Mishka Murad was awarded an Ambassador Cynthia Shepard Perry Award for the 2020-2021 academic year. The award was established to provide support for graduate students in international education or affiliated with the Center for International Education to help them pursue international field work.
In her response to the award Mishka described her research topic:
My dissertation explores the academic experiences of international doctoral student mothers at one U.S. university and how these varying identities intersect. Using qualitative interviews it brings these women’s voices, stories and lived experiences to light, and in a small way hopes to address the silence in the literature about international doctoral student mothers. The study explores practices currently implemented by faculty, advisors and peers that help this diverse group of students to feel like they belong and are appreciated. The study also analyzes the ways in which this group is often overlooked or ignored. The research will suggest strategies and solutions that may be practiced daily, on the micro-level, without waiting for top-down policy changes.
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Mariam Sheikh was also awarded an Ambassador Cynthia Shepard Perry Award for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Mariam describes her research interests as follows:
Youth activism for social change is on the rise around the globe, and educators are grappling with the complexities of today’s student activism in higher education. My doctoral research focuses on the role of rising student activism in Pakistan, particularly how it challenges neoliberal reforms in education, exposes inequities in relation to gender, class and ethnicity, and strives for a socially just education system.
I am in the process of examining how students belonging to disadvantaged backgrounds navigate discriminatory access and educational experiences in higher education. Within this area of interest, I hope to study the intersection of gender and education by studying the recent efforts of female student activists to challenge patriarchal norms and gendered barriers to education.
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