IGI selects 29 Illinois students to receive fellowships and research awards

The Illinois Global Institute has selected 29 graduate students from across the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to receive research awards and language fellowships. 

Graduate Summer Research Awards 

Summer research awards provide Illinois graduate students with up to $3,500 to support travel outside the United States, thereby contributing to the development of a dissertation or thesis project that draws on international research. 

Recipients, with their departmental affiliation, the country or countries to which they will travel during summer 2026, project titles, and the coordinating center or program within IGI, are: 

• Asher Bryant, Department of Mathematics, destination TBD. “Global Governance Implications of Theoretical Guarantees in Biomedical Artificial Intelligence.” Center for Global Studies 
• Haneul Choi, Department of Linguistics, South Korea. “The Acquisition of Russian Ditransitives by L1 Korean Learners of Russian.” Center for East Asian & Pacific Studies
• Mariana Kellis, Department of History, Estonia. “From Unfree to ‘Free’?: ‘Long Emancipations’ in Russian Imperial Estonia and Spanish Puerto Rico.” Russian, East European and Eurasian Center.  
• Yating Li, Department of East Asian Languages & Cultures, China. “Pathologizing the Womb: Medical knowledge, the Female Body, and Mirage of Health in China (1900s-1940s).” Center for East Asian & Pacific Studies
• Woohui Park, Department of East Asian Languages & Cultures, Japan and South Korea. “Evidencing Truth: Law, Judgment, and Proof in Modern East Asia, 1876–1946.” Center for East Asian & Pacific Studies
• Siti Rahmatullaili, Department of Religion, Japan. “The Tao of Amar Ma’ruf: Reconstructing the ‘Organic Weltanschauung’ of Islamic Ethics.’ ”  Center for East Asian & Pacific Studies
• Sayak Roy, Department of Geography & Geographic Information Science, India. “Emergent Networks of Self-Organization: Communication Technologies, Social Infrastructure, and the Production of Everynight Lives.” Center for Global Studies 
• Prince Semanshia, Department of Anthropology, Ghana. “Population Structure in Southern Ghana and Its Impact on Genetic Genealogy Inference.” Center for African Studies 
• Aidana Sirgebayeva, Department of Education Policy, Organization & Leadership (College of Education), Kazakhstan. “Mixed Methods Study of Faculty Research Experiences: Case of Kazakhstan.” Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center
• Hsu Sun, School of Social Work, Taiwan. “Drafting Gender: Transnormativity, Biopolitics, and Civil Defense in Post-Cold War Taiwan.” Center for East Asian & Pacific Studies
• Lundi Wu, Department of Anthropology, China. “Women Hold Up Half the Sky: A Documentary on Female Workers’ Voices in Collective Memory in Dongbei (Northeast China).” Center for East Asian & Pacific Studies
• Terra Zhang, Department of History, Senegal. “Arabic Historiography in Senegambia.” Center for African Studies

Graduate Language Fellowship 

IGI’s Graduate Language Fellowship provides support for language training needed to conduct research or to meet other professional development needs. The fellowship offers a $22,000 stipend for the 2026-2027 academic year support to graduate students at the MA or PhD level. 

Recipients, with their departmental affiliation, the language they will be studying, and the center or program that is providing support, are:

• Abena Ayisi, School of Information Sciences. Wolof. Center for African Studies
• Sara Baxter, Department of East Asian Languages & Cultures. Japanese. Center for East Asian & Pacific Studies
• Kenny Cortum, Department of Spanish & Portuguese. Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian. Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center
• Felipe De Los Santos, Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center. Russian. Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center
• Asmaa Elsayed, Department of Education Policy, Organization, & Leadership (College of Education). Arabic. Center for the Study of Global Gender Equity
• Manuel Fernandez, Department of Spanish & Portuguese. Italian. European Union Center 
• Irum Hussain, Department of Comparative & World Literature. Hindi. Center for South Asian & Middle Eastern Studies 
• Dengyang Liao, Department of History. Swahili. Center for African Studies 
• Soodeh Mansouri, Department of Sociology. Arabic. Center for the Study of Global Gender Equity
• Cesar Ramierz Salazar, Department of Anthropology. Italian. European Union Center 
• Mar Roig Ripoll, Department of Education Policy, Organization, & Leadership (College of Education). Portuguese. Center for Global Studies 
• Maria Clara Saidneuy, Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies. Quechua. Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies 
• Sami Suhwail, Center for South Asian & Middle Eastern Studies. Arabic. Center for South Asian & Middle Eastern Studies
• Samantha Ting, Department of Comparative & World Literature. Japanese. Center for East Asian & Pacific Studies 
• Jordan Troisi, Department of Education Policy, Organization, & Leadership (College of Education). Chinese-Mandarin. Center for Global Studies 
• Shoutao Wu, Department of Geography & Geographic Information Science. Quechua.  Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies 
• Rebecca Stover, Department of History. Chinese. Center for East Asian & Pacific Studies