Graduate Student Support
Essential to the intellectual lives of faculty, to the development of many undergraduates, and to the future of colleges and universities, graduate students are a vital part of the University of Michigan's College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. For the entirety of 2008, UM is providing a fifty-percent match on all gifts given to graduate student support. With so many students funding research out of their own pocket and understanding the key role they play, now is the perfect time to make significant strides in bettering the support for graduate students.
In that spirit, here are the compelling stories of a handful of LSA's more than 1,500 graduate students:
Michael Jahi Chappell (Ecology & Evolutionary Biology) (PDF)
Is it possible to feed everyone in the world without destroying the environment? Chappell has reason to hope it is. And the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, may be providing the roadmap...
Eva-Marie Dubuisson (Anthropology) (PDF)
In a country where dialogue about pressing issues -- torture, poverty, human trafficking -- is bound to land one in jail, one group manages to couch its criticism of government in verbal art...
Sara Gentry (Applied & Interdisciplinary Mathematics) (PDF)
Instead of working in a lab, she works on a computer with mathematical formulas -- but she hopes the mathematical model she developed will provide insight on the progression and behavior of a form of leukemia.
Josh Gubler, Derek Stafford, Charles Doriean & Daniel Katz (Political Science) (PDF)
Four young political scientists are using network analysis to explain a wide range of social and political phenomena – from judicial networks to campaign finance, from AIDS prevention in South Africa to conflict resolution in Israel/Palestine.
John Hennsler (Chemistry) (PDF)
Together with Professor Brian Coppola, Henssler created an innovative, research-based organic chem lab in which undergraduates design their own questions and carry out their own investigations.
Annie Hesp (Romance Languages and Literatures) (PDF)
Striving to provide LSA undergraduates with transformative experiences in language courses, Hesp partnered with UM's Global Intercultural Experiences for Undergraduates to take 15-17 undergrads through the Camino de Santiago...
Annemarie Hindman (Education and Psychology) (PDF)
Striving to identify and share best practices in improving childhood education in low-income areas, Hindman began her career as a teacher and literacy coach through Head Start pre-schools...
Michelle Lilly (Psychology and Women's Studies) (PDF)
Paper-making cooperatives outside of Johannesburg, South Africa, keep losing their workers – not because of poor wages or bad conditions, but rather because the workers are sick with or dying from AIDS...
Clapperton Mavhunga (History) (PDF)
His area of focus has been the role of weapons and the mobility of guns, especially in the border zone of South Africa, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe, his country of birth.