JPEE PhD candidate Crystal Zanders receives an AAUW American Dissertation Fellowship
The American Fellowship is the oldest non-institutional source of graduate funding for women in the United States.
JPEE PhD candidate Crystal Zanders has been selected as a recipient of an American Association of University Women (AAUW) American Dissertation Fellowship. This prestigious award is highly competitive and selective.
The American Fellowship program began in 1888, a time when women were discouraged from pursuing an education. It is AAUW’s largest fellowship program and the oldest non-institutional source of graduate funding for women in the United States.
AAUW American Fellowships support women scholars who are pursuing full-time study to complete dissertations, conducting postdoctoral research full time, or preparing research for publication for eight consecutive weeks. Candidates are evaluated based on scholarly excellence; quality and originality of project design; and active commitment to helping women and girls through service in their communities, professions, or fields of research.
Zanders’ research focuses on disability, rhetoric, African American English, trauma informed-pedagogy, digital studies, literacy, and educational inequity in the writing classrooms. Her dissertation-in-progress is titled, “Unseen: Black Autistic Women's Masking Practices, Pressures, and Possibilities.”