Four University of Iowa undergraduate students and 20 UI graduate students have received Stanley Awards for International Research to conduct research abroad or pursue learning activities in international studies that are not available on the UI campus.

Each student received $2,500 toward their research project. The Stanley Awards for International Research are funded by the Stanley-University of Iowa Foundation Support Organization. Recipients are expected to spend a minimum of four weeks abroad and must plan to return to the UI for at least one semester after the period abroad and before graduation.

The winning students are listed below along with their hometown, UI program, and a brief project description.

Undergraduate student winners

Ian Nessler is an engineering major in the College of Engineering from Iowa City, Iowa. He will travel to Jicaro, Nicaragua, to study the effects of accelerant on the material strength of concrete.

Emily Roberts is an international studies major in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS), who is also pursuing a Global Health Studies certificate, from Chicago, Ill. She will travel to Gaborone, Botswana, to assess the feasibility of the Routine HIV Testing Program in five clinics with regard to how the HIV program is affecting other clinical programs.

Talia Ross is an international studies major in CLAS with minors in religious studies and Arabic from Odebolt, Iowa. She will travel to Pau, France, to identify methods in which French Muslims sustain their practice of Islam while integrating into French culture and society.

Lauren Sillman is an English and history major in CLAS, who is also pursuing a Global Health Studies certificate, from Ames, Iowa. She will travel to Mysore, Saragur, and Delhi, India, to assess the motivations and worldviews of people involved in global health development in order to explore correlations between the motives behind a project and its short- and long-term success.

Graduate student winners

Tejasi Avasare is an M.S. candidate in dental public health in the College of Dentistry from Mumbai, India. She will travel to Tamilnadu, India, to evaluate cleft lip/palate treatment outcome in terms of wound healing and patient perception of oral-health-related quality of life.

Shuhita Bhattacharjee is a Ph.D. candidate in English in CLAS from Iowa City, Iowa. She will travel to London, U.K., to study and collect rare or unpublished 19th century British fiction and nonfiction on the subject of colonial Indian religion and conversion produced between 1858 and 1914.

Richard Davis is a Ph.D. candidate in immunology in the Carver College of Medicine from Draper, Utah. He will travel to Bahia, Brazil, to examine the immune response of Brazilian patients suffering from the parasitic disease leishmaniasis.

Kyle Dieleman is a Ph.D. candidate in religious studies in CLAS from Pella, Iowa. He will travel to Emden, Germany, to research and better understand how congregants in East Frisia reacted to the Protestant Reformation to establish a better understanding of the Dutch Protestant Reformation and church life in the East Frisian parishes.

Alia Gant is an M.A. candidate in international studies in CLAS from Denver, Colo. She will travel to Lisbon, Portugal, to determine the reasons that led Portugal to an economic crisis while proposing implications and resolutions on how Portugal can thrive economically in the future.

Sarah Johnson is an MFA candidate in dramaturgy from Larkspur, Colo. She will travel to Tokyo and Osaka, Japan, to analyze traditional Japanese performing arts in order to trace their influence on contemporary American playwriting.

Clare Jones is an MFA candidate in the Writers’ Workshop from New Orleans, La. She will travel to Pohnpei, Micronesia, to collect material for a series of poems about Micronesian place names and loan words, which will ultimately become her MFA thesis.

Kate Kedley is a Ph.D. candidate in language, literacy, and culture in the College of Education from Lowden, Iowa. She will travel to Honduras to observe the ways in which teachers use social movements to influence society and politics outside of the school.

Shiny Parsai is a PharmD candidate in the College of Pharmacy from Ames, Iowa. She will travel to The Hague, Netherlands, and London, U.K., to identify international career paths and opportunities for pharmacists and pharmacy students.

Sarah Raine is a Ph.D. candidate in anthropology in CLAS from Iowa City, Iowa. She will travel to Lijiang, China, the center of Naxi culture and tourism, to learn how developing practices of teaching Dongba writing are affecting the Naxi community.

Julie Reynolds is an M.S. candidate in dental public health in the College of Dentistry, who is also pursuing a Global Health Studies certificate in CLAS, from Aurora, Ill. She will travel to Xicotepec, Mexico, to investigate several factors that contribute to high rates of tooth decay in children in Xicotepec.

Nathaniel Richmond is a Ph.D. candidate in applied mathematical and computational sciences in CLAS from Bowling Green, Kent. He will travel to Bilbao, Spain, to work with wireless network optimization experts at the Basque Center for Applied Mathematics to formulate an algorithm that will improve wireless network efficiency.

Blake Rupe is an M.A. candidate in international studies in CLAS from Ottumwa, Iowa. He will travel to Veracruz, Mexico, to quantitatively ascertain the current garbage presence situation in Veracruz, as the last research on the subject was qualitative and completed in 1997.

Beatrice Smigasiewicz is an MFA candidate in literary translation in CLAS from Chicago, Ill. She will travel to Poland in order to construct the scaffolding for an introductory essay that will be capable of representing nonfiction and short story writer Janusz Rudnicki’s challenging work to the English-speaking audience.

Ohmar Steed is an M.A. candidate in international studies from Iowa City, Iowa. He will travel to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to research south-south regional trade agreements—an alternative to north-south free trade agreements—in Latin America and their connection to local social movements.

Amanda Strasik is a Ph.D. candidate in art history in CLAS from Youngstown, Ohio. She will travel to Paris, France, to conduct research at the Louvre Museum and its historical archives on 18th- and early 19th-century French art history.

Tawny Tibbits is a Ph.D. candidate in geoscience in CLAS from Centerville, Iowa. She will travel to the Maya Mountains in central Belize to cross-examine the efficacy of new, nondestructive technologies for sourcing ground stone artifacts with respect to traditional destructive methods of thin section research and X-ray fluorescence.

Leah Vonderheide is a Ph.D. candidate in film studies in CLAS from Clarence Center, N.Y. She will travel to Paris, France, to conduct research on French-language films in the tradition of French moral literature of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Lawrence Ypil is an MFA candidate in nonfiction writing in CLAS from Cebu, Philippines. He will travel to Cebu, Philippines, to gather and examine material related to early 20th century modes of expression and construction of Cebuano cultural identity.

Hailin (Helen) Zhao is a Ph.D. candidate in management and organization in the Tippie College of Business from Shenzhen, China. She will travel to Beijing, China, to find out how work designers can guide effective time use at work through implementing formal rules and policies and how these design efforts influence employee motivation, performance, and satisfaction.

Learn more about the Stanley Undergraduate and Graduate Awards for International Research by contacting Karen Wachsmuth, International Programs' academic programs and student services administrator, at karen-wachsmuth@uiowa.edu.