2023 Mariam K. Chamberlain Dissertation Award Winner
The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) is pleased to announce the recipient of the 2023 Mariam K. Chamberlain Dissertation Award, Ruchi Saini, an International Education Policy Ph.D. candidate at the University of Maryland, College Park.
The Mariam K. Chamberlain Dissertation Award is named in honor of the founder of Re:Gender (formerly the National Council for Research on Women), a U.S.-based gender research institution that merged with ICRW in 2016. Mariam was a leader in shaping and launching the women’s studies academic and research movements in the United States and around the world. Through the Mariam K. Chamberlain Dissertation Award, Mariam’s work fostering high-level scholarship and promoting mentorship continues through its support of a first-generation doctoral student conducting research to advance gender equality and social inclusion.
In its sixth year administering (ninth year overall) the Mariam K. Chamberlain Award, ICRW is proud to honor Ruchi, as she moves forward with her doctoral research. Her dissertation, “A Continuum of Gender-Based Violence: Voices of Female Students from a Large Public University in Delhi (India),” investigates the continuum between explicit and implicit forms of gender-based violence experienced by her participants, with an emphasis on the role played by the university structure and culture in shaping their experiences. Her work incorporates insights from the theory of institutional betrayal, intersectionality, and the continuum of sexual violence to foreground the voices of female students belonging to the LGBTQ+ community, lower castes, and religious minorities in India. Findings from her study will contribute to the knowledge base of scholars, practitioners, and national/international organizations working towards building stronger, safer, and more inclusive public universities in developing countries. Along with her dissertation, Ruchi is involved in several gender and education research projects in India, Burkina Faso, and Zanzibar.
Ruchi holds a Master’s in Education from the University of Glasgow and a Master’s in English from St. Stephens College (University of Delhi). She is also a 2022 Ann G. Wylie Dissertation fellow at the University of Maryland.