Penn Global Announces 2025 Cohort of Dissertation Grant Recipients
Penn Global is delighted to announce that nine Ph.D. students have been awarded Penn Global Dissertation Grants.
The Penn Global Dissertation Grants program is designed to enhance global components of dissertation research for the graduate student community. In partnership with the Vice Provost for Education, this program awards up to $8,000 to selected Ph.D. candidates to broaden their international dissertation research and leverage opportunities for careers in global leadership. This is the second year of the program, after a successful launch in 2024.
“The Penn Global Dissertation Grants program furthers the University’s global mission by empowering rising scholars to explore the wider global impact of their dissertation work,” says Amy Gadsden, Associate Vice Provost for Global Initiatives. “By supporting Penn’s graduate student community and their innovative projects, we amplify the impact of Penn-based research and ensure students gain valuable global experiences – two core pillars of our global strategic framework.”
This year, grant recipients were selected from the School of Arts and Sciences, Stuart Weitzman School of Design, and the Annenberg School for Communication. Their dissertations engage a wide range of disciplines, including urban planning, marine biology, history, film, and culture. The grants will enable recipients to expand their research into regions such as Australia, China, India, France, the Caribbean and beyond.
Madeleine Galvin, a doctoral student in the City and Regional Planning program at the Weitzman School, will focus her summer research on policies that shape public housing in mixed-income communities in the Parisian suburbs, specifically in Aubervilliers and Vitry-sur-Seine. The grant will allow Galvin to expand her dissertation’s comparative analysis of sociopolitical factors that influence approaches to housing justice activism in the U.S. and France.
“The Penn Global Dissertation Grant provides the unique opportunity to deeply explore an international connection to my research on housing justice movements in the U.S,” says Galvin. “As a first-year doctoral student, this grant couldn’t have come at a better time. My dissertation and the rest of my experience at Penn will be shaped by the opportunity to situate my research in a global context.”
First-year Ph.D. student of the Biology program in the School of Arts and Sciences, Marcelina Martynek is focusing her dissertation on the accelerating decline of the Great Barrier Reef, brought on by extreme heat waves and ocean warming. Her Penn Global Dissertation Grant will enable an examination of how shifts in environmental conditions alter the composition in microbiomes – and how those changes, in turn, influence the microbiomes’ coral host performance.
Martynek, who aims to pursue a career as a next-generation leader in marine science, will leverage her research to inform policy and communications strategies for protecting reefs from climate change.
From the Annenberg School for Communication, doctoral student Farrah Rahaman will examine how Caribbean women use storytelling to pass down knowledge and express their cultural identity. In addition to supporting her dissertation, Rahaman’s grant will fund the production of a film and digital directory that spotlight the essential contributions of Caribbean women’s tricontinental knowledge, history, and solidarity.
The full list of Penn Global Dissertation Grants awarded in Spring 2025 is available on the program’s website.
Scott Moore, Penn Global’s director of strategic initiatives who oversees the dissertation grant program, shared his enthusiasm for supporting a wide range of important research: “Together, these projects promise to meaningfully contribute to the University’s core mission while advancing the priorities outlined in Penn’s In Principle, In Practice strategic plan.
“This year’s cohort – and the impactful work underway – is a demonstration of the University’s strengths and highlights the potential that comes from investing in the next wave of scholars and intellectual leaders.”
Work supported by 2025 Penn Global Dissertation Grants will begin over the summer. To learn more about the program, please visit our website.
2025 Penn Global Dissertation Grant Awardees:
Vivian Bi
Madeleine Galvin
Ngamlienlal Kipjen
Marcelina Martynek
Rose Poku
Farrah Rahaman
Molly Schaub
Daniel Shapiro
Kimberly St. Julian Varnon