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CRF Announces 2019-20 Student Research Awards

The Center for Research on Families (CRF) is pleased to announce the recipients of this year's Student Research Awards. CRF is committed to supporting students engaged in family research — our student researchers are addressing family challenges such as postpartum depression, government policies for recognition of indigenous people, the experience of stigmatization for emerging adults with LGBQ+ parents, and grandmothering behavior and how it impacts the health and well-being of both grandmothers and grandchildren.

This highly-competitive awards program provides funding, methodology support and ongoing mentorship to graduate and undergraduate students in all disciplines of study and acknowledges outstanding student research on issues related to families. CRF received a high volume of applications for this year's competition. Ten talented students received awards in four categories for a total of over $24,000 awarded.

Graduate Dissertation Fellowship $5,000-$10,000

Sarah Winokur is the 2019–2020 recipient of the $10,000 CRF Dissertation Fellowship and a PhD candidate in the Neuroscience and Behavior Program. Under the mentorship of Dr. Mariana Pereira, Sarah's dissertation research focuses on discovering molecular and neuro-chemical mechanisms associated with depressive-like cognitive and motivational dysfunctions that predict parenting disturbances in new mother rats. 

Erica Kowsz is a 2019–2020 recipient of a $5,000 Dissertation Fellowship and a PhD Candidate in the Anthropology Department. Kowsz’s dissertation research examines the government policies for recognition of indigenous people that were developed from the 1970s through the 1990s in two distinct research contexts: that of the Sami in Norway and that of Native Americans in the U.S., with a focus on the story of Nipmuc people in southern New England. Kowsz is completing fieldwork in 2019, and will be spending  the 2019–2020 academic year under the mentorship of Dr. Sonya Atalay, focused on analysis, writing, and designing an additional products-of-research tailored to the needs of communities that have contributed to the project.

Jennifer Withrow is a 2019–2020 recipient of a $5,000 Dissertation Fellowship and a Ph.D. candidate in the Economics Department. The fellowship will support her work on the farm-to-urban migration of women during the U.S. farm crisis of the 1920s and 1930s. Under the mentorship of her advisor, Dr. Carol Heim, Jennifer has created a novel longitudinal dataset of women linked across the 1920 to 1940 censuses, allowing her to observe women before and after they migrated.

Graduate Dissertation Award - $500

Krystal Cashen is a 2019-20 recipient of a $500 Dissertation Award and a PhD candidate in developmental science in the department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. Under the mentorship of her advisor, Dr. Harold Grotevant, Krystal’s research broadly focuses on the experiences of young adults who grew up in adoptive and/or LGBTQ+ parented families.

Blair Harrington is a 2019-20 recipient of a $500 Dissertation Award and is a PhD Candidate in the Sociology Department. Her dissertation--which builds upon her Master's Thesis and second comprehensive exam--will examine the relationship between social class, the receipt and provision of familial support, and student well-being for Asian American undergraduates. Blair is also part of a research team with her mentor, Naomi Gerstel, and other doctoral students in the Sociology department; they study the effect race, class, and gender have on family involvement in college.

Spring Travel Award - $300

Kyle Kainec is a 2019-20 recipient of a $300 Spring Travel Award and is a PhD candidate in the Neuroscience and Behavior Program.

Ragini Saira Malhotra is a 2019-20 recipient of a  $300 Spring Travel Award and a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology.

Anna Weyher is 2019-20 recipient of a  $300 Spring Travel Award and a PhD candidate in the Anthropology Department.

Undergraduate Research Assistantship - $3,000

Joseph McGaunn is a 2019-20 recipient of the $3000 CRF Undergraduate Research Assistantship and is a Junior honors student double-majoring in Biochemistry/Molecular biology and Psychology (Neuroscience Track). He will be continuing his honors thesis work under Dr. Alexander Suvorov in Environmental Health Sciences, characterizing how environmental factors such as the age and chemical exposures of fathers may impact neruodevelopment and behavior of their children using mouse models.

Summer Methodology Scholarship

Sofiya Shreyer is a 2019-2020 recipient of the Summer Methodology Scholarship and a first year graduate student in the Anthropology Department. Under the guidance of Dr. Lynnette Sievert, she is studying grandmotherhood, variation in caretaking behaviors, and the impact of child-rearing on both grandmaternal and children’s health and well-being.