I was honored and grateful to receive the 2024 MPI Dissertation Fellowship Award. I am currently a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Social Policy and Practice. My research explores volunteering and civic engagement at nonprofit organizations supporting refugee and immigrant communities in the U.S. I also study how migration legal systems shape the lives of forced migrant communities. My dissertation project, Liminality of Forced Displacement: Syrian Refugee and Immigrant Lives in the U.S., examines how experiences of forced displacement (migration histories) shape Syrians’ interactions with the immigration legal system and their perceptions of belonging and integration in the U.S.
The dissertation grant supported participant incentives (gift cards) for the study’s sample and funding for Arabic interpretation. This study required in-depth, semi-structured interviews with Syrians holding different humanitarian protection and citizenship statuses. Some of these interviews were conducted in Arabic. Although I speak the Syrian dialect of Arabic, I was not confident enough to carry out in-depth interviews on my own and was concerned that I might be unable to ask follow-up questions or fully understand the context of what the participants were communicating. For this reason, I hired an interpreter who was previously an asylum seeker from Syria. Not only is this person a native Arabic speaker from Syria, but they also demonstrated a high level of understanding and sensitivity to the information shared by participants with different migration backgrounds and life histories. The dissertation award supported crucial aspects of my dissertation: relationship building and addressing language barriers. I am incredibly grateful for the dissertation fellowship award and look forward to presenting my results to the Muslim Philanthropy Initiative.”
Anna Ferris
Recipient of MPI’s 2024 Dissertation Fellowship Award
Ph.D. candidate
University of Pennsylvania
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