Graduate student grants fund community-engaged projects

Recently awarded Engaged Graduate Student Grants will support 21 Cornell doctoral students and their community partners researching a range of topics, including arts and agriculture, education and the environment, health and history.

Grant recipients come from both the Ithaca and Cornell Tech campuses and represent 15 fields of study – the most since the program launched in 2016, with a particular increase in projects from the social sciences.

The funded students and projects are:

• Elaigwu Ameh, theater arts, Theater and Family Planning among Nigeria’s Displaced Persons: Using theater to understand the overlooked importance of men’s roles in family planning decision-making among internally displaced persons in Nigeria;
• Emily Hong, anthropology, Above and Below the Ground: Creating a documentary film that highlights an ongoing political and environmental crisis through the stories of native activists in Myanmar;
• Olivia J. Graham, ecology and evolutionary biology, Turning the Tide for Seagrass Conservation: Educating coastal communities about the value of eelgrass to ensure sustained conservation and preservation;
• Bethany Jorgensen, natural resources, Where Do Plastics Come From, and Where Do They Go?: Developing a community-based approach for mapping plastic sources, flows, leaks and sinks;
• Jayme Kilburn, theater arts, Women’s Performance Workshop: Using community-engaged theater and feminist performance collective techniques to change how theater artists apply and define directing;
• Nikolaus Krachler, industrial and labor relations, Evaluating the Conditions for Better Care Coordination: Assessing how policy design and the power of workers lead to successful care coordination programs in the U.S. and U.K.;
• Carol-Rose Little, linguistics, Preserving the Ch’ol Language through Collaboration with Communities: Documenting the syntax and semantics of the Mayan language Ch’ol by working with community partners to ensure its preservation;
• Brian Lo, nutrition, Increasing Active-Living Opportunities in Rural Upstate New York: Engaging citizen scientists to understand neighborhood features that influence active living in rural upstate New York;
• Austin Lord, anthropology, The Langtang Memory Project: Creating a living archive and visual exhibitions focused on heritage and post-earthquake recovery in the Langtang Valley of Nepal;
• Erin Menzies Pluer, biological and environmental engineering, Farmers’ Perspectives on Waste, Water and Ways of Knowing: Examining the ways farmers collect, store and share knowledge about water and nutrient management;
• Julia Nolte, human development, Empowering Older Adults to Make Informed Healthcare Decisions: Assessing how decision-making changes with age and helping seniors find the types of information they want and need;
• Anthony Poon, information science, Texting for Social Change: Using text messages to foster successful youth transitions in sub-Saharan Africa;
• Christian Posbergh, animal science, Genome Sequencing in Sheep: Engaging shepherds to identify genomic changes responsible for color variation in sheep;
• Katie Rainwater, development sociology, Giving Voice to Migrant Burmese Workers in Thailand: Assessing reforms to labor conditions in Thailand’s shrimp-processing industry;
• Ewan Robinson, development sociology, Land-use Planning and Agricultural Investments in Tanzania: Mapping how agricultural investments affect farmers’ access to land and exploring how land-use planning can help protect land rights;
• Aubryn Sidle, development sociology, Girls’ Educational Attainment in Southern Malawi: Studying the effects of self-efficacy and agency skills on learning outcomes for girls in Malawi;
• Seema Singh, city and regional planning, Women’s Safety Concerns Using Public Transport: Mapping women’s travel patterns and exploring the key barriers they face when accessing and using public transportation in Panchkula, India;
• Andrew St. James, microbiology, From Food Waste to Energy: Using microbial culturing strategies to improve resource recovery from food waste;
• Lauren van Haaften-Schick, history of art, Rethinking Artists’ Rights: Collaborating with practitioners across art and law to re-examine the context and relevance of artists’ rights laws historically and today;
• Rama Adithya Varanasi, information science, Teaching and Education Leadership in India: Improving the community of practice for low-resource teachers in the Teach for Indianetwork, and;
• Vibhore Vardhan, information science, Web Literacies for Communities Beyond the Margins: Co-designing a web literacies course to help internet users from marginalized communities become more critically informed and engaged web contributors.

This story also appeared in the Cornell Chronicle.