Awards of Distinction – Current Grad Students https://gradstudents.carleton.ca Carleton University Wed, 06 Mar 2024 19:38:33 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.4.1 PhD Candidate Jessica Davis Receives Distinguished SSHRC Talent Impact Award https://newsroom.carleton.ca/2023/carleton-universitys-jessica-davis-receives-distinguished-sshrc-talent-impact-award/#new_tab Thu, 23 Nov 2023 15:33:10 +0000 https://gradstudents.carleton.ca/?p=56148 Congratulations to Carleton’s 2023 Vanier Award Winners! https://gradstudents.carleton.ca/2023/congratulations-to-carletons-2023-vanier-award-winners/ Wed, 06 Sep 2023 12:50:18 +0000 https://gradstudents.carleton.ca/?p=55747 By Ellen Tsaprailis
Photos by Lindsay Ralph

Carleton University PhD students Hannah Johnston (Information Technology) and Evan Wicklund (Sociology) are the recipients of a prestigious 2023 Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship.

Valued at $50,000 per year for three years during a student’s doctoral studies, the coveted Vanier scholarships are awarded to Canadian PhD students who conduct exceptional research.

“My sincere congratulations to the recipients of the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships across Canada, and especially, to our two Carleton students who are part of this select group,” says Carleton Interim President and Vice-Chancellor Jerry Tomberlin. “Hannah Johnston and Evan Wicklund exemplify the quality of research being conducted at Carleton and we are proud of their success.”

Named after Major-General Georges P. Vanier—the first francophone Governor General of Canada—the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship program helps Canadian institutions attract highly-qualified doctoral students.

“I am very pleased to see the Vanier program recognize the achievements of our outstanding students who are shaping our future,” says Patrice Smith, dean of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs at Carleton.

Hannah Johnston is a Carleton University PhD Student in Information Technology who has won a 2023 Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship

Hannah Johnston
Hannah Johnston is a PhD student in Information Technology and is being supported through the Vanier Scholarship to research ways to support human creativity through the design of interfaces for Artificial Intelligence (AI) based image generation systems.

Having completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Information Technology and Information Systems respectively at Carleton, Johnston moved to New York and spent nine years working at Google as a user experience designer before heading back to Ottawa. Upon returning, she taught courses at Carleton and Algonquin College and, in her spare time, she found a niche interest and decided to pursue a PhD.

“Mid-pandemic, I got really interested in text-to-image generation systems,” says Johnston. “It is where you type in a prompt and it generates an image using artificial intelligence. The more I used it, I thought there is really something here. The tools at the time were not user-focused and easily accessible but sure enough, several companies have since emerged to bring this to the public and this area of research brought me to my PhD studies.”

In this new, emerging area of AI-generated images, Johnston is most interested in figuring out how to support users interacting with this technology.

“What’s motivating me is a desire to learn more,” says Johnston. “One of my advisers, Prof. David Thue leads a research lab focused on AI. Much of my experience with these systems has been on the art and interaction side, so working with someone with technical expertise was really important to me to help bridge the gap.”

Evan Wicklund is a Carleton University PhD Student in Sociology who has won a 2023 Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship

Evan Wicklund
Evan Wicklund is a PhD student in Sociology who is being supported by the Vanier Scholarship to research the ethics of care in disabled bodies.

“My approach is to not think of ethics as something that is what we should be doing, but how we might be interacting with other people and other technologies and how disabled experiences give us so many opportunities to explore those interactions,” says Wicklund.

“Instead of looking at a medical model, I want a complete understanding of how society understands disability. Disability encourages us to realize the affirmation of different experiences and how we have obligations to other people within our proximity.”

Wicklund started his academic career by taking a disability and community support program at his local college in Winnipeg which trained him to work directly with people with primarily intellectual disabilities. His interest in the topic grew, leading him to complete an undergraduate honours degree from the University of Winnipeg in Disability Studies. Wicklund then went on to get an MA in Cultural Studies where he focused on theoretical approaches to understanding social issues.

In tandem, Wicklund began working at the Canadian Centre on Disability Studies (now operating as Eviance) where he still is today. It is a community-based research organization that focuses on education, community research and development.

Still interested in advancing his education, Wicklund chose Carleton’s Sociology PhD program.

“I made the choice to come to Carleton because of faculty expertise,” says Wicklund. “There is so much expertise around my personal interests and I have been encouraged to pursue those interests.”

Under the supervision of Prof. Kelly Fritsch and Prof. Carlos Novas, Wicklund will explore the various ways that disability ethics manifest in contemporary societies.

“It is difficult for me to articulate how grateful I am to receive this Vanier Scholarship,” says Wicklund. “This was a verification that I am doing something important. I am very lucky.”

Canadian Government Investment
This year, the federal government awarded a total of $24.9 million in Vanier awards to support 166 recipients across Canada through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Johnston), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (Wicklund) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

“Congratulations to these talented recipients from all across the country who are doing the groundbreaking work that will contribute not only to Canada’s health and well-being but also to the world’s. Through this funding, the Government of Canada is investing in the next generation of researchers and inspiring them to continue to think outside the box and tackle the challenges of today and tomorrow,” said The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry in a press release on August 29, 2023.

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Two Carleton Grad Students Win Vector Scholarship in Artificial Intelligence https://gradstudents.carleton.ca/2023/two-carleton-grad-students-win-vector-scholarship-in-artificial-intelligence/ Thu, 24 Aug 2023 19:54:04 +0000 https://gradstudents.carleton.ca/?p=55812 By Malavika Sajan

Carleton University master’s students Benjamin Faveri (Political Economy) and David Clarabut (Civil Engineering) have each been awarded a Vector Scholarship in Artificial Intelligence. Valued at $17,500, this scholarship is awarded to top students pursuing an AI master’s in Ontario and is offered by the Vector Institute, one of Canada’s three national AI labs.

Carleton University Political Economy master’s student Benjamin Faveri has won a Vector Scholarship in Artificial Intelligence

Faveri is researching the various pathways that standards and certifications have taken to become referenced or incorporated in national legislation and regulation—a process called orchestration—and applying any identified pathways to emerging AI standards and certifications.

According to Faveri, “There are 1400+ AI and AI-related national and international standards and certifications. It is unrealistic to expect firms to have the expertise or time to sift through that many standards and certifications to find the ideal or best one for their goals. Previously, in other industries, this same problem emerged and was addressed by the government essentially choosing the ideal or best standard or certification and incorporating or referencing its requirements in national legislation or regulations.”

As firms look to these standards and certifications to tangibly demonstrate their responsible AI practices, often to gain a market advantage over those that cannot tangibly demonstrate their responsible AI practices, they need a way of determining which standards and certifications are “ideal” or “best.”

“It is wonderful to see Faveri’s research receiving this support,” says Prof. Graeme Auld, Faveri’s MA supervisor. “The challenges of governing AI may seem unique, but there is great value in seeking to understand past experiences to see whether, and how, they may inform more effective AI governance approaches. Moreover, his work stands to make important contributions investigating the relationships between technical standards and regulation.”

After his MA, Faveri will take the identified pathways in his thesis and apply them to the Responsible AI Certification Program and international AI standards he has helped build and develop over the last 2.5 years at the Responsible AI Institute and International Organization for Standardization. He also may continue this line of research into a PhD.

While Faveri’s previous professional experience and proposed research is focused on AI governance, Clarabut’s exposure to AI-related research and outstanding research potential prompted him to apply for the scholarship.

Carleton University Civil Engineering master’s student David Clarabut has won a Vector Scholarship in Artificial Intelligence

Clarabut’s previous research involved studying the non-linear structural dynamics of spinning blades. Clarabut aims to use AI to perform inverse modelling, which involves using measurements to estimate the contribution of components in dynamical systems to their overall behavior.

His research tackles “…some fundamental problems that machine learning algorithms face,” says Prof. Abhijit Sarkar, Clarabut’s MASc supervisor.

According to Sarkar, the application of AI in Clarabut’s research is focused on addressing the “overfitting problem and uncertainty quantification” in machine learning algorithms. Clarabut’s research aims to study the robustness of such algorithms. Sarkar had nothing but high praise for Clarabut’s work. “David is an outstanding student whose undergraduate research is already published in an authoritative journal in the field.”

Clarabut’s research in AI will contribute to developing effective models of (a) aircraft wing vibration using wind-tunnel test data and (b) infectious disease spread using public health and cellphone mobility data.

The Vector Scholarship win surprised Clarabut.

“It was really a big surprise as it was in my original assumption that the scholarship was made for computer science students who have a very focused AI-related topic for research,” says Clarabut.

In the future, Clarabut hopes to pursue a career in research and development, “no matter whether or not it’s academia or industry.”

The Vector Scholarship in AI will help ease the financial burden on both students and allow them to focus on their research.

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PhD Student Wins Canadian Institutes of Health Research Scholarship https://gradstudents.carleton.ca/2023/phd-student-wins-canadian-institutes-of-health-research-scholarship/ Mon, 14 Aug 2023 19:28:44 +0000 https://gradstudents.carleton.ca/?p=55790 By Malavika Sajan

Carleton University Social Work doctorate student Claire McMenemy has been awarded the 2022-2023 Canadian Institutes of Health Research Scholarship (CIHR) for her research on the unmet needs of unpaid familial caregivers for older adults. 

The CIHR Scholarship is awarded to individuals pursuing their doctorate degree and provides recognition and support to students in Canada in a healthcare-related field.

McMenemy’s research focuses on how to best support familial caregivers with attention to factors affecting their lives and the lives of those they support.

“My research is about is trying to understand the unmet needs of community-based caregivers and to do so with an awareness of intersectional experience,” says  McMenemy who emphasizes how, “key diversities impact that, whether that’s gender, sexual orientation, race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, age, disability status, geography. All of these different factors impact the way caregivers experience the unpaid labour that they’re providing.” This project begins by acknowledging that this unpaid care involves significant labour and is relied upon by communities and health and social care systems.

Carleton University PhD candidate in Social Work Claire McMenemy has won the 2022-2023 Canadian Institutes of Health Research Scholarship

McMenemy is grateful for CHIR’s acknowledgement and support of the work she is doing.

“What I really find amazing is that the CIHR is taking this type of research seriously and seeing the value in it,” says McMenemy. “Health isn’t only a biomedical process. It does not stand outside the social and economic circumstances in which people live.

CIHR’s scholarship will help fund McMenemy’s research, giving her opportunities to build networks with community caregivers, care organizations, other care researchers, and other stakeholders. McMenemy states that it “would also be helping me to have a bit of extra time to build supportive networks, and further research as well.”

McMenemy’s research is supervised by Prof. Susan Braedley.

“Claire McMenemy brings an impressive combination of assets: deep personal experience of her topic, keen academic curiosity, hard work, tenacity, and rapid, enthusiastic research skill acquisition. CIHR is incredibly competitive, and the School of Social Work is so proud of her!” praises Braedley. “Doctoral social work students benefit from scholarship applicant support provided by Assistant Prof. Karen Sewell and others, who also deserve congratulations. I am excited to work with Claire on this timely research project that explores familial caregiving for diverse older adults in the context of a collision of socio-demographic aging, concerns about public spending and increasing migration.”

McMenemy is excited to begin this research with Braedley and contribute to material change for caregivers, particularly those who experience challenging conditions.

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Carleton Grad Student Earns Autism Scholar Award https://gradstudents.carleton.ca/2023/carleton-grad-student-earns-autism-scholar-award/ Mon, 14 Aug 2023 17:20:29 +0000 https://gradstudents.carleton.ca/?p=55774 By Malavika Sajan

Carleton graduate student Kai Jacobsen has won the Autism Scholars Award 2023, in recognition for their groundbreaking research on the experiences of transgender autistic people and accessibility in health care. 

The Autism Scholars Award aims to encourage the study and research of autism, especially child autism. This initiative was created to provide better knowledge, education and health care for those with autism and offer better services and assessments to support autistic people.

Jacobsen is currently pursuing their Master of Arts in Sociology, specifically looking at the barriers to health care that disproportionately affect transgender autistic individuals. Jacobsen explains, “My master’s thesis is about trans autistic people’s experiences of accessing gender-affirming care, and we know from existing research that trans people are more likely to be autistic than the general population, and vice versa.”

This research centres around the lived experience and perspectives of transgender autistic people.

Traditionally, research doesn’t always include the voices of the people who are most impacted by the research,” says Jacobsen. “It creates a lot of barriers to care and there’s really very little research evidence that actually centres the experience of trans autistic people and asks them, what are you experiencing in health care and what do you need to actually make health care more accessible to you?”

While previous research has identified an overlap between these identities, Jacobsen emphasizes the importance of the nuanced experiences of these individuals who face discrimination based on this overlap. As Jacobsen describes, “Health-care providers sometimes require autistic people to do longer assessments or wait a longer time to make sure that they’re ‘really’ trans, because of a perception that autistic people can’t be sure of themselves and their gender identity the way that non-autistic people can.”

Carleton University master’s student Kai Jacobsen is the Autism Scholars Award 2023 Recipient

Receiving this scholarship was surprising to Jacobsen, unexpected in large part because they believed it would be more difficult to receive funding for research relying on community-based research methods. 

“It’s sometimes hard to get funding for these less traditional community-based research projects, especially in the autism world. I am able to focus more on my research in the upcoming year and grateful that this specialized award exists to fund research that people like me are doing,” says Jacobsen.

The timeliness of Jacobsen’s work is more apparent when considering the anti-trans landscape currently taking place in the United States. “In the past few months, two different states have used the fact that trans folk are more likely to be autistic as justification for banning gender-affirming care for trans people,” says Jacobsen.

The significance of this award that directly and tangibly helps the community is what holds the most value to Jacobsen.

“Having that support through this scholarship provides both a material and symbolic support for my work.” 

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Carleton Post-Doc Wins Liber Ero Fellowship https://gradstudents.carleton.ca/2023/carleton-post-doc-wins-liber-ero-fellowship/ Thu, 29 Jun 2023 19:03:55 +0000 https://gradstudents.carleton.ca/?p=55659 By Ellen Tsaprailis

Courtney Robichaud is Carleton University’s newest Liber Ero Fellowship winner.

This prestigious award will fund the postdoctoral fellow in Biology to co-develop a community-based watershed monitoring program in the Great Lakes.

Carleton University Biology Postdoctoral Fellow Courtney Robichaud has won a Liber Ero Fellowship

Canada is home to almost 1.3-million square kilometres of wetlands which is a quarter of the remaining wetlands in the world. Wetlands are delicate ecosystems that are particularly vulnerable to destruction. In southern Ontario, only 11 per cent of marshes from pre-European settlement remain. Ecological restoration provides an opportunity to repair relationships with the land, water and people, resulting in impactful and meaningful conservation work.

The conservation and community ecologist will work alongside her mentors: Carleton Biology Prof. Joseph Bennett; University of Windsor Prof. Catherine Febria; and Ode’imin Indigenous Knowledge Circle.

Robichaud explains that she will work with her mentorship team to support local First Nation partners who are developing a community-based watershed monitoring program, with a focus on wetland restoration and carbon monitoring. This work will weave western science approaches with community-led priorities, building community capacity in all aspects of co-creation, training and mentorship, data collection, analysis, and interpretation.

The goal is to strengthen local First Nations communities practice and science by working together and be an example of how authentic place- and trust-based partnerships can contribute to improved health of the freshwater ecosystems of Nayaano-nibiimaang Gichigamin (the Great Lakes basin).

“We hope this work will influence the way wetlands are managed in southern Ontario and shift restoration paradigms,” says Robichaud. “Receiving the Liber Ero was really important for this work because it gave us the freedom to do this.”

Robichaud has been given $15,000 per year for two years in research funds as a Liber Ero Fellow to make headway on this project.

Prof. Bennett is thrilled to host Robichaud and her research in his Bennett Lab.

“Courtney is an accomplished scientist, with 11 peer-reviewed publications in journals and over 40 talks and conference presentations including a keynote at the first annual National Phragmites Conference. This is an impressive achievement for someone who only received their PhD in 2021,” says Bennett. “Courtney has also received numerous scholarships and awards, including an NSERC Doctoral Scholarship, an Ontario Graduate Scholarship, and was also runner-up for a CSEE Excellence in Doctoral Research Award. Her scientific ability is increasingly being recognized internationally. For example, she was recently made an Associate Editor for the Society of Conservation Biology journal Conservation Science and Practice.

What is particularly impressive about Courtney is her ability to create interdisciplinary science that leads to positive change. I don’t believe I have encountered anyone at her career stage who better exemplifies this ability.”

Robichaud has begun her Liber Ero-funded research and is proud to be a Fellow.

“There are two retreats that Liber Eros go on every year that includes everyone who has ever been a Fellow, and it is really lovely,” says Robichaud. “They are very supportive and if you are a Liber Ero Fellow, you are a Fellow for life.”

Sunrise over wetlands

Liber Ero Fellowship
This post-doctoral fellowship seeks to support early-career scientists to conduct and communicate world-class research that informs conservation and management issues relevant to Canada.

The program aims to facilitate applied conservation research collaborations that links institutions, researchers, and conservation practitioners; provide support and unique training opportunities for emerging conservation leaders at a critical stage in their careers; and increase the capacity of the Canadian scientific community to address pressing conservation and management issues.

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The 2023 Winners of Carleton University’s Three Minute Thesis Contest https://gradstudents.carleton.ca/2023/the-2023-winners-of-carleton-universitys-three-minute-thesis-contest/ Mon, 20 Mar 2023 19:00:36 +0000 https://gradstudents.carleton.ca/?p=55220 On March 17, 2023, Carleton’s Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs hosted its first in-person Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition since 2019.

The competition saw two semi-final rounds before the top 10 finalists took to the stage. Contest prizes consist of one first-place prize of $750, one second-place prize of $400, one third-place prize of $250, and one “people’s choice” prize of $150.

This year’s winners are:

First Place: Georgia Loewen, student in Master of Human-Computer Interaction

Georgia’s presentation is titled, Video Game Accessibility and Wearable Technology. Watch the video here.

Second Place and People’s Choice Winner: Panashe Kupakuwana, student in Master of Science in Biology

Panashe’s presentation is titled, A Guide on How to Live Without Oxygen. Watch the video here.

Third Place: Jennie Siushansian, student in Master of Arts in Communication

Jennie’s presentation is titled, I Just Can’t Stand Seeing and Hearing It: A Critical Examination of Non-Autistic Actors Portraying Autistic Characters On-Screen. Watch the video here.

Founded by the University of Queensland in Australia, 3MT celebrates graduate student research and takes place at universities around the world. Participants have to summarize their research in no more than 180 seconds.

Judges for the finals were:

Tim Tierney, City of Ottawa Councillor; Board Member and Ontario Caucus Chair, Federation of Canadian Municipalities
Jessie-Lee Wallace, Senior Manager, Communications, University of Ottawa Heart Institute Foundation; Board Member, HelpAge Canada and Daybreak Housing
John Nelson, Acting Director of Carleton University’s Innovation Hub

The top 10 presentations can be viewed on the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs’ YouTube channel.

Congratulations to our winners and the seven other finalists that include:

Photos by Lindsay Ralph

3MT Information on FGPA’s professional development site

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Two Carleton PhD Students Win Coveted Vanier 2022 Awards https://gradstudents.carleton.ca/2022/two-carleton-phd-students-win-coveted-vanier-2022-awards/ Mon, 28 Nov 2022 18:00:45 +0000 https://gradstudents.carleton.ca/?p=54675 Today, Carleton University was the host site for the federal government’s announcement of the winners for the 2021-2022 Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships and Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships.

Parliamentary Secretary Adam van Koeverden, on behalf of Minister François-Philippe Champagne and Minister Jean-Yves Duclos, recognized the more than 200 young researchers across Canada who have received these prestigious awards.

Carleton PhD students Alicia McVarnock (Developmental Psychology) and Chikezirim Nwoke (Anthropology) have both been awarded a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship valued at $50,000 per year for three years during a student’s doctoral studies. The coveted Vanier scholarships are awarded to Canadian PhD students who conduct exceptional research.

Carleton University PhD student and Vanier award winner Alicia McVarnock explains her research in a livestreamed event with Parliamentary Secretary Adam van Koeverden moderating.

“All my congratulations to today’s recipients of the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships, and in particular, to the two Carleton students who are part of this select group. Alicia McVarnock and Chikezirim Nwoke embody the quality and positive impact of Carleton’s research and we can all take pride in their success,” says Carleton President Benoit-Antoine Bacon.

Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs Dean Patrice Smith concurs with these sentiments and adds that, “Recruiting exceptional graduate scholars to Carleton is a top priority and I am so pleased to see the Vanier program recognize the achievements of our exceptional students.

“Vanier recipients are leaders in innovation and exemplify a far-reaching commitment to sharing knowledge and shaping the future.”

Alicia McVarnock’s Research
McVarnock’s research examines shyness in young adults. Typically, shyness in this age group is linked to a range of social and emotional difficulties. But less is known about how shyness may be connected to academic adjustment in university.

McVarnock will be conducting two studies. The first will look at shy young adults’ course preferences and enrolment using a newly-developed questionnaire and interviews. The second will explore links over time between shyness, academic adjustment (i.e., academic achievement, communication, self-efficacy, intrinsic value, self-regulation, burnout, test anxiety and student satisfaction), well-being, academic communication, temperament-environment, goodness of fit and gender.

Carleton University PhD student and Vanier scholarship winner Alicia McVarnock

“It is hypothesized that shyness will predict academic difficulties and lower well-being over time through reduced academic communication with professors and peers,” says McVarnock. “It is also hypothesized that shy students will prefer lecture- and online-style courses as compared to seminars, and that links between shyness and poor academic outcomes may be magnified in seminar-style courses.”

Along with informing the academic and research community, her research will have implications for educational institutions to begin developing interventions targeted toward promoting academic success among shy young adults.

Chikezirim Nwoke’s Research
Nwoke’s research explores the concept of youth empowerment in the Onitsha market area of Nigeria.

Since the advent of the new millennium, the agenda of youth empowerment has been mainstreamed across government and international development circles but the resulting youth-focused policies and programs have not recorded much success in Africa.

“While studies on African youths exist, an in-depth ethnographic exploration of youth- lived experiences highlighting the intersection of global forces and Indigenous-knowledge systems is missing from scholarly literature,” says Nwoke.

Carleton University PhD student and Vanier scholarship winner Chikezirim Nwoke

Nwoke will be using participant observation and interviews that focus on Imu Ahia, a traditional youth-livelihood-mentorship system prevalent in markets in southeastern Nigeria, to understand how federal and local government policies, international trade agreements, and multi-level power contestations affect young traders who, in turn, reconfigure the terms of citizenship in society through their activities and involvements.

Nwoke hopes his research will be useful for Canadian international development aid programming directed towards youth and, comparatively, Indigenous youth-focused initiatives in Canada and elsewhere.

In 2021, Nwoke co-founded the Nigeria Youth Resistance Project, which is committed to documenting and critically-engaging acts of social-come-political resistance by young Nigerians at home and in the diaspora. Their debut output is an open access book entitled Ozugo focused on the 2020 EndSARS youth protests against police brutality in Nigeria. The book contains contributions from 16 young Nigerian scholars, poets, photographers and activists.

Nwoke points out that his passion for studying youth stems from his more than 10 years of experience working with international development organizations that focus on economic and sociopolitical issues and outcomes with regards to youth across Nigeria, Cameroon, South Sudan and Uganda.

Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships
Named after Major-General Georges P. Vanier, the first francophone Governor General of Canada, the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship program helps Canadian institutions attract highly-qualified doctoral students.

]]> Carleton Springboards Student to Rhodes Scholarship https://newsroom.carleton.ca/story/collins-tobin-rhodes-scholarship/?utm_source=Homepage&utm_medium=Spotlight#new_tab Mon, 21 Nov 2022 19:00:24 +0000 https://gradstudents.carleton.ca/?p=54688 Carleton PhD Student Wins Prestigious Fulbright Award https://gradstudents.carleton.ca/2022/carleton-phd-student-wins-prestigious-fulbright-award/ Mon, 26 Sep 2022 21:00:24 +0000 https://gradstudents.carleton.ca/?p=54085 By Ellen Tsaprailis
Photos by Lindsay Ralph

Sneha Sumanth has won a 2022-2023 Fulbright Student Award.

A PhD student in Geography, this award has given Sumanth financial support to be able to live and study at the City University of New York (CUNY) for a nine-month academic year. Fulbright awards are given to students enrolled in a graduate program at a Canadian university that wish to conduct research in the United States that will support their Canadian degree.

Sumanth’s focus is on researching redevelopment projects of public or community housing in cities with an emphasis on the mechanisms of finance and privatization used to enable those projects, and what it means for residents living in these buildings.

“I am interested in understanding the geographical and socio-political patterns of these processes and how they impact residents,” explains Sumanth. “There is also an issue of hierarchy in race, gender and class in terms of who benefits and who doesn’t.”

With an unprecedented speed of redevelopment in public housing across Canada, Sumanth says there are good case studies to review using models of privatization already in play in New York public housing projects.

She is particularly interested in the multitude of ways in which both public and private finance is used as a means and a rationale to make these projects happen. Sumanth hopes to use the information she will cull from New York public housing projects to understand parallel shifts in public housing in Ottawa.

With her mentor and influential geographer, Professor Cindi Katz, Sumanth is hoping to soak up the culture at CUNY and be exposed to topics she has only read about to bring back to Carleton and her research.

Geography PhD student and Fulbright award winner Sneha Sumanth

Architecture Roots
Having grown up in India, Zambia and Oman before arriving in Canada as a teenager, Sumanth has always been inspired by the built environment and urban phenomena.

With the intention of becoming an architect, Sumanth pursued a bachelor and master’s in architecture but her interests shifted into the political and economic framings of how urban life works. After graduation, Sumanth started working for an architecture firm in Toronto that focused on socially-relevant projects which intrigued her.

“Most of the projects I worked on were shelters and social housing projects. I started getting exposure to a side of architecture that has a lot of social and political context to understand,” says Sumanth. “I visited shelters, spoke to staff and people who lived in the shelter system. I was exposed to root issues of homelessness, housing insecurity and the institutional nature of the publicly-provided shelter.”

Those experiences led Sumanth to pursue understanding the social-political context within which people experience housing issues. This growing curiosity led her to look into the field of geography and the avenues urban geography provides to study these conditions.

Sneha Sumanth

Carleton Experience
Sumanth has high praise for Carleton’s Department of Geography and Environmental Studies.

“Receiving this Fulbright award has in large part to do with the support of my supervisors and members of the urban geography lab who took the time to read and help improve my application,” says Sumanth. “Because my background is not in geography, my supervisors spent a lot of time making sure what was on my reading list were not only formative for my actual research but for the longevity of my career if I were to pursue academia.”

Associate Professor David Hugill is one of Sumanth’s academic supervisors.

“Sneha’s work is animated by technical expertise and theoretical sophistication. But it is also shaped by a political commitment to building a different kind of world. We’re fortunate to have her at Carleton,” says Hugill.

At CUNY, Sumanth will have an opportunity to work with and think alongside some of the leading scholars in her field says Associate Professor Jennifer Ridgley, who is also an academic supervisor to Sumanth.

“Sneha’s research in New York City will trace the very real impact of financialization on people’s everyday lives and home spaces in the city. This kind of in-depth, on-the-ground research is critical to addressing the housing crisis in North American cities,” says Ridgley.

“Building international opportunities for dialogue, research collaboration, and knowledge exchange on critical issues such as the housing crisis is one of the strengths of the Fulbright program. Housing insecurity is shaped by international processes, and addressing the crisis requires international collaboration. Sneha’s research will help reveal the ways systemic inequalities such as race, class and gender shape global processes of financialization while being attentive to local experiences of housing insecurity in North American cities.”

Fulbright Canada
Fulbright Canada is a joint, bi-national, treaty-based organization created to encourage mutual understanding between Canada and the United States of America through academic and cultural exchange. Fulbright Canada is supported by the Canadian Government, through Global Affairs Canada, by the United States Government, through the Department of State, and by a diverse group of corporate sponsors, charitable trusts, and university partners.

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