from the KU Today link below.
Link(s): http://today.ku.edu/2020/03/09/graduate-student-awarded-nsf-grant-study-farmers-decisions-about-technology

Teaching, Scholarship Awards to IPSR Affiliates Steven Maynard-Moody, Alfred Tat Kei Ho, and Angela Park

The University of Kansas School of Public Affairs & Administration (SPAA) received word it would be recognized for outstanding public service education, given by the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration at its annual conference next month in Atlanta. Professor Alfred Tat-Kei Ho will receive the Leslie A. Whittington Excellence in Teaching Award, Professor and IPSR Director Steven Maynard-Moody will receive the William Duncombe Excellence in Doctoral Education Award, and 2016-17 IPSR Doctoral Fellow Angela Park will receive the Staats Emerging Scholar Award. Read more at the link below.
Link(s): https://news.ku.edu/2018/09/13/school-public-affairs-administration-will-receive-4-national-awards

Announcing the 2018-19 Doctoral Research Fellows

IPSR is excited to announce the next cohort of participants in our Doctoral Research Fellows Program! Congratulations to Darlingtina Atakere (Psychology and Gerontology), Matt Comi (Sociology), Mariah Crystal, (Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies), Nicole Humphrey (School of Public Affairs & Administration), Gregory Leung (Economics), Nicholas Natchoo (Curriculum & Teaching), Cassandra Osei (School of Public Affairs & Administration), and Courtney Wilt (Special Education). This cohort will begin the program in the fall. The Doctoral Research Fellows Program helps to develop the next generation of interdisciplinary social science scholars by providing training and support. Fellows will meet approximately twice each month throughout the academic year to discuss research progress, gain skills in interdisciplinary research methods, and share experience and knowledge.
Link(s): http://ipsr.ku.edu/about/gradfellows/fellows.shtml

ByeongDon Oh, Sociology Doctoral Student, awarded NSF Dissertation Funding

ByeongDon Oh received a dissertation award from the National Science Foundations for doctoral students in Sociology. Oh's project aims to explain why the socioeconomic association between parents and children declines over children's schooling levels up to the baccalaureate level and reemerges at the post-baccalaureate level. His research will uncover three mechanisms of the U-shaped pattern in intergenerational association using datasets from the National Survey of College Graduates. His advisor, ChangHwan Kim, serves as PI. IPSR provided research and grant development assistance and will administer the award. See link below for more information.
Link(s): https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1801820&HistoricalAwards=false

Immigrant detention centers referred to as family centers but resemble prisons, researchers find

Despite federal officials labeling centers where immigrant women and their families are held as family detention centers or release programs as "Alternative to Detention," University of Kansas researchers found the detention complexes function like jails and prisons and that ATD programs are essentially expanded surveillance schemes. Women held with their children in such centers are often required to wear orange jumpsuits and are color-coded by a level of threat, according to a recent study KU scholars conducted in interviews with attorneys who frequented the detention centers in Pennsylvania and Texas. Read more at the link below.
Link(s): https://news.ku.edu/2017/07/11/immigrant-detention-centers-referred-family-centers-resemble-prisons-researchers-find

Racial profiling of Latino immigrants influences indigenous, non-indigenous families differently, study finds

Immigration policies focusing on racial profiling and criminalization of Latinos in the United States have direct implications on immigrants and their family members, many of whom are U.S. citizens, according to a study by a University of Kansas researcher who explores these consequences amongst mixed-status families in the Midwest. Read the full KU News article at the link below.
Link(s): http://news.ku.edu/2017/07/28/racial-profiling-latino-immigrants-influences-indigenous-non-indigenous-families

Researchers win NSF grant to study frontline workers to human trafficking

University of Kansas researchers have received a $30,000 grant to study how frontline workers in the Midwest identify and assist those vulnerable to human trafficking. "Human trafficking is so complicated that survivors' identities might be read in different ways by different people," said Corinne Schwarz, a KU doctoral candidate in women, gender and sexuality studies and a co-principal investigator for the project. "Someone might be a survivor of sex or labor trafficking, but if they go to the police, their first frame or identity might be as someone with an undocumented status or perhaps even a criminal." Hannah Britton, associate professor of women, gender and sexuality studies and political science, is the study's principal investigator. Britton also directs the Center for the Study of Injustice at KU's Institute for Policy & Social Research in which she coordinates KU's Anti-Slavery and Human Trafficking Initiative, or ASHTI. ASHTI is a working group of faculty and students engaged in teaching and research about slavery and trafficking.
Link(s): http://news.ku.edu/2016/10/20/ku-researchers-win-nsf-grant-study-frontline-workers-human-trafficking

Schwarz receives NSF dissertation improvement grant

Corinne Schwarz, a doctoral student in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, has received a dissertation improvement grant from the Law and Social Sciences Program at the National Science Foundation. She will study frontline responses to vulnerability, exploitation, and trafficking in communities across Kansas and Missouri. Schwarz's advisor is Hannah Britton, Director of the Center for the Study of Injustice (CSI) at the Institute for Policy & Social Research.
Link(s): http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1624317&HistoricalAwards=false

Announcing the 2016-17 Doctoral Research Fellows

IPSR is excited to announce the next cohort of participants in our Doctoral Research Fellows Program! Congratulations to Ryan Daugherty (Political Science), Jean Eichhorst (Geography and Atmospheric Science), Andrea Gómez Cervantes (Sociology), Tamara Handy (Special Education), Natalie Hoskins (Communication Studies), Young-Shin (Angela) Park (School of Public Affairs & Administration), Marcy Quiason (Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies), and Carlos Zambrana (Economics), who will begin the program this fall. The Doctoral Research Fellows Program helps to develop the next generation of interdisciplinary social science scholars by providing training and support. Fellows will meet approximately twice each month throughout the academic year to discuss research progress, gain skills in interdisciplinary research methods, and share experiences and knowledge.
Link(s): http://ipsr.ku.edu/about/gradfellows/fellows.shtml

NPR - Hidden Factors In Your Brain Help To Shape Beliefs On Income Inequality

Laura Van Berkel, graduate student in social psychology and IPSR doctoral research fellow was recently on NPR talking about her research on hierarchical beliefs.
Link(s): http://www.npr.org/2016/01/05/461997711/hidden-factors-in-brain-help-to-shape-beliefs-on-income-inequality

IPSR Doctoral Research Fellow Alum in the News

April Rand, former IPSR Doctoral Research Fellow, was recently featured in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette talking about her research on the effects of the sex-trade. Rand's doctoral research, funded by the National Institute of Justice, was about women in the Kansas City, Missouri area trying to leave the commercial sex industry. Rand is currently an assistant professor of social work at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.