Global Research

Global Research

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Jessica Montgomery headshot
Essay

Economist Jessica Montgomery's CGII-funded research focused on the economic impact of property rights in post-apartheid South Africa. Her project looks at what happens when a nonprofit transfers title deeds from local governments to residents, enabling them to use their properties as collateral and access formal credit. Montgomery also studied property rights in Appalachia, finding that weaker protections for surface owners led to more surface mining and lower property values.

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Pratt Gingko from between marble shapes
Essay

The Center for Global Inquiry and Innovation closes out the 2024-2025 academic year during what can only be described as a season of consequence and challenge. In the most important ways, this grant cycle has been enormously successful.

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Nnenna Onyima
Essay

Nnenna Onyima will receive her PhD in French this month, finishing her UVA studies. Originally from Nigeria, she earned her BA in French from Imo State University, Nigeria and her MA in French from the University of Virginia. While at UVA, she participated in the International Student Citizen Leaders Fellowship, a yearlong program which gives international students the opportunity to design and realize a project to support UVA’s international student community.

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Anu Karippal with cityscape in the background
Essay

Anu Karippal is a doctoral student in anthropology studying the relationships between humans and elephants in South Asia. She caught up with UVA Global to discuss her research, her experiences as an international student from India, and her thoughts on relationships between humans and with the more than human world.

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Len Schoppa headshot
Essay

Professor Len Schoppa has been awarded The Order of the Rising Sun by the Emperor of Japan. The Order of the Rising Sun is one of Japan's highest honors, awarded for distinguished service to Japan and its people in various fields. Schoppa, who has taught in the Department of Politics at the University of Virginia since 1990, specializes in the politics and political economy of Japan. He spoke to UVA Global about his work between Japan and the U.S. and his advice for students interested in Japan.

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23

Apr

April 23, 2025 3:30pm
UVA Alumni Hall
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Fink headshot
Essay

Pierre-Christian Fink joined the Global Studies faculty in Fall 2024 and is currently teaching in the Global Commerce in Culture & Society track. His research explores how financial elites create markets that are hidden from the public but powerfully influence citizens’ economic opportunities across the globe.

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Chekhovich and Appel headshots
Essay

Anna Chekhovich of Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation discusses the use of cryptocurrency as a tool to fund global activist movements with Professor Ian Appel of the Darden School of Business.

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Collage of student headshots
Essay

Eight UVA students were selected this year to participate in the prestigious Oslo Scholars Program. The goal of the Oslo Scholars Program is to provide students the opportunity to work directly with an international human rights or democracy organization, providing them with direct hands-on experience in how their academic work can have real world impact.

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Crisman teaches class by the water
Essay

Phoebe Crisman (Global Studies, Architecture) has received an award for Excellence in Education Abroad. Elizabeth Wittner (CAELC), Bonnie Gordon (Music), Fern Hauck (Family Medicine) have received an award for Collaborative Excellence in Public Service for work with local refugee communities.

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Four students from the winning team
Essay

Beneath Ghana’s rich soils lies a treasure the world desires––gold. The rush to unearth this precious metal has led to a host of health problems from illegal mining, or galamsey. This unregulated, small-scale mining has poisoned rivers, destroyed land, and broken communities. More than 150 students from across Grounds came forward to solve this real-world health problem in the annual Global Health Case Competition held by the Center for Global Health Equity (CGHE). The case – water pollution in Ghana, is a major environmental health problem, impacting communities across the world.

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Brady Sack stands in front of the ocean.
Essay

Brady Sack is a second-year medical student and was the 2024 Center for Global Health Equity (CGHE) Ram Family Foundation scholar. The Ram Family Center for Global Health Scholar Award was established to honor Dr. Bellamane M. Ram and Dr. Anjan Kumari Ram who practiced medicine in India and the United States. The award supports interdisciplinary work in communities in Southern India and is open to students from all schools across Grounds.

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22

Apr

The Global Studies Program will host its annual Global Futures: A Global Studies Symposium on Tuesday, April 22, 2025 in the Newcomb Ballroom.
April 22, 2025 1:00pm
Newcomb Hall Ballroom
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Jefferson stature in front of Rotunda with fluffy snow on the ground
Essay

Ambassador Steve Mull, Vice Provost for Global Affairs, affirms UVA's commitment to global experiences, despite a rapid cascade of executive orders and other policy changes from the federal government over the past several weeks.

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Sylvia Tidey headshot
Essay

Professor Sylvia Tidey (Anthropology, Global Studies) discusses her research on aging transgender women in Indonesia, funded by a CGII center grant. She found that transgender women often fall into a care void as they age, lacking family support and state services. She compared care models in Jakarta, Java, and Bali, focusing on the evolving needs and possibilities for older LGBTQIIA individuals in Indonesia.

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28

Mar

A conference on 'race' and 'rights' on the Indian Ocean
March 28, 2025 12:00am
Draftsman Hotel
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Garcia in front of brick wall wearing people power academy tee
Essay

The world seems increasingly attracted to authoritarian solutions for pressing political issues, such as climate change, ethnic violence, and economic turmoil. In the Philippines, however, the next generation is actively building the organizations, campaigns, and movements to rebuild a democratic civic sphere. Over the past year, UVA’s Democratic Futures Project (DFP) has enabled undergraduate students to support and document these efforts, most recently through the publication of Care at the Core: The Power of People in the Grassroots.

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Andreja Siliunas headshot
Essay

Andreja Siliunas joined the Global Studies program this fall as joint faculty with the Engagements program. A qualitative researcher, Siliunas uses archival, interview-based, and ethnographic methods to study inequality, memory politics, and nationalism in a globalizing world. In 2023, she earned her PhD in Sociology and Social Policy from Harvard University and, following that, taught in UVA’s Sociology department during the 2023-24 academic year.

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Pratt Gingko lit up by sun
Essay

In Fall 2024, the Center for Global Inquiry + Innovation awarded its latest round of grants to support impactful global research endeavors led by faculty and graduate students. The grants awarded included 24 Graduate Global Research (GGR) grants, seven Center Grants for individual faculty research, and three Global Programs of Distinction (GPOD) grants.

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Tyler Jo Smith holding a ceramic wine jar
Essay

Join Professor Tyler Jo Smith, director of UVA's Interdisciplinary Archaeology Program, as she explores the fascinating intersections of art, religion, and culture in the production and consumption of alcohol across ancient civilizations. From the symposia of ancient Greece to the bronze vessels of China, this conversation delves into how alcohol shaped rituals, beliefs, and artistic traditions throughout history.

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Omokolade Omigbule headshot
Essay

Omokolade Omigbule is a third-year anthropology doctoral student and an interdisciplinary doctoral fellow in Indigenous studies at the University of Virginia. He is a budding Black Atlantic archaeologist from Osun state, southwest Nigeria. In this interview, he discusses his journey into archaeology and his hopes to empower communities through history, and the importance of open-mindedness in the pursuit of knowledge and cross-cultural connection.

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collage of work from CGII-funded research projects
Essay

The Center for Global Inquiry + Innovation (CGII) was founded in the fall of 2013 by Jeff Legro, then Vice Provost for Global Affairs, to support global, interdisciplinary, and collaborative research. The center awarded its first grants that winter. Now, over a decade later, UVA Global reflects on CGII’s impact.

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Staggered headshots of Allison Bigelow and Rafael Alvarado
Essay

Discover how UVA professors Allison Bigelow and Rafael Alvarado are partnering with Mayan scholars and communities to preserve and revitalize K’iche and Yukatek languages. Through innovative digital tools, including text encoding and hand-drawn animations, their project bridges a centuries-old narrative with modern technology. Learn about the principles of data sovereignty, the challenges of cultural preservation, and how community-led efforts are shaping the future of Mesoamerican language and literature.

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Aerial view of the Rotunda
Essay

UVA’s Center for Global Health Equity has announced the recipients of the 2024 Dick & Nancy Guerrant Global Health Equity Professor Award. Professors Michaela DuBay, CCC-SLP, Ph.D. and Christopher C.

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A board "Where have you been? Where are you going?" over a painted globe. In the corner there is a logo that reads 10 years of global studies.
Essay

Ten years ago, the University of Virginia launched a program designed to address some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Today, the Global Studies Program empowers hundreds of students to tackle the complex global issues that will shape their futures and the world around them.

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Mayor Lepore looks up at the domed ceiling of the Rotunda
Essay

In October, UVA hosted a delegation from Bologna, including Mayor Matteo Lepore, senior city and municipality officials, and faculty from the University of Bologna, to begin a series of conversations with UVA and the City of Charlottesville on our shared areas of interest and potential future collaborations. As part of the visit, Mayor Lepore gave a public talk on municipal leadership in Bologna and his vision for the city.

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Gregory Perryman with Taj Mahal in the background
Essay

Gregory Perryman is a third-year politics honors major from Cleveland, Ohio. He participated in the UVA in India: Global Internships program this summer, interning with the Jindal Global University Center for Environment, Sustainability, and Human Development, in Sonipat, India, where he conducted independent research on the political economy of climate justice for e-waste workers.

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Porticos in Bologna
Essay

The University of Virginia will host Mayor Matteo Lepore from Bologna, Italy and his senior academic advisers on Grounds and in Northern Virginia October 17-18 to explore an exciting and innovative new research partnership.

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Katy Quissell headshot
Essay

Katy Quissell, professor of public health, discusses her research project on moral social movements and policy change in Latin America. The project, co-designed with students, explores how activism in Latin America has led to policy changes in reproductive rights, contrasting with the U.S. context.

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29

Oct

2024 Center for Global Health Equity Research Scholar Poster Presentations.
October 29, 2024 5:00pm
Center for Global Health Equity
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Researchers with telescope on site for occultation viewing
Essay

On August 4, 2024, the shadow of Pluto swept across the Earth cast by a star 500 times fainter than the eye can detect. As it happened, UVA Astronomy professor Michael Skrutskie staffed a brand new a new 0.5-meter Hubble Optics telescope in the middle of the Kalahari Desert in South Africa. Skrutskie was part of a six-person team, which also included four UWC faculty and students and fellow UVA Professor Anne Verbiscer. The team had spent about a week in Cape Town setting up the telescope, donated by UVA to UWC, before heading 500 miles north to view the occultation.

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Three people in hard hats under an archway. One is gesturing. Old Cairene building is in the background.
Essay

Professors Tessa Farmer (Anthropology, Global Studies) and Phoebe Crisman (Architecture, Global Studies) spent the summer in Egypt where they worked on the collaborative research project “Water Reuse, Urban Agriculture, and Heritage Preservation in Cairo's al-Khalifa Neighborhood” in collaboration with Cairo-based Athar Lina Initiative. They spoke with UVA Global about how sustainability and cultural heritage preservation intertwine in this project and why the co-design process is essential to these goals.

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Scotts Head
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This summer, students embarked on a variety of Education Abroad programs, both established and newly introduced, that challenged them to explore the real-world impact of their studies within diverse cultural contexts. Immersed in these unique environments, they gained fresh perspectives that enriched their academic and personal growth.

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29

Jul

Li Wei Yang's talk recounts his rediscovery of an unknown volume of Yongle dadian (known as the Yongle Encyclopedia in the West) in the rare book storage room of The Huntington Library in 2014.
July 29, 2024 5:30pm
The Edgar Shannon Library
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Magwalivha and Swanepoel with Professor Janse van Vuuren (UFS)
Essay

UVA welcomed two distinguished faculty members from South Africa in April as part of a collaborative initiative supported by the Center for Global Health Equity (CGHE). The initiative supports faculty members through a unique PhD training program that bridges their institutions with UVA, facilitating cross-pollination of expertise and ideas.

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Lifetime Achievement award
Essay

Hsin Hsin Liang has taught Chinese at the Department for East Asian Languages, Literatures and Cultures at the University of Virginia for 22 years and will be stepping down this semester. She also received the Chinese Language Teachers Association Lifetime Achievement Award—the highest honor in the field of Chinese language education in the United States. The award ceremony, held during the annual conference of the Chinese Language Teachers Association in St. Louis, Missouri, was attended by more than 400 colleagues.

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Bologna, Italy
Essay

Earlier this month, Bologna’s mayor and university leadership invited an interdisciplinary delegation from UVA to begin exploratory discussions on the prospect of a formal partnership in pursuit of exciting new research horizons.

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Alotaibi presenting at ASU
Essay

This spring, Abdulelah Alotaibi completes his MA in Linguistics in the department of Anthropology. Originally from Saudi Arabia, he first came to the United States in 2014 on a Fulbright Language Teaching Assistantship. He spent that year teaching Arabic at the University of Maine and came back from 2018-2019 to participate in a one-year exchange program for Saudi teachers, Building Leadership for Change through School Immersion, at Arizona State University. Alotaibi chatted with UVA Global on his varied experiences in the U.S., his teaching, and his plans for the future.

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University of Virginia
Essay

In Spring 2024, the Center for Global Inquiry + Innovation awarded its latest round of grants to support impactful global research endeavors led by faculty and graduate students. The grants awarded included eleven Graduate Global Research grants, eight Center Grants and one Global Initiative grant for individual faculty research, three Faculty Global Research with Undergraduates grants, and two Global Programs of Distinction grants for larger, collaborative work.

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Suzanne Moomaw and students from the UVA School of Architecture team presenting their poster on their project for green recover in Ukraine
Essay

In a special recorded message at the opening of the Spring 2024 Diplomacy Lab Fair at the US Department of State in Washington DC last month, United States Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that for every problem, someone, somewhere has an answer, or at least an idea worth trying. Some of the ideas that he referred to came from the University of Virginia students participating in the Diplomacy Lab program.

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Jeronimo Lau Alberdi Headshot
Essay

Doctor of Juridical Science Candidate Jeronimo Lau Alberdi discusses the sharing of global legal knowledge and techniques among in Latin American legal systems, including the roles of Supreme and constitutional courts and international human rights education.

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UVA Student in Tanzania hospital
Essay

Two University of Virginia medical students were awarded the Kean Travel Fellowship by the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene to support their work in tropical medicine and hygiene in the Global South. The award, set in 1998, allowed the students to travel to Tanzania to work on global health projects in the country supporting research in childhood diarrhea, undernutrition, and tuberculosis.