Two political science students awarded ‘Connaught PhDs for Public Impact’ Fellowships

September 12, 2024

Congratulations to political science students Yojana Miraya Oscco and Jenna Quelch who have both been awarded ‘Connaught PhDs for Public Impact’ fellowships.

The Connaught PhDs for Public Impact Fellowship Program offers U of T doctoral students an opportunity to explore the world of public scholarship. Developing a public scholarship initiative allows doctoral students to make connections outside the university through innovative forms of scholarly communication. PhDs for Public Impact fellows focus on engaging the public through their scholarly work. This engagement can take a range of forms, from describing their work in a public forum to partnering with a school, community organization, or cultural institution in an ongoing two-way exchange of knowledge and practices.

The goal of the program is to support doctoral students in learning how to communicate their research to the public. The research done at U of T—across the disciplines—is of tremendous benefit to the public. This impact can be felt in government, schools, museums, hospitals, archives, nonprofits, and industry, both domestically and globally. Despite this extraordinary reach, a great deal of scholarly research feels inaccessible to the public. The Connaught PhDs for Public Impact Fellowship Program seeks to support its fellows as they build community engagement and create accessible forms of research communication. Their public scholarship initiatives could involve a range of activities: establishing a social media presence; creating a blog; writing a guest blog post; publishing an op-ed; building ties with an organization outside the university; developing YouTube content; hosting a podcast; giving a public talk; producing an app; designing an exhibit; coordinating a public lecture series. Fellows choose the form for their public scholarship initiative based on the nature of their research and the type of engagement they wish to create.

Learn more about Yojana’s and Jenna’s research and meet the other 2024-2025 fellows here.

Photo: Yojana Miraya Oscco