For students

This page contains resources of potential interest for current students, as well as some guidelines for those wishing to work with me or to request letters of recommendation.

 

Resources

The following resources may be of use to students in improving writing, learning the norms of academia, and improving professional development.

• Dorsa Amir, "Modest Advice for New Graduate Students," Medium.  Very helpful advice on different aspects of being a graduate student.
• Raul Pacheco-Vega, How to Write Literature Reviews (and links to many other writing/academic professional development resources).
• Pat Thomsen, "Thesis to Journal Article--Where's the Paper?"

Letters of recommendation

I am committed to supporting my students' success, and am willing to provide letters of recommendation for those with whom I have worked closely and can provide a detailed perspective.  In general, this would include those who have taken at least one class with me (even better if more than one), those who have participated in my study abroad program or have been an intern or research assistant for me, etc.  For those who have taken a class with me, in general, you should have received at least an A-; if not, I may not be able to write as strong a letter for you.  When requesting a letter, please give me as much lead time as possible; in general, three weeks ahead is a good rule of thumb.  Please provide all information necessary for submitting the letter (i.e. instructions, upload portal or submission e-mail, and most importantly the deadline) and provide a current copy of your CV or resume.  Once I have agreed to write the letter, don't hesitate to send me a gentle reminder as the date gets closer--I won't mind!

Dissertation/Thesis Supervision

I have a fairly heavy advising load of doctoral dissertations, so I have to be judicious about the new supervision requests that I accept.  In general, I will accept these requests based on my own capacity and on mutually interesting research topics.  I tend to be most interested in projects focusing on migration (especially the intersection of migration/refugees and peace/conflict).  I am also interested in projects that focus on the power of civil society, NGOs and informal non-state actors, especially in building peace and preventing conflict, including peace education approaches.  My primary regional area of expertise is Latin America (especially the Andes region of South America), although I am willing to work with students on projects that are more general or that involve other regions if the topical fit is close enough.  I can certainly consider a range of other topics as well.