NPM Doctoral Research Support
To promote research on nonprofit, voluntary, philanthropic, and public organizations, NPM annually provides small grants of up to $1,500 to help support relevant research by doctoral students. Dissertation research or other research is eligible, as long as the student is the principal researcher on the project. Doctoral students in any department at the University of Michigan are eligible, including social sciences, humanities, and professional schools. The focus of the research can be local, national, or international. Funds may be used only for research-related expenses and may not be used for travel to professional conferences. Examples of relevant research foci include:
- Governmental organizations, policies, and programs at various levels
- Volunteers
- Philanthropy: foundations, charities, legislation, tax laws
- Congregations and houses of worship
- Nongovernmental organizations
- Advocacy organizations
- Nonprofit service providers
- Membership organizations (including unions and political parties)
- The nonprofit sector, subsectors, and cross-national comparisons
Doctoral Support Awardees for 2008
The Nonprofit and Public Management Center is pleased to support the following students during 2008.
Jonathan Fuentes, a joint Political Science and Public Policy doctoral student, will study the interaction between the bureaucracy and the legislature in Texas. The current literature on the policymaking process often limits the bureaucracy's role to the implementation process, but he will observe whether bureaucrats actually play a role in the policy-formulation/legislative process.
Megan E. Gilster, a joint Social Work and Sociology doctoral student, received a grant to examine theories about change used in a foundation-sponsored, neighborhood-based initiative to improve neighborhood and resident well-being.
Heather Larue, a joint Political Science and Public Policy doctoral student, will explore the importance of encouraging group alignments along divisions other than ethnicity for mitigating ethnic conflict. She will do this through a study of community-based water management projects in Central Asia's Ferghana Valley.
Sarah Lashley, a doctoral student in the School of Natural Resources and Environment, plans to identify the important factors that foster or hinder equitable and productive collaborative processes in the context of environmental justice.
Christopher Roberts, a joint Sociology and Public Policy doctoral student, will shed new light on the problem of why human rights practices so often fail to live up to the normative standards outlined in public international human rights law by examining the nature of the resistance that developed against the concept between 1944 and 1966.
Laura Wernick, a joint Social Work and Political Science doctoral student, will examine the role and impact of an organization of young, wealthy people committed to using their access to wealth and elite institutions to support social justice. Specifically, I am examining how organizational constituents are using their power, privilege, and access to these institutions to organize within and democratize organizational practices, while holding themselves accountable to cross-class movements.
If you would like to receive notification about other information of interest to doctoral students engaged in nonprofit and public management-related research, please send an e-mail request to nonprofit@umich.edu.
