The Pandemic Wrenched Their Dissertation Plans. Catalyst Grants Are Easing the Challenges
Jessica Fletcher, Dean Schafer, Megan Henriquez, and Kristena Newman
Understanding how infections spread is especially important in light of a pandemic, and Ph.D. student
Megan Henriquez (Anthropology) intends to do that with her dissertation on parasitic infections in capuchin monkeys. Ironically, though, the pandemic is wrenching her plans to travel to Costa Rica to collect samples. She had to change how she gathers data, and a grant from The Graduate Center is helping.
Henriquez is one of 60 Ph.D. students 20 each from the humanities, social sciences, and sciences to receive the first round of The Graduate Center’s Early Research Initiative (ERI) Catalyst Grants. The grants of $2,000 each are supported by private donors and are intended to help students overcome the research challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.