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

Jeffrey Ding, from Iowa City, Iowa, is an economics major in the Tippie College of Business and a political science and Chinese major in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS). He will travel to Shanghai, China, to investigate Chinese public opinion in response to the increased pollution levels.

Kelsey Frisk, from Logan, Iowa, is an interdepartmental studies major with an emphasis in Global Health in CLAS. She will travel to Umeå, Sweden, to discover what changes elderly Sámi people perceive as being positive, negative, or neutral for their health.

Kathryn Langenfeld, from Iowa City, Iowa, is an environmental engineering major in the College of Engineering and a mathematics major in CLAS. She will travel Matagalpa, Nicaragua, to assess the feasibility of implementing a river monitoring system.

McKenzie Wallace, from Rockford, Ill., is a nursing major in the College of Nursing and an international studies major in CLAS. She will travel to Hannover, Germany, to gather data analyzing patient education to improve maternal health outcomes.

Graduate student winners

Eli Asikin-Garmager, from Cedar Falls, Iowa, is a Ph.D. candidate in linguistics in CLAS. He will travel to Lombok, Indonesia, to collect Sasak language data in the form of a folktale as well as elicit sentences for linguistic analysis.

David Burney, from Madison, Wis., is an Master of Science candidate in earth and environmental sciences in CLAS. He will travel to Snaefellsnes Peninsula in Western Iceland, to understand how magmas migrate through the lithosphere.

Paul Capobianco, from New York, N.Y., is a Ph.D. candidate in anthropology in CLAS. He will travel to Tokyo and Fukuoka, Japan, to investigate the labor market participation and livelihood experiences of Japan’s sub-Saharan African population.

Kelly Carden, from Orland Park, Ill., is a Ph.D. candidate in linguistics in CLAS. He will travel to Chengdu and Qingdao, China, to collect data that will help determine whether the linguistic process of Mandarin vowel assimilation can explain the difficulties that Chinese learners of English have in acquiring English vowels.

Douglas Cole, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is a Ph.D. candidate in linguistics in CLAS. He will travel to Vientiane, Laos, to investigate the classification of serial verb constructions in the Lao language.

Josephine Fatima Ajanta Fernando, from Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu, India, is a Ph.D. candidate in special education in the College of Education. She will travel to Mumbai, India, to use self-monitoring intervention to help improve the behavior of children with intellectual disabilities.

Laura Ferris, from Davis, Calif., is an Master of Fine Arts (MFA) candidate in creative writing in the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She will travel to Paris, France, and Zürich, Switzerland, to find missing text in order to recreate a Lucia Joyce’s lost novel.

Elijah Fleming, from Des Moines, Iowa, is an Master of Arts candidate in Latin in CLAS. She will travel to Messina and Gangivecchio, Sicily, to research the ancient religious practices of the interior island, and the connections to agriculture and food consumption.

Genevieve Guzmán, from Studio City, Calif., is an MFA candidate in literary translation in CLAS. She will travel to Paris, France, to investigate the historical and contemporary Parisian dance scene and attend contemporary dance performances.

Yuan Lu, from Hubei, China, is a Ph.D. candidate in second language acquisition in CLAS. He will travel to Wuhan, China, to research how intermediate-high and advanced-low learners differ in grammatical complexity through oral proficiency interviews.

Sarah Lucas, from Clinton, Mo., is a Ph.D. candidate in musicology in CLAS. She will travel to Budapest, Hungary, to research the issues surrounding Béla Bartók's Piano Concerto No. 1 during his first concert tour of the United States.

Cassidy McFadzean from Regina, Saskatchewan, is an MFA candidate in poetry in the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She will travel to Reykjavik, Iceland, to do research for a book-length collection of poetry.

Ryan Oliveira, from Miami, Fla., is an MFA candidate in theatre arts in CLAS. He will travel to Lisbon, Portugal, to focus on writing and staging a play that translates and engages with the untranslatable Portuguese concept of saudade.

Iva Patel, from Baltimore, Md., is a Ph.D. candidate in religious studies in CLAS. She will travel to London, Cambridge, and Oxford, U.K., to examine materials from the British East India Company rule in India in order to understand Britain’s perception of Hinduism.

Stephanie Rue from Cleveland, Ohio, is an MFA candidate in book arts in the UI Center for the Book. She will travel to several locations in South Korea to investigate the role of spirituality in Korean papermaking.

Kiran Sapkota, from Kathmandu, Nepal, is a Ph.D. candidate in epidemiology in the College of Public Health. He will travel to Chitwan, Nepal, to understand the risk factors associated with oral cancer in the Nepalese population.

Halle Siepman, from Los Angeles, Calif., is an MFA candidate in painting and drawing in CLAS. She will travel to Athens, Greece, to study excavation reports and architectural plans that document the modern restoration elements of the Parthenon.

Rebecca Smith, from Media, Pa., is a Ph.D. candidate in art history in CLAS. She will travel to Reims, Laon, and Paris, France, to study the geometry of Reims Cathedral.

Jia Yu, from Wenzhou, China, is a Ph.D. candidate in management and organizations in the Tippie College of Business. She will travel to Zhejiang, China, to do a study of the social capital among the bank employees.

Students interested in applying for the Stanley Award for International Research should contact Karen Wachsmuth, International Programs' academic programs and student services administrator, at karen-wachsmuth@uiowa.edu. Learn more about the Stanley Undergraduate and Graduate Awards.