Graduate Fellows' Reflections
“I greatly enjoyed my past year’s participation in the ISSC graduate fellows program, and feel my dissertation research and professional development improved substantially because of the program. This past year was my first after passing my oral qualifying exams, and I dedicated it to making immediate progress on my dissertation. This was reflected in the research and drafting of my ISSC working paper. The paper combines research for the three core chapters of my dissertation, which I accomplished this year with ISSC support.
“Thanks to the ISSC support, then, I accomplished my primary goal for the past year of making substantial progress on my dissertation. As I shift my goals somewhat this upcoming year, to an emphasis on the publication and presentation of papers, the research I completed as an ISSC fellow has provided the basis for 2-3 research papers and presentations. Moreover, the feedback I got from my fellow ISSC graduate colleagues, from David Minkus, and from others at ISSC played a strong role in determining the course of research and the potential chapters of my dissertation—and publications—going forward. Active participation in discussions with co-fellows greatly increased my overall learning, professional development, and significantly influenced the course of my future research.
“I feel that the opportunity to sit once a week with a diverse group, from multiple Berkeley departments, of smart, talented graduate students that can offer sound advice and different perspectives is one of the most enriching experiences of my Berkeley career so far. Without a doubt, it has greatly influenced and improved my work going forward.”
-First-year Graduate Fellow, Architecture.
“The training program support of the ISSC has strengthened my dissertation research more specifically and has enabled me to grow as a graduate student and scholar more generally. The Fall semester readings and the spirited interdisciplinary discussions we had about them during our weekly meeting provided me with opportunities to review and rethink my dissertation research and pushed me to anchor my research more firmly in different strands of social science literature. As a result, I have come to see how my research fits with other disciplines concerned with socio-economic and political change in urban communities and I am better able to respond to questions about my research from scholars in fields other than political science.
“In addition to the two more specific accomplishments of gaining interdisciplinary maneuverability and improving and expanding my research methods, ISSC training program support has helped me with the various stages of documenting my research findings (including framing my research, organizing my papers, writing strong abstracts, and making effective presentations), seeking out funding opportunities and providing opportunities for me to present my research and receive feedback so that I can continue to improve my work.”
-First-year Graduate Fellow, Political Science.
“Over the past year, my participation in the ISSC program has provided a valuable venue for engaging in a peer review process with colleagues that has enriched the quality of my own work as well as strengthened my ability to provide constructive feedback on the work of others. The process of developing a working paper in the context of weekly sessions has enabled me to hone my conceptual framework for my proposed dissertation research and my presentation skills as a result of presenting my working paper at an ISSC forum in April. In addition, my Second-year Graduate Fellow mentor provided me with very useful insight and support regarding the application process to the Ford Foundation Diversity Fellowship (of which she was also a recipient), which I believe was instrumental in the success of my application. I look forward to participating in this unique community of scholars again next year as a Second-year Fellow."
-First-year Graduate Fellow, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management.
“Since joining the ISSC as a First-year research fellow, my research has – to my mind – interestingly delved into deeper issues of practices of urban public space, belonging and citizenship. While I was already interested in these issues given my fieldwork experience of studying homeless queer young people in San Francisco, the ISSC offered a kind of collegiality and expertise that I was missing. The collegiality the Institute has offered has been highly important towards including more detailed (and better) analysis of public space, as the sharing of work and discussions with the staff and other fellows has enabled my thinking tremendously.
“Since becoming an ISSC fellow, I have presented my research in four professional conferences or venues, as well as attending two other conferences. The second year program is itself partly a professional development program, whose assistance in approaching the academic/research job market and post-PhD field I will greatly appreciate.
“With ISSC training and support I have been able to explore theoretically the intersection of public space, marginal urban groups, and scientific practice. It has greatly afforded me a place to work and a computer, extremely helpful when writing a dissertation.”
-First-year Fellow, Medical Anthropology.
“With ISSC support, I wrote a paper exploring HOPE VI and its relationship to the history of poverty management in the U.S. Although I have spent the last few years learning about the topic, the paper proved more difficult than I expected. In the end, it was a much more interesting paper and the ideas were much more well-developed than they would have been without ISSC…This was one of two papers I wrote this year and although the second paper was not officially an ISSC paper, it benefited from the writing assistance and feedback I received through the ISSC program. ISSC also provided me with the opportunity to present my paper in a colloquium.
“I took seriously the opportunity I received from ISSC to develop as an academic and a thinker. I am pleased that I managed to be productive during a year when I could have very easily been swept up by other parts of my life. The process was neither smooth nor graceful, but I moved forward, made progress with my work, and contributed to the work of the Institute as well. I look forward to the opportunity to build on these lessons and help move forward the work of the Institute as a second year research fellow.”
-First-year Fellow, City and Regional Planning.