Application and Inquiries
We look forward to connecting with you! To apply for Connections, please submit this form. (As of April 24, we are still accepting applications.) Because our space is limited, we will not be able to accept all applicants but we will make shared materials and resources available to anyone who applies. For inquiries about this workshop, email sespconnections@gmail.com.
What is Connections?
Connections is a day-long PhD preparation and community-building workshop that seeks to create networks of support and discovery for people who identify as members of minoritized communities and who are interested in pursuing a PhD in human development, social policy, and related fields. We are committed to providing a welcoming and empowering space for participants to explore, identify, affirm, and discuss the skills and strengths that they can bring to doctoral work.
Who is Connections for?
Connections is for people who identify as members of minoritized communities that have been historically underrepresented in doctoral programs in the U.S. (e.g., communities of color, LGBTQ+ communities, people from first-generation, low-income backgrounds). Participants are welcome no matter where they are in their academic journey (e.g. advanced undergraduate students, post-baccalaureates, current or former Masters students, working professionals), though the program will be most useful for people who are considering applying to Ph.D. programs within the next several years.
We are inviting applications from people in the broader Chicagoland area who can travel to Northwestern's Evanston campus for a day-long workshop on May 19, 2023. Participants will receive a $50 transportation voucher.
Are my research interests a good fit for Connections?
The Connections program is for people (1) who are considering applying to PhD programs in human development and/or social policy; (2) who have research questions about how policy can affect development and well being, how people can shape policy, or how insights about human development can inform policy; and (3) who are open to boundary-spanning work. Research in this area typically spans a wide range of disciplines, including anthropology, economics, education, human development, political science, psychology, public administration, policy, and sociology. If this sounds like you, we hope you will apply to Connections!
Workshop
The day-long workshop will be held on Northwestern University's Evanston campus on May 19, 2023. The workshop will provide:
- A sneak peek at the “hidden curriculum” of PhD work in human development, social policy, and related fields.
- Resources for preparing applications to human development and social policy PhD programs, and
- Opportunities for sharing, community, and building connections with other attendees and current PhD students and faculty.
Meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) will be included. A detailed program will be available in Spring 2023.
Co-Organizers
Connections is co-organized by PhD students and faculty in the Human Development & Social Policy program at Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy. The organizing committee includes Andrew Stein, Claudia Haase, Kanika Dhanda, Jen Cowhy, Quinn Mulroy, Regina Logan, and Tre Wells. Participants will have opportunities to meet with a number of our graduate students and faculty, in addition to members of the organizing committee.
Tre Wells is a PhD student in the Human Development and Social Policy Program. Before coming to Northwestern University, Wells managed a data and evaluation team for a non-profit organization in New York City that provided mental health services to public schools across the city. Originally from Little Rock, Arkansas, he earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Morehouse College and a master’s in economics from the University of Virginia. Wells’ current research interests lie at the intersection of housing and education. In his free time, he enjoys playing pick-up basketball, listening to music, and binge-watching the latest Netflix series. Wells is very open to talking about his experience with the graduate school application process, his first year at Northwestern, and his research interests. |
|
Kanika Dhanda is an early PhD student in the Human Development and Social Policy program and a mentee of Jim Spillane. She is from Punjab, India, identifies as a woman, and is in many ways an outsider to the American Education system. She is nevertheless drawn to their fragmented nature and the complexities they pose for any coherent enactment of education reform. It is very different from her experience in India, where the government has greater control and centralized capacity to implement reforms. She struggles with connecting her learning in the program to her experiences with working with children living in slum settlements in India. She considers it tedious to find meaningful ways for thinking about how the nature of systemic precariousness of urban experience for the most marginalized differs in these two contexts. Perhaps, it is the struggle of bringing non-dominant worlds to the academy. A SESP student group, Critical Contexts has been her home for inhabiting the university in more authentic ways. The group is collectively reading Leigh Patel’s ‘No Study Without Struggle’ this academic year. Patel defines struggle as a rigorous engagement with each other for organization of demands that emerge through uprisings in the community. This intersection between the life of mind and life of the practitioner-activist defines Kanika’s identity as a scholar in this world. She is happy to talk about these experiences and any other questions you may have about the HDSP PhD program. |
|
|
|
Jen Cowhy is in her fifth year in the HDSP program and is excited to participate in the Connections program. She works with Cynthia Coburn and Simone Ispa-Landa and studies the implementation of education policies in K-12 schools. Cowhy is particularly focused on the implementation of special education policy, which is motivated by her training as a school social worker and her educational experiences as a person with a disability. Cowhy is deeply committed to improving special education and helping to create more equitable, accessible, inclusive, and transformative learning environments for all children. To that end, her dissertation explores the role of parents as policy actors within special education. Prior to Northwestern, she was a research analyst at the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research. Cowhy has a master’s in social work and in public policy from the University of Chicago and a bachelor’s in sociology from the University of Michigan. Outside of work, Cowhy enjoys walking and jogging by the lake, cooking, sewing, and spending time with her partner and their two young children. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tre Wells
Kanika Dhanda
Andrew Stein
Jennifer Cowhy
Claudia Haase
Regina Lopata Logan
Quinn Mulroy