Graduate Programs
graduateprogramsaup.edu
Office of Academic Affairs
First floor, office 108
5, boulevard de La Tour-Maubourg
75007 Paris泭, France泭
Monday-Friday, 09:00-17:00
The Slosberg Travel Grant was established for graduate students at The American University of Paris to foster high-level graduate research泭and activism in the field of social justice.
Provided泭through the泭泭by泭alumna Karen Slosberg MA 13,泭this program aims to advance research abroad while incorporating a hands-on humanitarian component. From its creation in 2011 up to today, numerous masters students have conducted field and scholarly research with a focus on social justice, human rights, humanitarian relief and international development.泭
91勛圖厙graduate students from all programs are eligible to apply for funding to cover the costs of a volunteer/research project with an NGO or civil society organization in the developing world, in an emerging economy泭or with vulnerable communities in post-industrial societies. Individual grants cover both travel and living expenses. Students are expected to serve as on location volunteers or as participant observers泭with a local organization for a period of one to six months on location.
泭
Anna Chapman - ABAAD Volunteer Research Assistant in Lebanon
Madeleine Van Derheyden - Well-being as Experience: What Does it Feel Like to Develop? 泭An Ethnographic Study of Three Villages in Tamil Nadu, India
Prizma Ghimire - Unseen and Unspoken to: Impact of COVID-19 on Returnee Migrant Workers of Nepal in Nepal
Heather Strassel - Causes of Homelessness and Gaps in Services in Athens, Greece
Marie Michelle Simon Resilient Peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina: a Case Study of Brko District
Nicole Disante Listening Together: the development of podcast workshops for multicultural youth through applied multimodal literacy practices.
Armen Abelyan Sustainable Armenia: Ecological and Cultural Sustainability in 21st Century
Chloe Curreri InnovateRights at The United Nations Economic and Social Council Youth Forum
Nepalese graduate student Prizma Ghimire focused her thesis research project on how the Covid-19 pandemic is affecting the health and wellbeing of migrant workers returning to Nepal.泭
The migration crisis has been a growing global issue over the last decade. Since 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has aggravated this already challenging situation. Nepal is a country that has been severely impacted by the pandemic on a humanitarian, social and financial level. Returning Nepalese migrants have been neglected by the government and the world, and their health and wellbeing have been severely impacted by the pandemic.
Prizma conducted a nine-month qualitative study of returning Nepalese migrant workers in collaboration with two NGOs in Nepal: the Centre for Social Change (CSC) and Aamkash Nepal.泭Based in Kathmandu, CSC focuses on sociopolitical issues in Nepal, including migration, peacebuilding, democracy and governance. Aamkash Nepal is an organization dedicated to education and awareness-raising related to sociopolitical causes led by women, including migration, human trafficking and labor rights.
Prizma was able to learn more about human trafficking and labor migration issues and contribute to spreading awareness of potential solutions by being part of the CSCs migration mapping project and Aamkash Nepals field studies and educational programs. Through her research, Prizma collected data about the situation on the ground for returning migrants in Nepal, who are faced with limited access to information and services, enduring insecurity, and psychological degradation and a sense of helplessness.
Andee Brown Gershenberg
Andee Gershenbergs research focuses on the specific experiences of female asylum seekers and refugees in accessing higher educations particularly, the obstacles that are keeping them from entering into the higher education system or from continuing until completion. Since 2015, France has received an influx of asylum seekers as a result of current global conflicts. As one of the leading members of the European Union, France is highly regarded in terms of the development of sustainable systems for managing migration flows and upholding human and refugee rights. The French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA) has reported that over 250,000 asylum requests have been made during this time. This places the nation in a critical position to address the rights and needs of asylum seekers and refugees that extend beyond immediate humanitarian assistance and focus on long-term integration.
Andees collaboration with UniR was fundamental in positioning her within the NGO ecosystem. As a result, her research is based on 12 research participants in qualitative interviews regarding their migratory journeys, their academic experiences, and their challenges with integration. Through looking into the lives of the research participants, the research provides an in-depth analysis beginning with an examination of the processes in which each of the women have found value in their education, which is often rooted in childhood experiences.
Patricia Molinos
The Dominican Republic is among the countries with highest rates of gender-based physical violence against women in the Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC) region and an epicentre of machismo. Yet, femicides as the most extreme expression of violence against women are only the visible tip of a much greater and complex iceberg. A wide range of other more subtle ways of discrimination integrated in society lie under the surface but equally push women back from having access to equal opportunities as men. These include, for example, the belief that women are natural caregivers and ought to shoulder the burden of unpaid care and domestic work alone; the condescendence and paternalism with which women are treated throughout their daily lives and at work, even if they are far more qualified; the unequal distribution of power and decision making positions between the two sexes; or the persistent gender wage gap that results in women being paid less for doing exactly the same work as their male colleagues.
Patricia Molinos thesis explores these issues and examines the conversation around women織s empowerment through the lens of social stigma in the Dominican Republic. Field research泭aimed to shed泭a light on the lesser obvious forms of discrimination such as the aforementioned, which were discussed with key informants to this work. Particularly, the research focussed on identifying what main approaches are in place to advance women's rights and gender equality, what challenges the selected initiatives face and why, and what are potential entry points are to tackle obstacles and eradicate ongoing inequalities.
Despite Kenya's impressive mobile data penetration rates, poverty and unemployment plague Kenyas youth, especially in the country's slums. Forty five percent of Kenya's population lives in poverty. One in five Kenyan youth are unemployed and Nairobi hosts the highest number of unemployed young adults in the country.泭Eighty percent of Kenya's population is younger than 35. The youth in Kenya constitute over 50% of the electorate. The year 2017 marked Kenyas second general election since adopting the 2010 Constitution. The first under this Constitution, in 2013, had lower youth voter turnout than anticipated. In 2016, the United Nations (UN) World Youth Report on Youth Civic Engagement.泭highlighted that youth participation in electoral processes were on the decline on a global scale. The report also reflected that young adult citizenries who form electorates in Africa are far less likely (34.5% compared to 66.2% in South America) to vote than their counterparts from other continents.
Why are youth participation figures in Africa lower than those of their counterparts? What are some of the communication shortfalls contributing to this problem? Since most young Kenyans acquire most of their information online, what communication efforts were been made by Kenyan civil society to泭address this political engagement gap for the 2017 election? Kenya's high mobile penetration rates, its digitally savvy youth demographic forming over half of the electorate, the previous low levels of Kenyan youth civic engagement and being a Global Communications student in the Development Track, all contributed to why Nolwazi Mjwara wanted to examine the role of ICTs in youth civic engagement in Kenya. Nolwazis study ultimately aimed泭to contribute to critical, ICT4D and youth civic engagement literature by examining the case of SIDAREC during the 2017 Kenyan presidential election.
Graduate Programs
graduateprogramsaup.edu
Office of Academic Affairs
First floor, office 108
5, boulevard de La Tour-Maubourg
75007 Paris泭, France泭
Monday-Friday, 09:00-17:00