Joint PhD Program News

PhD student Valerie Taing has been awarded a 2022-2023 Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship. The Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship is one of the most prestigious awards granted by the Rackham Graduate School. Doctoral candidates who expect to graduate within six years after beginning their degrees are eligible to apply, and the strength and quality of their dissertation abstract, publications and presentations, and recommendations are all taken into consideration when granting this award.

Finn McLafferty Bell, Joint Doctoral Program in Social Work and Sociology, has successfully defended his dissertation entitled “Marginalized Food Growers in a Changing Environment: Tracing Collective Survival Strategies.” His committee consisted of Sandra Danziger and Katie Richards-Schuster. Bell has accepted a tenure-track assistant professor of Human Services at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.

Garrett Pace, Joint Doctoral Program in Social Work and Sociology, has successfully defended his dissertation entitled "Corporal Punishment Bans in Global Perspective: Conceptualization and Child- and Caregiver-Reported Outcomes.” His committee consisted of Shawna Lee and Andrew Grogan-Kaylor. Pace has accepted a tenure-track assistant professor position at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

PhD student (Social Work & Psychology) Andrea Mora was awarded a scholarship from the Association of Latina/o Social Work Educators. The scholarship supports the advancement of social work education especially among the Latino population.

PhD student (Social Work & Anthropology) Yun Chen was awarded a Barbour Scholarship from Rackham Graduate School for the 2022-23 academic year. Barbour established a U-M scholarship for women of the highest academic and professional caliber from the area extending from Turkey in the west to Japan and the Philippines in the east. Barbour scholars study science, medicine, mathematics and other academic disciplines.

Charles Williams' editorial, “The Real Lesson That We Learned from the Juwan Howard Incident: A Black Man Still Has No Rights That Require Respect” is included in the latest issue of Diverse: Issues In Higher Education. “Watching Coach Howard try to negotiate anger the best way he could when walking down the handshake line, makes me flashback to every single moment in my life when I got to my car, or made it to my office or left the conflict and literally thanked God that I got away without having an emotional to physical blackout,” wrote Williams.

PhD student Charles Williams II was featured on the CBS Evening News in a story on voting rights. “They aren’t securing the vote, they are suppressing the vote,” said Williams in regards to a petition backed by republicans to tighten voter ID requirements in the state of Michigan. Williams is leading local efforts to protect voting rights. “The fight must continue, and I think many people on the ground understand and are very clear that they will not stop until justice comes.”

PhD student Rita Hu has received the 2021 Elizabeth Douvan Junior Scholar in Life Course Development, part of the Institute for Social Research (ISR) Next Generation Awards.

Named in honor of Elizabeth “Libby” Douvan, the first female member of ISR’s research facility, the fund is designed to support senior graduate students, post-doctoral candidates, and junior faculty members with research agendas in Life Course Development (LCD). Scholars at this point in their careers are often at their most creative and productive and Douvan is fondly remembered for her skill and caring in assisting researchers through this stage.

“As a mentee of Dr. Toni Antonucci, the Elizabeth M. Douvan Collegiate Professor of Psychology, and a member of the LCD program, it is my honor to pass on the legacy,” says Hu.  “My research interests in social relations across the lifespan were inspired by research done by LCD members and the supportive learning environment at LCD. The fund will support me in learning and exchanging ideas with scholars at conferences, as well as advancing my knowledge in research methods to further understand social relations and ageism.”