UC Merced Ph.D. candidates Eliana Fonsah and Nihan Karagul are recipients of the highly competitive dissertation fellowship from the UC Institute of Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC).
They competed with doctoral candidates from across the UC system, resulting in about 10% of applicants receiving funding support that allows them more time to focus on completing their graduate research.
Karagul works under the guidance of political science professors Tesalia Rizzo Reyes and Courtenay Monroe. She is examining how international and internationally funded humanitarian organizations build interpersonal networks with government bureaucracies to support their non-citizen beneficiaries. Her research efforts aim to enhance bureaucratic efficiency in developing countries.
Fonsah works with sociology Professor Paul Almeida. Her research focuses on the example of the Cameroon Anglophone diasporic and transnational movement to investigate how diasporic movements from the Global South — particularly those from Africa — struggle to sustain mobilization against authoritarian regimes in their countries of origin in pursuit of democracy and social change. Her dissertation seeks to identify effective mobilization strategies that could strengthen solidarity in the movement, enabling it to impact democracy and address the social conditions that forced many to flee their home country.
“Being selected for the IGCC Fellowship Program is both timely and the fulfillment of a long-held aspiration,” Fonsah said. “The fellowship provides me with an invaluable platform to engage with, learn from, and collaborate with scholars dedicated to examining the causes and consequences of conflicts, as well as global dynamics that pose serious risks of escalating into large-scale wars.
“It is indeed an opportunity to contribute to advancing knowledge and solutions for a safer, more equitable and prosperous world.”
