In 1907, Cocopah Indians who had been living in Mexico suddenly found themselves farming land in the United States. The Colorado River that marked the border between the U.S. and Mexico had moved around them. That stretch of the Colorado River shifted unpredictably across its floodplain before the Hoover Dam was completed in 1936. The conflicts and alliances that arose from this ever-changing landscape are the focus of Daniel Grant’s dissertation on belonging and exclusion in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands from the late-19th through mid-20th centuries.
News
Beyond translation: PhD student headed to Smithsonian to study art, technology, and global belonging
There are two major collections of Korean American artist Nam June Paik’s work. Kyungso Min has already studied the collection at South Korea’s Nam June Paik Art Center. So, the natural next step for Min, a doctoral student in art history at UW–Madison, was to study the Nam June Paik Archive housed at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.This summer, Min will have the chance to do just that as a Smithsonian Institution Fellow.
UW–Madison formalizes graduate assistantship policy, continues investment in graduate assistants
A new policy document provides formal guidance on employment-related matters for graduate student teaching and project assistants and their supervisors. Consistent with university values of shared decision making, the document comes out of a two-year collaborative process involving graduate students, faculty, staff, and administration.
Graduate programs train students for high-need professions in Wisconsin
Master’s degree programs at UW–Madison are addressing training needs and certification requirements in high-growth job fields across the U.S. and at home in Wisconsin.
In the next five years, the demand for trained school psychologists is expected to grow by 20%, creating about 30,500 jobs across the U.S. Another example comes from the healthcare fields, where the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development predicts a nearly 11% increase in demand for dietitians and nutritionists by 2024.
Students speak to the benefits of presenting at conferences
Attending conferences has a number of benefits for graduate students, from networking opportunities, to experience presenting research, to being inspired by new ideas. These testimonials from current graduate students illustrate what they gained from attending conferences in their fields during the spring 2019 semester.
New data on UW–Madison graduates support value of college degree
A University of Wisconsin–Madison pilot project is providing new insights into the economic well-being and career progress of its graduates.
The project looks at the median earnings of UW–Madison graduates — by area of study and degree level — one, five and 10 years after graduating. The data are available on UW–Madison’s website.
NSF awards 40 fellowships to UW–Madison students
The National Science Foundation has awarded 40 UW–Madison students with Graduate Research Fellowships.
The Graduate Research Fellowship Program recognizes and supports outstanding, early-career graduate students who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Awardees are selected based on their potential for significant research achievements that can benefit society.
Project creates a digital space for visually-focused humanities scholarship
A digital humanities platform at UW–Madison is developing a tool that makes visually focused objects such as medieval manuscripts available online. Digital Mappa is headed by Martin Foys in the English department along with colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania, and is funded in part by a UW2020 grant from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF). The platform allows users to build projects in a digital space, with the ability to link documents to one another, make comments, highlight interesting points, and collaborate with others.
UW–Madison inducts 2019 Bouchet scholars
Five outstanding graduate students at the University of Wisconsin–Madison were welcomed into the university’s chapter of the Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society April 2 in a ceremony attended by family, friends, and mentors.
The 2019 inductees are Folagbayi Arowolo, Roxanne Etta, Pa Her, Jamila Lee-Johnson, and Esteban J. Quiñones.
Graduate student research connects Wisconsin farmers to new ideas for land management
On Honey Creek Farm in Green Lake County, there is a roughly eight-acre patch of wooded land in addition to the open pasture. Farmer Jim Quick raises grass-fed beef and is looking into a way to let his livestock graze the wooded part of his land while also revitalizing the woods. Quick has become interested in the managed integration of his livestock with trees and forage, known as silvopasture. Diane Mayerfeld and Keefe Keeley, both graduate students at UW–Madison’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, study silvopasture and, in the course of their studies, share that knowledge with farmers across Wisconsin.