Four University graduate students will be awarded with Faculty Senate Dissertation-Year Fellowships, which are given to support research and graduate student teaching.
The four fellowships are valued at $25,000 each and include tuition referral, health insurance and a stipend. The College of Arts & Sciences and the athletic department each funded one fellowship, and the Provost's office funded two fellowships, according to Faculty Senate Chairman Houston G. Wood.
The purpose of the fellowship is to expedite dissertation completion for graduate students who exhibit exemplary teaching ability and research, according to Wood.
"The fellowship rewards students by allowing them to focus their energy on their dissertation," Wood said. "If a student is a teaching assistant, for example, he may just stretch the dissertation out."
Peter V. Swendsen of the McIntire Department of Music will receive a grant for his dissertation titled "Seven Conversations: Etudes and Interludes for Electroacoustic Media and Interactive Dance." The fellowship will allow his large-scale composition to be completed more quickly.
"The fellowship will allow me more uninterrupted time," Swendsen said. "A lot of the work I do requires a few weeks of time when I can really concentrate fully on one aspect of the work. That is challenging to do when I'm also teaching or attending to other things."
Swendsen also said the fellowship will make finishing his education during the next school year more realistic, allowing him to apply for jobs that would begin then.
Fellowship recipients also find this very helpful when they apply for jobs or other teaching positions, Wood said.
Cedar Riener, in the Psychology department, will receive a fellowship for his dissertation titled, "The Influence of Mood on Perception of Slant."
Riener said his research examines how mood affects one's perception of geographical slants.
"The fellowship will help me tremendously with getting a job at a teaching college," said Riener. "The integration of teaching and research is something I value greatly."
In addition to Riener and Swendsen, dissertation fellowships will also be awarded to Elizabeth Mary Rohlman of the religious studies department for her dissertation titled, "Religion, Literature and Geography: Narrative Design in the Sarasvati Purana," and Volker H.W. Rudolf of the biology department for his work on "The Influence of Cannibalism and Size Structure in Aquatic Food Webs."
Among the selection criteria for the fellowships were overall effectiveness as an instructor in lectures, discussions, laboratories and mentoring; command of the subject; skills in organizing, developing and presenting material; and ability to inspire students, according to a University press release.
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