{"id":14644,"date":"2012-05-26T06:00:44","date_gmt":"2012-05-26T11:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/?p=14644"},"modified":"2014-09-23T08:32:28","modified_gmt":"2014-09-23T13:32:28","slug":"doctoral-students-fellowship-allows-for-one-of-a-kind-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/doctoral-students-fellowship-allows-for-one-of-a-kind-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctoral Student\u2019s Fellowship Allows for One-of-a-Kind Research"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Matthew Becker visits the location of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand I in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.<\/p><\/div>\n

OXFORD, Miss. \u2013 Perseverance and a unique research proposal led to a Boren Fellowship for a University of Mississippi political science student.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Boren Fellowship is a highly competitive, national competition,\u201d said Matthew Becker, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science. \u201cBeing awarded this fellowship is truly an honor, for it shows the importance of my research; this is because the Boren Fellowship focuses on geographic areas, languages and fields of study deemed critical to U.S. national security.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Boren Fellowship provides American graduate students with an opportunity to add an international and language component to their education. The fellowship will fund one year of Becker\u2019s dissertation research in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as intermediate-level Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian language study. While overseas, Becker will be visiting approximately 24 cities and towns, where he will give surveys to high school seniors.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dissertation is on the role of schools and\u00a0history textbooks\u00a0in the political socialization and ethnic identity formation of high school students\u00a0in Bosnia and Herzegovina,\u201d Becker said. \u201cMy research will be the first quantitative, Bosnian-wide research of its kind on this topic.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Florida native, Becker holds master\u2019s degree in international affairs and a bachelor\u2019s in political science, both from Florida State University. He will leave for Bosnia and Herzegovina in July 2012 and will be there until July 2013.<\/p>\n

Before he goes overseas, Becker will study Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian languages at the Critical Languages Institute, or CLI, at Arizona State University. His goal is to reach the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages proficiency level of B2 \u201cVantage or Upper Intermediate\u201d in Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian.<\/p>\n

\u201cCLI is an intensive summer language program that offers several critical-needs and less commonly taught languages,\u201d Becker said. \u201cI have also been awarded a U.S. Department of State Title VIII Fellowship\u00a0as part of my domestic language study this summer. I studied elementary-level Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian last summer at CLI, which was funded by a Title VIII Fellowship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alice Cooper, associate professor of political science, was Becker\u2019s adviser at UM.<\/p>\n

\u201cMatthew Becker has a wonderful opportunity to conduct original field research in Bosnia for his dissertation,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cHe plans to conduct a survey of attitudes toward each of the three main ethnic groups in Bosnia \u2013 that is, the survey respondent’s own ethnic group and the other two.\u00a0He will also be able to gather numerous primary sources that are available only in Bosnia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cooper feels that Becker is deserving of the fellowship because of his unique research interests.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the time he arrived at the university, Matthew has had a very strong interest in issues of ethnicity in post-communist Eastern Europe in general and the former Yugoslavia in particular,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cHe has invested substantial time and energy into study of the languages spoken in Bosnia. His dissertation topic is original and well \u2018off the beaten path.\u2019 With the Boren Fellowship, Matthew is in an excellent position to pursue unique research.\u201d<\/p>\n

Becker is eager to begin his research overseas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am very excited about advancing my language proficiency and acquisition\u00a0via total\u00a0language and cultural immersion, as well as the opportunity afforded to me by the Boren Fellowship to conduct original field research that is relevant to the academic and policy communities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Cooper believes that Becker\u2019s fellowship says a lot about the overall work of graduate students in the political science department.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe doctoral work of students in the political science department is on an exciting upward trajectory,\u201d she said. \u201cGraduate students receive excellent training in the department, and we are happy to see it culminate in their dissertations.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information on the Department of Political Science, go to http:\/\/www.olemiss.edu\/depts\/political_science\/politicalscience.htm<\/a>. For information on the Boren Fellowship, visit http:\/\/www.borenawards.org\/boren_fellowship\/basics.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OXFORD, Miss. \u2013 Perseverance and a unique research proposal led to a Boren Fellowship for a University of Mississippi political science student. \u201cThe Boren Fellowship is a highly competitive, national competition,\u201d said Matthew Becker, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science. \u201cBeing awarded this fellowship is truly an honor, for it shows theRead the story …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14648,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,137,221,199],"tags":[215],"yoast_head":"\nDoctoral Student\u2019s Fellowship Allows for One-of-a-Kind Research - Ole Miss News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/doctoral-students-fellowship-allows-for-one-of-a-kind-research\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Doctoral Student\u2019s Fellowship Allows for One-of-a-Kind Research - 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