Ph.D. students awarded more than $130,000 in Social Equity and Health Equity stipend funding

The Harvard Kennedy School’s Angelopoulos Professor of Public Policy Marcella Alsan and the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy’s Health Inequality Lab have awarded 28 Harvard University Ph.D. students in the social sciences up to $5,000 each to support dissertation projects related to social equity or health equity.

“The Ph.D. students at Harvard are one of its core strengths—they teach college and masters students, push faculty to stay current, and build connections across professors, departments, and schools,” Alsan said. “Although the plan was initially to fund only a handful of students, their scholarship was so inspirational, innovative, and excellent it compelled us to revise our plans. Watching the student videos is a terrific reminder of what makes universities like Harvard a beacon for the world.”

Students from across the Kennedy School, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and the interdisciplinary program in health policy will receive Social Equity and Health Equity stipend funding—which totals more than $130,000. Proposed dissertation projects include studies that will examine the economic and political consequences of water rights allocation in Chile, the multi-generational impact of foreclosure and housing displacement in the U.S., and how the National Health Service Corps affects health care access in underserved communities.

Recipient Taylor J. Robinson, M.P.H., a third-year Ph.D. student at the Chan School whose research investigates the systemic inequities that perpetuate sleep health disparities, said the funding will enable her to “efficiently analyze large-scale sleep health data” and present her findings at conferences. “I’m deeply grateful for this funding, especially at a time when health equity research is more vital than ever, yet funding opportunities are becoming increasingly limited,” Robinson said. “Support like this is essential to advancing public health leadership.”

The mission of the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy is to increase social and economic wellbeing, equity, and opportunity and to advance the cause of social justice and effective social programs. The Health Inequality Lab, a research group based at the Harvard Kennedy School, is dedicated to studying the causes and consequences of health inequality in the United States and around the world.