2 Texas State doctoral students win Phi Kappa Phi Dissertation Fellowships, 2 other receive grants

Texas State University's Jennifer Barron, a doctoral student in applied anthropology, and Molly Miranker, a doctoral student in geography, have won Dissertation Fellowships from the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi.

The competitive, $10,000 national fellowship is awarded annually to 10 active society members who are doctoral candidates and are completing dissertations. The award provides financial support during the dissertation writing process to candidates whose projects demonstrate both a high degree of originality and significant potential for advancing knowledge in the candidates’ disciplines.

"Awards such as these are external confirmation that Texas State is the intellectual home of outstanding graduate students," said Andrea Golato, dean of The Graduate College. "We hope that more students will make use of our extensive external fellowship application support." 

Barron’s dissertation evaluates international ethical and legal guidelines regarding human remains in institutional collections and aims to develop best-practice policies for the ethical treatment of these remains. Barron’s research holds the potential to transform museum studies as well as the bioanthropological, medical and anatomical teaching communities. Her dissertation work is supervised by Michelle Hamilton, associate professor in the Department of Anthropology. 

Miranker’s dissertation comprehensively analyzes interviews, local newspapers and GPS locations of south Texas migrant rescue and death to understand and alleviate this region’s ongoing immigration crisis by informing humanitarian responses. The broad social goal of her research is to assuage the corrosive uncertainties of families who are missing loved ones, as well as the frustrations of forensic scientists who struggle to find data to resolve unidentified remains cases. Her dissertation work is supervised by Alberto Giordano, professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies. 
 

In addition, two doctoral students in Applied Anthropology, Petra Banks and Sophia Mavroudas, received Graduate Research Grants from Phi Kappa Phi during the 2022 competition. The grants provide up to $1,500 to support graduate students who are conducting or presenting research. 

Banks will use funds from the grant to conduct experimental trauma research at the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State (FACTS), while Mavroudas will use her funds to support research in Mexico that examines human bone microstructure for the identification of unknown individuals in applied contexts. Both students are supervised by Nick Herrmann, professor in the Department of Anthropology.

Phi Kappa Phi awards 20 such grants annually. This is the first time that Texas State has any recipients since this grant program was introduced in 2019. 

"Having such extraordinary success across two highly selective competitions represents a significant accomplishment for our campus Phi Kappa Phi chapter," said Catherine Jaffe, president of the Texas State Phi Kappa Phi chapter.

For more information on the 2022 Dissertation Fellowship awardees, visit www.phikappaphi.org/about/news/2022/03/24/phi-kappa-phi-announces-2022-dissertation-fellows.

For more information on the 2022 graduate research grant recipients, visit www.phikappaphi.org/about/news/2022/03/08/phi-kappa-phi-announces-graduate-research-grant-recipients.