Patricia Witherspoon Research Award
Are you interested in conducting original research in the areas of public service, government, community service, civic life, citizenship, or politics?
About Award
The University of Texas at Austin graduate students are invited to apply for The Patricia Witherspoon Research Award to offset costs associated with conducting original research in the areas of public service, government, community service, civic life, citizenship, or politics. Previous research topics have included faith-based organizations, family policy, immigration, and educational interventions. Past award winners have used the funding to pay for focus groups, survey instruments, and other aspects of their research. The recipient will be expected to write a summary of their research for publication for the Institute and, if requested, make a short presentation before the Institute’s Advisory Council.
Requirements
Original research must be conducted in public service, government, civic life, citizenship, or politics. Preference will be given to students working on master's theses or doctoral dissertations. All research must be overseen by a faculty member.
To apply, please submit the following in the application portal:
Contact information
Resume (LABELED: first and last name, resume)
Major field of study and current overall GPA
Two-page research prospectus including research question, brief summary of the literature, methodology, expected results, and anticipated start and end dates. (LABELED: first and last name, research prospectus)
Stipend Award
$2,000
Deadline
Application opens: March 28, 2025
EXTENDED DEADLINE: May 12, 2025
Selections notifications will be sent out week of May 26, 2025.
2025 Recipient
Mallory Lineberger
Mallory Lineberger is a doctoral student in Educational Policy and Planning at The University of Texas at Austin, where she leverages research in creation of policies that center educational equity and justice. Her research interests examine the power dynamics of PK-12 education policymaking, with a focus on how politics and policy decisions influence social studies and civic education curriculum. Mallory’s interest in education policy is rooted in her 14 years as an educator in formal and informal learning spaces, including Texas public schools and museums from Austin to Paris.
Past Awardees
2024 Recipient
Kayee Zhou is a Ph.D. Candidate in Public Policy with an MPA and MA in Political Science. As a social science scholar, she possesses interdisciplinary training in both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, with expertise in causal inference, structural equation modeling, survey analysis, network analysis, and machine learning in text analysis, as well as conducting interviews and focus groups. Her research interests focus on immigration and immigrant policies, race, ethnicity and identity politics, governance, and the public policies of China.
Her dissertation project on U.S. local governments’ immigrant integration policies is a three-paper format that addresses the following questions: (1) How do local integration policies affect immigrants’ political participation, the primary outcome of political incorporation policies? (2) How do immigrants with different group identities (e.g., members of immigrants, members of racial and ethnic groups, or members of the American society) respond to local integration policies in terms of their political actions? (3) How do local governments cooperate with immigrant-focused nonprofit organizations in terms of helping immigrants incorporate into the U.S.?