Reading over my first blog post, I think my experience this summer aligned pretty well with my expectations. I wanted to get a clearer picture of what working as a humanities researcher would be like, specifically with archives, and I think I’ve learned a good deal about the experience; you’ll have to look through a…
Category: 2025 Cohort
Reflections + Moving Forward
I am happy to say that my work this summer has gone very smoothly, and that I have easily worked through my previous anticipations and doubts. From reading over my work in the first few weeks, I know that I was nervous to be able to handle learning from scratch and working full time on…
Reflections and Moving Forward
In my first blog entry, I acknowledged that I might have to change my argument around to better encapsulate the new information I encountered in my research. Now, I can say with certainty that was true! In fact, I ended up changing my whole project during the program and had to get on the right…
Update on Research Experience
In the last few weeks, I have learned a lot about the process of doing research and learning to pivot if things are not going according to plan. I have had to change direction on my project and drastically reassess the work I had completed and planned on continuing. I think that taught me a…
Update on my Research Experience
This summer has flown by, and I can’t believe that we are already on week six of my research experience! I have accomplished a lot in this short amount of time, and have almost finished writing a rough draft of a research paper. Our next steps are to get it peer reviewed, which is something…
Blog #3
It’s been about one month of working for this project on the history of the Rackham School and graduate research, and I’ve settled into routines that I enjoy. For the first couple weeks, I felt aimless and also overwhelmed with possible things to do, especially since we hadn’t gotten into the archive (Bentley) yet; at…
Blog #2
My research project surrounds the 150th anniversary of the Rackham Graduate School, which is happening in 2026. Two other students and I are working with our mentor, Emily Swafford, the Assistant Dean at Rackham. We are doing background archival research online and at the Bentley Historical Library in order to find interesting themes within the…
Research Project
This summer, I am working as a research assistant on the Bridges Study. The BRIDGES Study is a pilot feasibility study testing a patient-directed, web-based intervention aimed at reducing reproductive coercion (RC) and improving outcomes in family planning care. The intervention is designed to be used in clinical settings, empowering patients with knowledge and strategies…
Blog #1: A Letter to My Future Self
Dear Future Me, Right now, I’m sitting at my desk, buzzing with anticipation for what this summer will bring. I’m Siran, a Gender and Health major at the University of Michigan, originally from Beijing. I’ve chosen a research path that’s anything but easy—diving deep into reproductive justice and gendered health disparities—because I believe this work…
My Research Project
My research centers on the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and, specifically, her ability to remain unmarried and childless as the queen regnant of England in the 16th century. I originally came to this program with a formed argument, but since then, have revised my work and decided to move in a different direction. Moving…