The Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute announces the Human Rights Research Grant Competition for graduate students at the University of Connecticut. The objective of the competition is to support and promote research projects on human rights related questions.
2024 Graduate Research Grant Recipients
Asmita Aasaavari, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Sociology
"Graying Matters, Aging Bodies: Economic and Social Rights Among Seniors in Rural America"
Asmita Aasaavari is a Ph.D. candidate in the sociology department at UConn. Her scholarly interests lie at the intersection of feminist gerontology, the sociology of care work, the sociology of gender, and the political economy of aging. In her research, she uses interdisciplinary methods, and feminist, and sociological lenses to shed light on how aging and the social organization of care intersect with systems of inequality such as race, class, gender, and caste. Her dissertation research looks at the interactions of economic conditions, cultural norms, gender, and family forms in shaping aging, particularly among underserved communities
Spencer Hayes, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Political Science
"Follows, Likes, and Shares: Social Media's Dichotomous Agency in Human Trafficking"
Spencer Hayes is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Political Science with subfields in international relations and comparative politics. She primarily focuses her research on globalization, the relationship between technological advancements and human rights, international law, and the prevention of human trafficking. Her dissertation evaluates the intricacies of social media within the act of human trafficking through the creation of an original dataset. Spencer aims to identify policy actions that best uphold human rights by integrating quantitative research methods and natural language processing.
Lauren Danielowski, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Sociology
"Claiming Reproductive Rights in the US Commercial Surrogacy Market"
Lauren Danielowski, MA, is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology. Her research focuses on human rights, reproductive rights and justice, and reproductive technologies. Lauren's current work is focused on how people access their reproductive rights within commercial surrogacy in the United States, with a specific focus on the relationship between economic rights, labor rights, and reproductive rights. Her aim in this work is to center the often neglected lived experiences of those involved in order to create better knowledge about how people experience human rights in the context of commercial surrogacy.
Former Recipients
2023
- Catalina Alvarado-Cañuta
Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Anthropology
"Healing of Colonial Wounds in Indigenous Peoples through Art"
2022
- Sarah Luria
PhD Candidate, Neag School of Education
"Toward Equity Mindsets: A Tool for Evaluating the Equitable Self" - Rianka Roy
Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Sociology
"Mapping Transnational Rights: Indian Tech Workers’ Mobilization in India and the US" - Madeline Baird
Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Anthropology
"Ethnographic research on the socio-ecological impact and right to health for migrant peoples ‘in transit’ through Darién, Panamá"
2021
- Asmita Aasaavari
PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology
"Domestic Workers’ Organizing in India" - Maria Hall-Faul
Ph.D. Candidate, School of Social Work
"The Right of Children to an Adequate Standard of Living: TANF in the United States" - Ashley Walters
Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Anthropology
"Statelessly United: An Ethnographic Inquiry of Statelessness in the United States"
Eligibility Criteria
- Open to all JD, LLM, master's, and doctoral students in all disciplines from any UConn campus
- In any given year, a student may receive either a Graduate Student Research Grant or the Dissertation Research Fellowship, but not both.
How to Apply
Access the application via Microsoft Forms. The application requires the following materials:
- Narrative description of the proposed research (three pages, double spaced, 12 point font) that contains the following:
- Project Rationale: Please describe your reasoning for undertaking this research project and the impact you believe your project will have on understanding of or policies affecting human rights.
- Impact: Identify the expected contribution your research will make to the field of human rights.
- Methodology: Explain how you will conduct your research. Be explicit in describing the types of methods employed and the advantage of using these particular methods.
- Anticipated budget and budget justification (of up to $2,500). The purpose of the budget narrative is to supplement the information provided in the anticipated budget document to demonstrate you have considered the costs associated with your research. The narrative is different from the spreadsheet in that rather than listing expected costs in dollars, the narrative explains the rationales for these expected costs. (Download the Anticipated Budget and Budget Narrative Template)
- Current CV
- Separate statement from your advisor or supervisor on how the funding will advance your research. The statement should be submitted electronically via https://forms.office.com/r/uNhcjRgDsi.
Application Deadline for 2025: April 1st
Evaluation of Applications
The proposal should demonstrate overall excellence with a focus on human rights issues, understood broadly. Projects should make a significant contribution to ongoing scholarly, policy, and practice debates in the field of human rights. Priority will be given to applications that evidence human rights coursework and/or prior substantive human rights engagement.
Awards will prioritize primary research activities, including but not limited to: archival research, participant observation, interview, data collection, data set construction, ethnography, textual criticism, digital archiving, and historical preservation. Requests for funding for conference travel and seminar/course tuition (including language or methods training) will also be considered.
All proposals will be reviewed and ranked by a multidisciplinary review committee chaired by the associate director of the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute and comprised of members of the Gladstein Human Rights Committee. The number of grants will depend on the number of applications ranked 'excellent' by the review panel.