{"componentChunkName":"component---src-templates-article-tsx","path":"/faculty-research","result":{"data":{"primeArticle":{"slug":"faculty-research","excerpt":"Many graduate students looked forward to traveling while working on their dissertations. Then came COVID-19.","headline":"On pause: Research travel during COVID-19","author":"Alexa Cyr","authorbio":"","authoremail":"","authortwitter":"","coverimg":"https://assets3.dailybruin.com/images/faculty-research/web.prime.gradstudents.ALK-4.1-5c61dd0c81b66796b4d76c6afd483eb0.jpg","covercred":"Ashley Kenney","coveralt":"Photo of Hoffman.","articleType":"article","updated":null,"content":[{"type":"text","value":"Ashlyn Ford thought 2020 would be the year she finally returned to Moorea, Tahiti."},{"type":"text","value":"She had visited the South Pacific island in 2018 during her undergraduate studies and was anticipating her return to the white sand beaches and crystal clear waters for her dissertation research on disease ecology."},{"type":"text","value":"Then, the COVID-19 pandemic surged throughout the United States – leaving UCLA graduate students unable to travel for research."},{"type":"text","value":"Ford, a graduate student in ecology and evolutionary biology, is now conducting local research on barnacles and rocky intertidal zones in Los Angeles beaches – a far cry from the beaches of Tahiti."},{"type":"image","value":"{\"alt\":\"Photo of Ford.\",\"url\":\"https://assets3.dailybruin.com/images/faculty-research/web.prime.gradstudents.ALK-8.1-d59ec38e6fee8f371086d5ba5495b0be.jpg\",\"credit\":\"Ashley Kenney\",\"caption\":\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"Many graduate students look forward to traveling for research, said Phil Hoffman, a graduate history student."},{"type":"text","value":"Amid dissertation proposals and defenses, comprehensive exams and teaching assistantships, research travel is a highlight for many graduate students in master’s or doctoral degree programs."},{"type":"text","value":"For over a year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has advised against international travel, noting that it increases the chance of obtaining or spreading COVID-19. Thus, many graduate research programs have moved fully online, meaning no more jet-setting across the globe to conduct research."},{"type":"text","value":"Jeffrey Dymond, a graduate student in European history, has had trouble accessing the archives he needs to continue his studies on the political and intellectual history of the Italian Renaissance. Much of his research on Italian humanists and theorists has been stalled because of COVID-19."},{"type":"pull","value":"{\"caption\":\"Students are having to do more with less – which is challenging when trying to craft a convincing dissertation.”\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"“Many of the sources that we need to do our research ... are handwritten – not printed – and there are very few of them in existence,” Dymond said. “Most of them are preserved in European libraries.”"},{"type":"text","value":"However, Hoffman said that many foreign libraries are hesitant to simply give out or digitize their archives because of the rarity of the documents in their possession. Even if the documents have been digitized, students still have to ask libraries for specific permission to access them."},{"type":"image","value":"{\"alt\":\"Photo of Hoffman.\",\"url\":\"https://assets3.dailybruin.com/images/faculty-research/web.prime.gradstudents.ALK-6.1-626081d49c0d1db23131aca18d96663c.jpg\",\"credit\":\"Ashley Kenney\",\"caption\":\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"The inability to travel has drastically reduced the amount of available material many graduate students can use for their dissertations, Dymond said. Students are having to do more with less – which is challenging when trying to craft a convincing dissertation, he added."},{"type":"text","value":"Hoffman, on the other hand, traveled frequently before the pandemic, having spent five years before his program living in Turkey, Jordan and Iraq working on humanitarian aid projects. Now, he is hoping to write his dissertation on the framing of land reform in modern Syria. His research on the region utilizes popular media from the 1950s and 1960s, including newspapers, magazines and various other periodicals."},{"type":"text","value":"Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the archives Hoffman was hoping to access for his research are closed, as they are housed in the American University of Beirut."},{"type":"text","value":"In addition to their research plans being disrupted, for students who are also acting as teaching assistants, having to play the dual role of both student and teacher has been particularly challenging."},{"type":"text","value":"“I had to take a couple of online sessions to see what techniques and uses for Zoom work to engage my students,” Ford said. “I wanted to make sure they got what they needed from the class.”"},{"type":"image","value":"{\"alt\":\"Photo of Ford.\",\"url\":\"https://assets3.dailybruin.com/images/faculty-research/web.prime.gradstudents.ALK-14.1-b74949a1e9173b69d43e59519cf54f95.jpg\",\"credit\":\"Ashley Kenney\",\"caption\":\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"She noted the difficulty of ensuring her students were involved over Zoom, while also constantly having to juggle her own graduate school workload."},{"type":"text","value":"Evidently, this year has been different than anyone expected, and these students are having to adjust to a variety of obstacles."},{"type":"text","value":"Many graduate students applied for and received grants or funds that are now being postponed or even canceled, Dymond said."},{"type":"text","value":"Dymond was selected by the UCLA Social Sciences division to attend an exchange program in Pisa, Italy, through the Scuola Normale Superiore to further his studies of Renaissance Italy. The program – which he was supposed to attend spring 2020 – has now been postponed to spring 2021, and he has little hope of attendance considering the current travel restrictions."},{"type":"pull","value":"{\"caption\":\"The summer of 2020, many of us had these plans, and we had funding allotted to us for the purpose of going to travel, and many of those had to be canceled.”\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"Hoffman applied for and received the Graduate Summer Research Mentorship grant, but personally chose to defer it for a year because of the pandemic."},{"type":"text","value":"“One of the sources of funds for the summer came with the stipulation that ... (we) had to travel to go do research,” Dymond said. “The summer of 2020, many of us had these plans, and we had funding allotted to us for the purpose of going to travel, and many of those had to be canceled.”"},{"type":"text","value":"Thus, many graduate students have had to turn to local research. However, this transition has made finding departmental funding more difficult for students."},{"type":"text","value":"For example, Ford is the recipient of a fellowship from the University of California-Historically Black Colleges and Universities Initiative; however, she still found it difficult to find enough funding from the university for her research in the Los Angeles area as well."},{"type":"text","value":"Ford mentioned that she actually had to find her own funding through her department in order to conduct her local research projects."},{"type":"text","value":"“I still have those funds luckily, ... but it’s definitely been different than I’ve imagined my experience as a third and second year would be.”"}]}},"pageContext":{"term":"spring21","slug":"faculty-research"}},"staticQueryHashes":[]}