Ijaz and Ni receive Dissertation Research Fellowships
Doctoral candidates Narmeen Ijaz and Yuqian (Neil) Ni have been selected to receive Dissertation Research Fellowships from the College of Arts & Sciences. The fellowships provide full $23,000 stipends for the 2024-2025 academic year without classroom responsibilities.
Ijaz is studying how participatory and interactive approaches in documentaries can shape gender representation. Her dissertation focuses on “theorizing a feminist documentary praxis in South Asia” and uses data collection across multiple levels. Ijaz plans to travel to South Asia to conduct interviews.
Ni’s dissertation addresses how human motivation and emotion change from moment to moment.
“I am very honored to receive this award,” Ni said. “I look forward to using this opportunity to advance my research and complete my dissertation!”
Director of Graduate Studies at The Media School and Ni’s dissertation co-chair Rob Potter wrote a glowing letter of recommendation in support of Ni’s nomination.
“I was inspired and somewhat surprised by his ability to independently consider ‘what’s next’ in analysis strategies for the large psychophysiological data sets I asked him to work with,” Potter said. “Without a doubt, Neil came to my lab as the strongest data analyst I have ever had as a grad student.”