The following blog post was written by fellow UHPer and Spring 2025 SURE Award recipient, Zoe Carver (International Affairs and Peace Studies, ’25). Read on about Zoe’s research and how she plans to utilize the SURE Award funding to further expand upon her experience!
Spring 2025 will be my second time earning the SURE award for my research on integration in Senegal. Last year, I had the privilege of receiving funding from SURE and other university research awards to travel to Dakar, Senegal, to interview Mauritanian migrants and refugees. My six weeks in Dakar were incredible, as I worked alongside professors at Cheikh Anta Diop University and the UN High Commission on Refugees.
In the fall, I wrote my findings into a research thesis, which went in-depth on the disparities between Western integration models and the reality I saw in Senegal. The paper also discusses the poor treatment of refugees and the non-renewal of their identity cards, putting more than 14,000 people in legal jeopardy. This spring, I will present these findings at three research conferences across North America. I have already attended the National Collegiate Research Conference hosted by Harvard University, and in April, I will be attending the Midwest Political Science Association conference in Chicago and the National Conference on Undergraduate Research in Pittsburgh. I could not be more excited to continue to share the findings from my interviews, and I look forward to meeting with other scholars and hopefully publishing my thesis!
Read Zoe’s Spring 2024 SURE Award blog post here!
Interested in applying for your own SURE Award funding? Find out more about the application process here!
