Our doctoral student Whitney Hough received the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) and the Minerva Research Initiative Peace Scholar Fellowship for pursuing her doctoral research.
Whitney, a third-year Ph.D. student in the Comparative and International Education Program, is deeply passionate about her research. Her focus lies at the intersection of education, conflict, development, and peacebuilding. She is particularly intrigued by the challenges of providinghigh-quality secondary education in emergencies, the agency of teachers in crisis and conflict-affected contexts, and the transformative role of education in protracted conflict. With 15 years of progressive experience in the international education and nonprofit sectors, including a recent role as the Deputy Project Director for Fulbright Teacher Exchanges at IREX, a global international education development nonprofit, Whitney brings a wealth of practical knowledge to her academic pursuits. She holds a master’s degree in Conflict, Security and Development from the University of Bradford UK, and a Bachelor’s in Psychology and Cross Cultural Studies from Carleton College.
The fellowship that Whitney has been awarded is a testament to her academic prowess and the importance of her research. The 2024-25 USIP-Minerva Peace and Security Scholar Fellowship, funded by the US Institute of Peace and the Minerva Research Initiative, is a highly prestigious award. It provides full-time support for dissertation research from September 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025. The Fellowship also includes opportunities for academic engagement, such as attendance at the annual US Institute of Peace Workshop, regular dissertation progress reports, contributions to the USIP Peace Scholar newsletter, and participation in Peace Scholar roundtable discussions.
Whitney Hough, third-year Ph.D. student in CIE program
The project is entitled “Teachers as Transformative Agents During Protracted Conflict: A Case Study of Cameroon”. It is a qualitative case study that explores the role of teachers in conflict and peacebuilding across six secondary schools in the Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest Cameroon. The study aims to analyze what teachers perceive as their responsibilities in fostering peace in conflict-affected contexts, the opportunity and risk factors they associate with adopting those responsibilities, and how they use agency to adopt, adapt, and/or resist peacebuilding efforts.
When asked about how her experience at TC contributed to her research, Whitney told us: “I've appreciated the opportunity at TC to be involved in Dr. Mendenhall's UNHCR Typology of Teachers of Persons of Concern Project, which involved fieldwork in Chad and Uganda, along with Dr. Mendenhall's BRICE Teacher and Student Well-Being project, and Dr. Garnett Russell's Newcomer and Refugee Youth Project. Those initiatives helped me learn how best to approach fieldwork, study design, and data analysis.”
Congratulations, Whitney, on this fantastic achievement! We are excited to see the fruits of this work in the future!