One day, as she was conducting her master’s research at SungKongHoe University in Korea, Jiyoung LeeAn came across a book called Negotiating Citizenship: Migrant Women in Canada and the Global System by Carleton sociology professor Daiva Stasiulis.
That chance reference led LeeAn to contact Stasiulis.
“I was already researching how marriage migrant women had to negotiate their citizenship in Korea so this book about domestic migrant workers in Canada was of the utmost interest to me,” says LeeAn. “Stasiulis and I talked back and forth and I knew I had to come here to study with her for my PhD.”
But that wouldn’t have been possible without a Trillium scholarship, which Carleton awarded to LeeAn last fall.
Says LeeAn: “It made all the difference in being able to afford to come here. Tuition fees for international students are expensive. And as I had been working for seven years with two non-governmental organizations (NGOs), I didn’t have a lot of money.”
LeeAn stresses the importance of international students at Carleton. ”Domestic and international students have different experiences and knowledge which can help shape each others’ points of view. In fact, I came here partly because I wanted a more global perspective on my work on migration which, until now, had focused on Asia.”
LeeAn also wanted to pursue her doctoral degree because she wanted “to understand my own activism that fell out of my work with the NGOs. This allows me to study what I was actually doing and be more objective about my own work.”
More information about the Trillium award and other awards is available on the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs’ website.
Monday, May 14, 2012 in Awards, Grad Student Research, News
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