Graduate Students Win Dissertation Proposal Fellowship

Selected from a highly competitive national pool of applicants, two Mason students were awarded Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowships by the Social Science Research Council, allowing them to focus on and develop their dissertation proposals this summer. The students will receive up to $5,000 as a stipend for pre-dissertation research.

Sandra Ruckstuhl, a PhD student in Mason’s Conflict Analysis and Resolution Program, is using the grant money to develop a case study focused on conflict and cooperation in water management in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Specifically, she will be looking at political economies and political ecologies of institutions. She expects to work with the staff of nongovernmental agencies, donor agencies, the Bosnian government and others who are working or have worked on water management projects. She aims to have her dissertation completed by May 2009.

This summer, Ruckstuhl is serving as a consultant for the World Bank in Washington, D.C., on water resources management from a social scientist’s perspective. She will be working on projects in the West Bank/Gaza and South Asia. She will also be studying for her comprehensive exams in August. Afterwards, she plans to go to Bosnia to work on her dissertation.