Past Recipients of Graduate Student Research Funding

Graduate student research funding supports faculty-supervised doctoral student research activities, particularly field-based work on global poverty and economic development in middle- and low-income countries.

2022–2023 Academic Year
2021–2022 Academic Year
2020–2021 Academic Year
2019–2020 Academic Year
2018–2019 Academic Year
2017–2018 Academic Year
2016–2017 Academic Year

2022–2023 Academic Year

Daliah Al-Shakhshir, Graduate School of Business
Opportunities or Concessions: The Political Consequences of Economic Integration Under Occupation

Simi Aluko, Doerr - Civil & Environmental Engineering
Industrializing Vernacular House-Building: Towards a Community-Centered, Sustainable Construction Methodology for Urban Africa

Paras Arora, Department of Anthropology
A Home Away from Home: Tracing the Rise of Family-Led Institutional Care for Autistic Adults in Delhi, India

Mathew Ayodele, Department of History
Missionaries, Midwives, and Indigenous Maternity Care in Colonial Nigeria, 1900 – 1970

Ameze Belo-Osagie, Department of Political Science
Nigeria Decides: Campaign Strategy in the 2023 Election

Adrian Blattner, Department of Economics
Breaking the Bubble - The Determinants and Effects of Contact

Nina Buchmann, Department of Economics
Paternalistic Discrimination

Alicia Chen, Department of Political Science
Losing Hearts and Minds: The Backlash to Chinese Development Aid

Ronald Chen, Department of Anthropology
No Country for Old Laws?: Tribal Law as Alternative Dispute Resolution in Jordan

Ayodele Dada, Department of Psychology
Framing Education as a Legacy to Reduce Gender Disparities in Nigeria

Camille DeJarnett, Department of Political Science
From Cacophony to Community? Assessing the Political Potential of Cross-ethnic Languages in Post-colonial sub-Saharan Africa

Joao Francisco Pugliese, Department of Economics
The Effects of Increasing Access to and Reading of Professionally-Produced News

Harsh Gupta, Department of Economics
Ronald I. McKinnon Memorial Fellowship Recipient
The Role of Patient Beliefs and Physician Incentives in Influencing Pharmaceutical Brand Preferences

Ian Harryman, Department of Earth System Science
Social Networks, Environmental Change, and Health Among Shodagor Communities in Bangladesh

Jamie Hintson, Department of Political Science
Potemkin State-Building: Understanding State Expansion in Contemporary Africa

Florencia Hnilo, Department of Economics
Playgrounds in India: Impacts on the Community

Harman Jaggi, Department of Biology
Understanding Land Use Change as Pathways to Socio-ecological Development: with Evidence from Indian Trans Himalaya

Christopher Knight, Department of Biology
Social-Ecological Connections Between Seafood Borne Disease and Food Security in the Central Pacific

Akhila Kovvuri, Department of Economics
Ronald I. McKinnon Memorial Fellowship Recipient
Strength in Numbers: Role of Coordination and Critical Mass in India’s Female Labour Force Participation

Joy Kumagai, Department of Biology
Seagrasses and Urbanization: Understanding the Drivers of Seagrass Loss within Palau

Cesar Lopez, Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER)
Social Networks and Public Investments in Small-scale Irrigation Infrastructure in Developing Countries: Evidence from Bolivia

Eva Lestant, Department of Economics
The Art of Selling: Food Retailers

Mae MacDonald, Department of Political Science
What are the Effects of Employment Rights for Refugees and Their Asylum Countries? The Case of Kenya

Victor Manuel Marquez Padrenan, Department of Anthropology
Governance and Pastoral Work. State-building Processes in Chiapas, Mexico, and Temuco, Chile

Tamar (Tamri) Matiashvili, Department of Economics
The Effects of Introduction of Modern Medicine: the Case of the Russian Empire

Bill Nadeem, Department of Anthropology
Charting Trauma Care in a Refugee Camp: An Ethnographic Study of Critical Injury

Fridah Nyakundi, Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER)
Impact of Aggregations on Productivity and Commercialization of Aquaculture among Intermediary Aquaculture Farmers in Kenya

Caylee O'Connor, Department of Economics
Can Unconditional Salary Increases Improve Education Quality? Evidence from the Dominican Republic

Natalya Rahman, Department of Political Science
Paths into the Labor Force and Women's Empowerment in Pakistan

Poornima Rajeshwar, Department of Anthropology
The Gender of Policing: An Ethnography of Women’s Police Labor in India

Vlasta Rasocha, Department of Economics
Ronald I. McKinnon Memorial Fellowship Recipient
Breaking the Bubble - The Determinants and Effects of Contact

Christian Robles-Baez, Department of History
Setting-Up the Coffee Empire: The United States and Brazil in the Early 19th Century

Emily Russell, Department of Political Science
Policing the Plantation: The Long-Run Influence of Plantation Labor on Coercion in Assam

Siddharth Sachdeva, Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER)
Using AI to Enable Climate Finance for Agroforestry in India

Esteban Salmon Perrilliat, Department of Anthropology
Power to the Prosecution? An Ethnography of Charging Decisions in Mexico City

Anirudh Sankar, Department of Economics
Learning About Irrigation Through Intermediaries

Eli Scott, Department of Political Science
Assessing the Influence of Rural Values, Identity, and Consciousness in South Africa

Sahana Subramanyam, Department of Economics
Information as Bargaining Power

Ceyenna Tillman, Department of Biology
Investigation of Community Impacts on Fisheries of Seagrass Loss in Palau

Sumer Vaid, Department of Communications
Digital Media and Wellbeing in India: A Digital Phenotyping Study

Mark Walsh, Department of Economics
Choosing Your Words Wisely? Filtered Communication and Mobile Banking Information Diffusion in Pakistan

Shan Yang, Department of Anthropology
Surviving Austerity: Infrastructure, Debt and Informal Livelihoods in Kenya

2021–2022 Academic Year

Ishita Ahmed, School of Education
Measurement Matters: Designing and Validating Holistic Child Development Measures in Rural Bangladesh

Daliah Al-Shakhshir, Graduate School of Business
Local Integration of Palestine Refugees in Jordan

Feyaad Allie, Department of Political Science
Power, Exclusion, and Identity: The Politics of the Muslim Disadvantage in India

Nina Buchmann, Department of Economics
Paternalistic Discrimination in Bangladesh

Alvaro Calderon, Department of Economics
Ronald I. McKinnon Fellowship for Graduate Students
Deliberation and Political Accountability

Gloria Chikaonda, School of Law
Zimbabwean Marriage Reforms: Stakeholders, State Power and the Challenge of Social Engineering

Aria Duncan, Department of Earth System Science
Protecting Rice from Coupled Climate and Arsenic Threats

Tiên-Dung Hà, Department of Anthropology
The Rise and Fall of Vietnam's COVID-19 Pandemic Preparedness Infrastructure: How COVID-19 Affects Vietnam's Economy, Science and Politics

Seyedeh Zahra Hejrati, Department of Management Science and Engineering
How Can Digital Platforms and Data-Driven Algorithms Foster Entrepreneurship Among Refugees?

Kimberly Higuera, Department of Sociology
Migrating Money: The Social Status Implications of US-Mexico Remittances

Jamie Hintson, Department of Political Science
State Consolidation in the Shadow of Civil Conflict

Florencia Hnilo, Department of Economics
Breaking Ties?

Rupali Kaul, Graduate School of Business
Assessing the Impact of Relational vs Transactional Selling Approaches: Field Experiment with Small Firms in Latin America

Akhila Kovvuri, Department of Economics
Role of Labor Demand in Explaining Low Female Labor Force Participation in India

Alexandr Lenk, Department of Economics
Can Moral Nudges Play a Role in Development? Evidence from a Field Experiment with Promises

Angela Leocata, Department of Anthropology
Navigating Aspirational Trajectories: Underemployment in Minas Gerais, Brazil

Lily Liu, Department of Economics
Gender Differences in Advice-giving: Evidence from Lab-in-the-field Experiment

Sebastian Lucek, Department of Political Science
Social Re-Engineering: Political Coalitions and Social Change in India

Nicholas Lyon, Department of Political Science
Varieties of Urbanism: Within-City and Across-City Variation in Urban Experiences in Uganda

Mae MacDonald, Department of Political Science
Explaining Variation in Violence Against Women in Refugee Camps

Andrés Felipe Rodriguez, Department of Economics
Governance Institutions and Cooperation: An Experiment in Sierra Leone

Janice Ndegwa, Department of History
Indigenous Expertise, Inventive Uses of Language, and Practical Experience as Archives of Technological Knowledge: Insights from Youth in Cameroon

Shantanu Nevrekar, Department of Anthropology
Banking on Community? Cooperative Banks and Markets of Financial Inclusion in Small Town India

Teathloach Wal Nguot, Department of Anthropology
At the Coast: Mobility and Diaspora in Macaronesia

Joao Francisco Pugliese, Department of Economics
News Consumption in Developing Countries: Consumption Patterns and the Effects on Increasing Consumption on Information Knowledge and Political Preferences

Matthew Ribar, Department of Political Science [Autumn Quarter]
Who Wants Property Rights? Evidence from Niger

Matthew Ribar, Department of Political Science [Spring Quarter]
Who Wants Property Rights? Land Titles and Perceptions of Land Security

Emily Russell, Department of Political Science
Linking Formal and Informal Governance for Tribal Communities in Madhya Pradesh

Alexa Russo, Department of Anthropology
Imagining Agrarian Alternatives: Sustainable Agriculture, Gender, and Cooperatives in India

Anirudh Sankar, Department of Economics
Improving Technology Adoption through Participatory Scientific Empowerment: Evidence from Uganda

Bianca Santos, Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources
Social and Ecological Impacts of Climate Change on Small Scale Fisheries in Palau

Priyam Saraf, Graduate School of Business
Cognitive Communities, Managerial Decision-Making and Organizational Technology Adoption in Bangladesh

Chinmay Sonawane, Department of Biology
Benefits of Lions to Low-Income Farmers in Kenya

Catherine Thomas, Department of Psychology
Enculturating Behavioral Science for Development: Beyond the WEIRD, Independent Paradigm

Sarah Thompson, Department of Political Science
According to Tradition: Compliance and Legitimacy in Tribal Communities in Pakistan

Angela Tsao, Department of Earth System Science
Scalable Mapping of Cashew Plantations in Mozambique for Climate-Smart Tree Cropping

Mark Walsh, Department of Economics
Understanding Peer Effects in Platform Industries: Experimental Evidence from Mobile Money in Pakistan

Renan Chaves Yoshida, Department of Economics
Ronald I. McKinnon Fellowship for Graduate Students
Stigma, Beliefs, and Productivity

2020–2021 Academic Year

Feyaad Allie, Department of Political Science
Why Do Marginalized Groups Remain Underrepresented? The Case of Muslims in India

Cauê Dobbin, Department of Economics
Financial Aid, and the Supply and Demand for Higher Education

Emilia Groupp, Department of Anthropology
Cultivating the Sun: Solar Development in Rural Tunisia

Haemin Jee, Department of Political Science
Effects of the Social Credit System on Political Attitudes in China

Mian (Jason) Luo, Department of Political Science
AI, Big Data, and Economic Development: the Rise of Digital Governance in China?

Nicholas Lyon, Department of Political Science
Tolerance in the Metropolis? Urbanization and Inter-group Relations in Africa

Andres Felipe Rodriguez Martinez, Department of Economics
The Caged Economy: Do Traditional Leaders Create Distortions Through Redistribution? Evidence From a Lab-in-the-Field Experiment in Sierra Leone

Ana Trindade Ribeiro, School of Education
Can a Growth Mindset Intervention Reduce the Gender Gap in Challenge-Seeking Behavior and Competitiveness?

Alexa Russo, Department of Anthropology
Imagining Agrarian Alternatives: Sustainable Agriculture, Gender, and Cooperatives in India

Aliz Tóth, Department of Political Science
The State of Land Acquisition: How Conflict Over Land Undermines State Capacity and Development

Natalia Vasilenok, Department of Political Science
Should I Stay or Should I Go? Peasant Responses to the Land Reform in the Late Russian Empire

Réka Zempléni, Department of Economics
How to Best Leverage Personality Tests for Supporting Entrepreneurs in Developing Countries?

Floyd Zhang, Graduate School of Business
Ronald I. McKinnon Fellowship for Graduate Students
A Study of the Political Economy of Nationalism in Autocracies: Identity, Redistribution, and Growth

2019–2020 Academic Year

Nina Buchmann, Department of Economics [Spring Quarter]
Paternalistic Discrimination in Bangladesh - Evidence from the Lab and from the Field

Nina Buchmann, Department of Economics [Autumn Quarter]
The Economics of Domestic Violence - Evidence from Bangladesh

Yiming He, Department of Economics
The Effects of Slum Clearance on Its Residents: Evidence from Victorian England

Seyedeh (Zahra) Hejrati, Department of Management Science and Engineering
How Can Digital Platforms and Data-Driven Algorithms Foster Entrepreneurship Among Refugees?

Kimberly Higuera, Department of Sociology
The Migration of Money: The Social Life of Mexican Remittances

Suhani Jalota, School of Medicine [Spring Quarter]
Social Signaling of Male Pride in Husband-Wife Pairs and Women's Employment in Digital Jobs from Home

Suhani Jalota, School of Medicine [Autumn Quarter]
Raising the Bar: Increasing Women's Own Aspirations and Men's Expectations of Them

Rupali Kaul, Graduate School of Business
Understanding Role Marketing Analytics And Business Development in Emerging Markets: A Field Experiment with SMEs in Rwanda and Nigeria

Abísola Kúsimo, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Engineering the Arts: Scaling up Collective Efforts to Increase the Yield of Successful Novice Ghanaian Product Developers and Innovators at a Start Up School

Jiwon Kim, Department of Political Science
Voting for Peace? How Conflict Shapes Vote Choice in Myanmar

Alexandr Lenk, Department of Economics
Improving Neighborhood Safety in Developing Cities via Non-Monetary Public Prestige Channels: Experimental Evidence from Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania

Jonas Metzger, Department of Economics
Friends Don't Lie: Allocating Digital Credit via Peer Information

Erxiao (Marshall) Mo, Department of Economics
Protest to Win Hearts and Minds: Experimental Evidence from Hong Kong's Anti-Extradition Movement

Beatriz Pousada, Department of Economics
Ronald I. McKinnon Fellowship for Graduate Students
Consequences of Domestic Labor Outsourcing to the Employment Relationship

Aliz Tóth, Department of Political Science
Development vs. Democracy: The Politics of Land Acquisition and Resistance

Réka Zempléni, Department of Economics [Autumn Quarter]
Too Much or Too Little Faith? Behavioral Biases and Opportunity Entrepreneurship in Colombia

Réka Zempléni, Department of Economics [Spring Quarter]
Evaluating a Novel Approach for Expanding the Pool of Entrepreneurs Creating Small and Growing Business in Myanmar

Dai (Adela) Zhang, Department of Anthropology
Is Good Governance "Good" Development? Dialogue and Local Political Cultures in Peru

Ruxi (Anna) Zhang, Department of Political Science
Redistribution and Territorial Control: Evidence from China

Tianrong (Sally) Zhang, Department of Economics
Ronald I. McKinnon Fellowship for Graduate Students
Imperfect Information and Hidden Expenditures: A Lab-in-the-Field Experiment in Tanzania

2018–2019 Academic Year

Aala Abdelgadir, Department of Political Science
Islamic Conservatism and Women's Empowerment

Levi Boxell, Department of Economics
Politicians, Information, and Gender Discrimination in Ghana

Nina Buchmann, Department of Economics
Domestic Violence and the Emergence of Social Norms, A Randomized Control Trial in Bangladesh

Kim Connor, Department of Anthropology
Immigrant Diets, Past and Present: Dining at the Grosse Île Quarantine Station in 1847

Shreya Deshmukh, Department of Bioengineering
Microscale magnetic levitation to detect drug resistance in malaria-infected blood at the point of care in resource-limited settings, with a pilot study in Busia, Uganda

Yiming He, Department of Economics
The Long-Term Impact of Slum Demolition on Its Residents: Evidence from Victorian London

Jitka Hiscox, Department of Civil Engineering
Beyond Happiness: The Effect of Water Connections on Premises on Maternal Stress, Caregiving and Child Development in Rural Western Uganda

Shreya Kankanhalli, Graduate School of Business
Going Cashless in Emerging Market Retail: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Guadalajara

Wanyi Li, Department of Management Science and Engineering
Afforestation Incentive Design for Smallholder Farmers in Uganda

Nic Lyon, Department of Political Science
Transnational Advocacy and Same-Sex Rights in Uganda

Odyssia Ng, Department of Economics
Do Men Make More, or Report Making More? Measuring Microenterprise Profits in India

Beatriz Pousada, Department of Economics
Consequences of Domestic Labor Outsourcing for the Employment Relationship

Christine Pu, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Tracking the Culprit: Quantifying Sources of Campylobacter Transmission Routes in Rural India through Next Generation Microbial Tools

Ana Trindade Ribeiro, School of Education
Do What I Do, or Do What I Say? How Parents’ Attitudes and Expectations Shape the Gender Gap in Competition for the Next Generation

Evan Rosenman, Department of Statistics
Identifying Preventive Measures for Sexual Violence in Areas of Conflict

Catherine Thomas, Department of Psychology
"Personal Initiative” versus “Interpersonal Initiative:” Testing the Psychological, Social, and Economic Effects of Two Models of Women’s Agency in Niger

Aliz Tóth, Department of Political Science
India's Urban Voter Problem: Theory and Evidence

Chun-Yu (Jo Ann) Wang, Department of Anthropology
Refining Politics: Oil Development, Environmental Activism, and Political Improvisation in Rural Malaysia

Tianmei Wang, Department of Earth System Science
Coupled Effects of Climate and Soil Arsenic on Rice Yield and Quality in China

Hugh Xiaolong Wu, Graduate School of Business
The Value of Delegation in Hiring

Tongtong Zhang, Department of Political Science
Fining for Living: Central-Local Struggle in the Relaxation of One-Child Policy

2017–2018 Academic Year

Travis Baseler, Department of Economics
Information Asymmetries and the Perceived Returns to Migration: Experimental Evidence from Kenya

Gabriel Chiu, Department of Sociology [Autumn Quarter and Spring Quarter]
The Spirit of Entrepreneurship in China

Jenna Forsyth, Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources
Exploring Lead Chromate Adulteration of Turmeric in Bangladesh

Khonika Gope, Department of Management Science and Engineering
The Effects of Customized Entrepreneurship Training Programs on Entrepreneurial Ventures in Developing Economies

Diego Jiménez Hernández, Department of Economics
Ronald I. McKinnon Memorial Fellowship for Graduate Students
Should your Government Sell you Goods? Evidence from the Milk Market in Mexico

Andrew Hume, Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources
Identifying Environmental Data Gaps for Improved Coastal and Marine Resource

Isabel Jones, Department of Biology
Solutions to Improve Health and Alleviate Poverty in Madagascar

Chao Long, School of Medicine
An Anthropological Exploration of Skin Donation in Kathmandu, Nepal

Hernán Felipe Barahona Kunze, Department of Economics
Quasi-Experimental Evidence on Public-Private Wage Differentials from Brazil

Elisabeth van Lieshout, Department of Political Science
Demanding Deals: Developing Countries' Behind-the-Border Commitments in Trade

Marshail Malik, Department of Political Science
How Do Ethnic Parties Decline? The Microfoundations of Identity Politics in Pakistan’s Megacity

Anna Popova, Department of Education
Education Technology in Developing Countries: Does Replacing Teachers with Computers Really Improve Student Learning?

Leonardo Rosa, School of Education
School Dropout and Juvenile Crime in Latin America: Evidence from Brazil

Daniel Smith, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Optimal Chlorination of Drinking Water in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Ashutosh Thakur, Graduate School of Business
Ronald I. McKinnon Memorial Fellowship for Graduate Students
Matching Problem of Civil Service

James Winter, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Introduction of On-Premises Piped Water Access to Rural Households in Southern Zambia: Implications for Poverty Alleviation, Female Entrepreneurship, and Water Quality

Dai (Adela) Zhang, Department of Anthropology
Provincialized Poverty: Encountering the 'State' through Resource-Based Development in Peru

Ruxi (Anna) Zhang, Department of Political Science
Nation-building and Redistribution in China

2016–2017 Academic Year

Cauê Dobbin, Department of Economics
Returns to Tertiary Education: Evidence From an Unintended Experiment in Brazil

Emanuele Colonnelli, Department of Economics
Ronald I. McKinnon Fellowship for Graduate Students
Corruption and Firms: Evidence from Brazil

Joshua Kim, Department of Economics
Ronald I. McKinnon Fellowship for Graduate Students
Food Labelling and (Mis)Information: Evidence from the Chilean Industry

Christiana Parreira, Department of Political Science
Kinship, Religious Identity, and Local Service Provision in Weak States: Evidence from Postwar Lebanon