amia doctoral dissertation award

Congratulations to the following nine graduate students for receiving the Division of Graduate Education Dissertation Year Award (DYA).

The following nine students received the Division of Graduate Education Dissertation Year Award (DYA). The DYA awards a $20,000 stipend and full tuition and fees to students during their last year of dissertation writing.

Announcing the 2024 Stone Center Thesis and Dissertation Award Winners

The James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Center for Research on Wealth Inequality and Mobility Undergraduate Thesis Award, created in 2023, is annually awarded to two exceptional University of Chicago undergraduate students, along with two graduate students and two PhD students. This accolade celebrates outstanding research within the social sciences and public policy, focusing on themes of inequality within the United States or across diverse cultural contexts.

"There was a remarkable level of interest in our program this year!” said Grace Hammond , executive director of the Stone Center. “The number of nominations we received was four times higher than what we received in our first year, demonstrating the strong support from advisors for their college, master’s, and Ph.D. students engaged in inequality research.”

The award is named after the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Foundation , aiming to advance a more informed and equitable society, with a particular focus on environmental sustainability and reducing wealth inequality. At the University of Chicago, the Stone Center is a research hub that enables world-leading scholars to deepen their understanding of the inequality in society and formulate new approaches to address the challenge of creating a more equitable society.

The Stone Center awards undergraduate and master-level recipients a $250 prize and doctoral recipients a $1000 price, issues a certificate of achievement, and jointly recognizes them with their home programs.

“With incredible work at all levels to consider, we decided to enhance our bachelor’s thesis award program by including recognition for master’s theses and Ph.D. dissertations,” Grace added. “It was enriching to be introduced to the ambitious early-stage research taking place on campus, and more so incredibly rewarding to acknowledge the exceptional work being done by our students. Congratulations to our seven awardees!"

The Stone Center Thesis and Dissertation Award winners are:

Award for Public Policy

Douglas Williams

Thesis: “Disaggregating National Trends In Homeless: Quantifying the effects of Latin American asylum seekers and the growth of West Coast unsheltered homelessness on spiking homeless estimates”

Douglas Williams’s thesis investigates the unprecedented surge in US homelessness highlighted in the 2023 Point-In-Time Count, particularly in cities like Chicago, attributed in part to South and Central American asylum seekers. This influx has doubled the increase and poses new challenges for homelessness and immigration services. The study also reveals the concentrated rise in street homelessness in a few California counties. These findings underscore the urgent need for targeted policies and support systems to address the evolving complexities of homelessness in affected communities.

Douglas is graduating with a dual degree in Public Policy and Data Science. In addition to his time spent in activism for the Black Lives Matter and Illinois Bail Reform movements, he has worked with the 3DL geometric deep learning lab and on various public policy issues such as political polarization and algorithmic bias. He will be joining the Comprehensive Income Dataset Project (CID) as a Pre-Doctoral Researcher after graduation.

Renato de Angelis

Thesis: “The Intergenerational Occupational Mobility of Native American Men in the Wake of Assimilation, 1900-1940”

Renato de Angelis’s thesis explores the social mobility of Native Americans in the early 20th century, a period often overlooked in social mobility studies. Using census data, it reveals high levels of downward mobility and limited upward mobility both on and off reservations during this era of assimilationist policies and economic volatility. Mobility prospects were marginally better for those living outside reservation counties but remained generally low across all groups. The data suggests that reservations may have functioned as mobility traps for Native Americans during this time.

Renato received her bachelor’s in Public Policy Studies and Statistics. During her time at UChicago, she has worked as a research assistant for professors in the Economics and Political Science departments, as well as at the Stone proper. After graduation, she will return to the Stone Center to work as a predoc with Professor Durlauf.

Award in the Social Sciences

Isabella Ramkissoon

Thesis: “Young Children’s Sociopolitical Worldviews”

Isabella Ramkissoon’s thesis explores how children develop early socio-political views on inequality and social mobility, resembling adult perspectives by elementary school. It finds that children's beliefs in authoritarianism and social dominance correlate positively, indicating a coherent worldview. Moreover, children of politically conservative parents tend to exhibit greater tolerance for inequality and more traditional values compared to those with liberal parents, suggesting parental influence on early political attitudes. These findings underscore the early emergence and familial shaping of children's socio-political orientations.

Isabella is majoring in Psychology. She has worked as a research assistant at the Development of Social Cognition (DSC) Laboratory since her second year where she completed her undergraduate thesis project and has won the prestigious Earl R. Franklin Fellowship in 2023 to support her thesis research. After graduating, she plans to continue working on her thesis research at the DSC and intends to pursue a PhD in Developmental Psychology and, eventually, a career in academia.

Maggie Rivera

Thesis: “Sanctuary in the Schoolyard? The Case of the Wadsworth Migrant Shelter”

Maggie Rivera’s thesis examines community responses to migrant shelters in Chicago's Woodlawn neighborhood, refuting media claims of "Black-Latino tensions" or "NIMBYism." It argues instead that residents' frustrations reflect historical inequities and a systemic disregard for local input in policymaking. Inspired by Eve L. Ewing's insights, the research reveals overlooked community efforts to engage with city officials for inclusive solutions, challenging narratives that overlook these collaborative efforts. This shift in perspective underscores that inequality extends beyond material disparities to include the marginalization of local voices and community-driven solutions in urban policy discussions.

Maggie completed a master’s in social science in her undergraduate program. Throughout her time at UChicago, she has worked extensively with the College's University Community Service (UCSC) Center and Writing Program. She has also partnered with several local faith organizations and nonprofit programs. After graduation, she will continue working in Chicago’s nonprofit sector.

Joseph Spada

Thesis: “Employment Effects of Minimum Wage Increases: Evidence from New Jersey”

Joseph Spada’s thesis explores the impact of minimum wage increases, focusing on New Jersey's phased-in $15 minimum wage. Motivated by initial economic theory suggesting job losses from wage hikes, the research was sparked by Card and Kreuger's surprising findings of positive employment effects. Key findings indicate that New Jersey's minimum wage increase led to temporary boosts in employment without significant job losses among low-wage workers. These results challenge traditional economic assumptions and support minimum wage increases as a means to enhance income for low-wage earners, thereby addressing income inequality.

Joseph has worked as an associate at Keystone Strategy, an economics and strategy consulting firm in New York City. He joined the MAPSS program at UChicago in 2023 and will be receiving a Master of Arts in the Social Sciences with a concentration in Economics. After MAPSS, he will be working as a research assistant at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, after which he plans to apply to PhD programs in Economics.

PhD Awards:

Ilana Ventura

Thesis: “A Home In The Homeland: Understanding Latino First and Second-Generation Transnational Ties”

Ilana Ventura’s thesis investigates how Latin American immigrants and their second-generation descendants in the U.S. maintain ties to their homelands through property ownership abroad. It argues that owning property serves dual purposes: economic investment and preservation of familial and cultural connections. This transnational approach allows individuals to integrate into American society while maintaining emotional and economic ties overseas, offering stability and identity continuity amidst challenges like discrimination or legal status concerns in the U.S.

Ilana received her PhD in Sociology in 2024 and works as a Researcher Methodologist at NORC at UChicago. She has taught sociology courses at UChicago and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, as well as methods-based short courses for various clients. Her work appears in many accredited journals such as the International Migration Review.

Angela Wyse

Thesis: “Essays on Homelessness”

Angela Wyse’s dissertation investigates homelessness in the U.S. utilizing detailed and nationally representative data. The research underscores severe material deprivation among homeless individuals despite their engagement with formal employment and safety net programs and also reveals stark health disparities, showing that homeless individuals face mortality risks comparable to significantly older housed individuals. These findings offer critical insights for addressing homelessness and set a new trajectory for quantitative research in economics and social policy.

Angela holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy from the Harris School and will join Dartmouth College as an Assistant Professor of Economics in Fall 2024. She holds a B.A. in Public Policy from the University of Michigan and a Masters in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School. Before Harris, she spent five years as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer, completing tours in Casablanca, Morocco and Karachi, Pakistan

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Paper Authored by College of Education Doctoral Students Wins Best Diversity Paper Award from American Society for Engineering Education Community Engagement Division

A paper authored by NC State College of Education doctoral students Micaha Dean Hughes and Aaron Arenas has been selected as the recipient of the Best Diversity Paper Award in the Community Engagement Division of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASSE).

The winner of the Best Diversity Paper award is chosen from amongst all papers submitted during the organization’s annual conference. 

The paper, entitled “Mitigating Rural Flight: The Role of a Place-based Engineering Curriculum in Strengthening Community Assets,” was authored by Hughes, who is a student in the Ph.D. in Teacher Education and Learning Sciences educational psychology concentration; Arenas , a student in the Ph.D. in Educational Leadership, Policy, and Human Development higher education concentration and research assistant at the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation ; and Tameshia Baldwin , an assistant teaching professor of engineering education in the NC State College of Engineering. 

“We were honored to have been selected as the recipients for this award,” said Hughes, who is the paper’s lead author. “There are so many people in the Community Engagement Division who are doing amazing, community-centered work in engineering education across the country for the purpose of broadening participation. Our paper’s selection allowed us to promote the work we are doing with project DeSIRE , and the amazing community assets that already exist here in small North Carolina towns.”

Project DeSIRE — a school-university-community collaboration funded by an I-TEST grant from the National Science Foundation — aims to create community-based engineering design experiences for middle school students in rural North Carolina that are designed to improve their cognitive outcomes and participation in STEM fields. 

The award-winning paper, which stems from work on this project, uses a rural cultural wealth framework to provide a lens on how development and implementation of place-based engineering curriculum in the DeSIRE course highlights rural ingenuity and resourcefulness to address the community’s need to bolster the local engineering workforce. 

The goal of the paper is to serve as an information tool for K-12 schools, universities, the engineering industry and community partners in order to guide the development of new research-practice partnerships and demonstrate how school-university-community collaborations can potentially reduce rural flight. 

“During this year’s ASEE conference, we had some good conversation with other community-engaged researchers about the importance of adding our institutional resources to the existing community’s assets in order to address rural issues,” Hughes said. “We also talked a lot with others about the importance of relationships in this work, and about how building solid relationships is not, and should not be, a fast process. It takes time to build worthwhile partnerships and, over time, trust will develop. From a point of trust, good, positive and lasting change can occur. That relationally-driven mindset is the message we hoped to get across.”

Hughes said her own experience as a rural student who moved away to pursue her education and, ultimately, a career in higher education, drives her interest in exploring not only student’s relationships to STEM through her work, but also their relationships to their hometowns. 

“We heard many students say things like ‘I had no idea I could do this [engineering work] here,’ and we heard teachers say things like ‘I can tell my students that they can stay with their families and still have a good career,’” she said. “These impacts were not the original goal of the project, but they emerged as important to the people with whom we were engaged. We felt that this was an important message to share with others who are doing community-engaged work.” 

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College of Computing

College of Computing Alumna Wins ACM Dissertation Award

Tuesday, june 25, 2024, nathan deen, college of computing school of interactive computing.

A College of Computing alumna has earned the highest honor given to doctoral candidates.

Nivedita Arora received the 2024 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Doctoral Dissertation Award during an awards ceremony on Saturday in San Francisco. Arora, an assistant professor at Northwestern University, is the first Georgia Tech alumna to win the award, which includes a prize of $20,000.

Arora was a postdoctoral researcher at Georgia Tech’s School of Interactive Computing during the 2022-2023 academic year. She also earned her Ph.D. in computer science and her master’s in human-computer interaction from Georgia Tech.

At Northwestern, she directs the  VAK Sustainable Computing Lab , which re-envisions computing from a sustainability-first approach.

“The ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award is the most prestigious recognition for doctoral research in our field,” said Josiah Hester , an associate professor in the School of Interactive Computing who mentored Arora during her postdoc. “The award is a testament to the recipient's exceptional contributions to the field of computing, marking them as a world-class leader and innovator.”

Arora creates sustainable computational materials that harvest energy from their surrounding environments and can be responsibly disposed of at the end of their life cycles. Under the advisement of Professor Thad Starner and former Georgia Tech Professor Gregory Abowd, she won the dissertation award for her work involving interactive sticky notes.

The interactive sticky notes perform computing tasks and allow wireless communication without battery dependency. 

Through her dissertation , Sustainable Interactive Wireless Stickers: From Materials to Devices on Applications , Arora demonstrated that interactive sticky notes can capture audio, store it as memory, and relay it to another location. For example, an Amazon Alexa user can communicate commands to Alexa without being nearby.

“With rising climate change and e-waste, it is imperative to build computing technologies with a sustainability-first approach,” Arora said. “My dissertation represents this core thinking. I am honored that ACM has recognized my research on sustainable computational materials. I am extremely grateful to my advisers, collaborators, friends, and family for their support.”

Her dissertation also earned Outstanding Dissertation recognition from Georgia Tech’s College of Computing in 2023. She also won the college’s 2022 Outstanding Graduate Research Assistant Award.

Arora was a finalist in the 2022 Fast Company Design Innovation Competition. In 2021, She won the ACM Gaetano Borriello Outstanding Ubiquitous Computing Student Award and was named an EECS Rising Star and a Foley Scholar.

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UTA College of Business Professor wins Ralph Alexander Best Dissertation Award

Thursday, Jun 27, 2024 • Thomas Johns : [email protected]

Recently, Dr. Hanbo Shim Ph.D., University of Texas at Arlington Assistant Professor of Management, won the Academy of Management Human Resources Division Ralph Alexander Best Dissertation Awar d .  The award   will be presented at the 84th Annual Meeting of Academy of Management this August.

The AOM Human Resources Division is a division of the greater AOM organization which is dedicated to understanding and improving the efficiency and effectiveness of HR practices. The division is one of the AOM’s largest with over 3300 members. The division acts as a gathering place for academics and HR professionals to create networks and develop state-of-the-art HR knowledge.

This prestigious award is presented to research dissertations that have contributed to solving significant obstacles in the field of Human Resources.

“There’s an annual competition for all the best dissertations that isn’t bound to the state of Texas,” said Shim. “The competition encompasses dissertations that had been submitted within the last two years and you’re competing against everyone who submitted. They recognize the high quality of research and it gives you a goal to work toward.”

Dr. Hanbo Shim Ph.D., University of Texas at Arlington Assistant Professor of Management , poses for a photo at the UTA College of Business on June 25, 2024. (Photo by Jalen Larry)

Shim’s winning dissertation “Understanding the construct and measure of job performance over time”, delves into the ways employee job performance is captured at the short term and long-term levels.

“This study highlights the importance of more frequent or short-term performance feedback so that employees can make more effective behaviors decision on the short-term basis,” Shim explained. “It also informs individual employees about what would be the detail and ideal profile of short-term performance behaviors to win more favorable rating in the long-term.” 

Through his research, Shim found that there was a deep correlation between short-term tasks and long-term employee ratings.

“Individual’s short-term performance behaviors such as performing his or her own tasks or helping others’ tasks can lead to different levels of long-term performance with different patterns,” said Shim.  “This implies that the momentary decision that you make every day or every week in terms of how you work can create differences in your annual performance ratings.”

Through his dissertation, Shim hopes his findings and research will have a lasting effect on not only the Human Resources career field, but also the decision-making capabilities of leadership as a whole.

“This dissertation could have major implications for anyone in an HR field.  Once you have more accurate and frequent data about employee performance, you’re able to make more timely and effective decisions.” Shim explained.

Although Shim was happy to receive this prestigious award, he views it as a successful team effort that allows the field of Human Resources to advance.

“I celebrated when I found out, not just with the people here at UTA, but with my fellow researchers like my dissertation director Dr. Michael Sturman at Rutgers.”, said Shim. “I felt joy, but I was also grateful to have the opportunity to give back. It feels great to find out that we can contribute something big to the organization and people we serve.”

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