Doctoral Fellows Sam Han, Yi Wang, and Yalu Zhang Won Fellowships and Grants from Weatherhead East Asian Institute

Three Doctoral Fellows—Sam Han, Yi Wang, and Yalu Zhang—of the China Center for Social Policy won fellowships and grants from the Weatherhead East Asian Institute (WEAI) of Columbia University. These competitive awards provide funding support to selected Columbia students committed to professional and academic engagement with East and Southeast Asia.

All three fellows won awards from the Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund (SYLFF). Two fellows will conduct research on different aspects of poverty and inequality in China: Yi Wang was awarded a Fellowship for Academic Year 2018-2019 to study disparities in academic achievement in China. Yalu Zhang won a Ph.D. Summer Grant for Summer 2018 to study health-induced poverty and coping strategies of Chinese families. 

Sam Han’s research will focus on North Korean refugees in South Korea. She was awarded both a Ph.D. Summer Grant for Summer 2018 and a Fellowship for Academic Year 2018-2019 for her project on the impact of settlement support and anti-poverty programs on the economic and behavioral outcomes of North Korean refugees in South Korea. 

This is not the first time that doctoral fellows of the China Center for Social Policy receive such awards. In 2017, Nan Jiang received a Julie How Fellowship for her dissertation research on how adult children’s education might affect older parents’ health in China. In 2016, she was awarded a Weatherhead Ph.D. Training Grant and a Daniel and Marianne Spiegel Grant to study the effects of public transfers on the well-being of older adults in China.

Since its establishment in 1949, WEAI has been the center for modern and contemporary East and Southeast Asia research, studies, and publication at Columbia. The mission of WEAI is to bring together faculty, research scholars, and students in an integrated program of teaching and research on East, Southeast, and Inner Asia; to train students to understand the countries, peoples, and cultures of East and Southeast Asia in order to enable them to function with knowledge of East and Southeast Asia in academic teaching and research, government service, business, journalism, and nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations; and to advance the general understanding and knowledge of East and Southeast Asia, both inside and outside the University, through meetings, conferences, publications, and otherwise.

Congratulations to Doctoral Fellows Sam Han, Yi Wang, and Yalu Zhang!