Prompt: Please identify at least 2 and no more than 3 potential major professors with whom you would like to work, and explain why you feel they may be appropriate major professors for you. In other words, discuss how your interests align with their expertise, and any other reasons why you are interested in their mentorship
Answer:
I am particularly interested in working with Professor xx because of his extensive work on community health workers (CHWs). His expertise closely intersects with my proposed ethnographic research on CHWs in India and the United States. His scholarly ethnographic work on CHWs in Ethiopia documents CHWs' day-to-day interactions with the community and supervisors while linking their experiences to care, social security, and undercompensated labor aligns with my proposed work on how CHWs navigate structural challenges, and their experiences of labor, compensation, participation in decision-making, and recognition. As I also hope to understand how CHWs adapt in their day-to-day work and feel about their participation in decision making and knowledge production around their programme, therefore Professor xx participatory work with the CHWs is relevant to this inquiry, because it engaged with CHWs themselves in how their work and programs should be understood and measured. Building on this approach, would enable me to explore sustainability of CHW programmes from CHWs' own perspectives, across a cross-country context.
In addition, his on CHWs in country 1, country 2 and country 3 conducted in collaboration with other researchers, showing how ethnographic research can inform positive relationships among CHWs, health institutions, and communities, highly relevant for my proposed work. I want to adopt a similar approach to establish the relevance of ethnographic work to the specific questions I seek to address through my study. Therefore, Professor xx's guidance would offer the methodological fit I am looking for. Subsequently, I have been in touch with Professor xx who has already helped me translate my interest into a more anthropologically grounded research direction. During our conversation on comparative fieldwork with CHWs in India and the United States, he steered me to think carefully about what participant observation can reveal in my proposed study and directed me to strengthen my theoretical and methodological grounding. His mentorship would allow me to build the methodological rigor which is needed to answer the questions I am trying to seek through my doctoral research.
I am also interested in Professor yy's work. Professor yy's work at the intersection of medical anthropology and community-based maternal care generated evidence on how community-based models of care can highlight practices and outcomes that are beyond dominant institutional set-up. Professor yy's expertise would help me explore how CHWs position themselves between communities and formal health systems, particularly how their experiential knowledge is recognized or overlooked within formal institutions and how they navigate competing expectations.
Additionally, I am also eager to learn under Professor zz. Professor zz's work on embodiments, oral narratives, and health would complement my approach of understanding lived experiences of the CHWs. With Professor zz's expertise, I want to focus on how the life experiences of CHWs get physically embodied with them. This would add an important dimension to my research by connecting structural conditions to bodily connections, allowing to strengthen my doctoral research.
Answer:
I am particularly interested in working with Professor xx because of his extensive work on community health workers (CHWs). His expertise closely intersects with my proposed ethnographic research on CHWs in India and the United States. His scholarly ethnographic work on CHWs in Ethiopia documents CHWs' day-to-day interactions with the community and supervisors while linking their experiences to care, social security, and undercompensated labor aligns with my proposed work on how CHWs navigate structural challenges, and their experiences of labor, compensation, participation in decision-making, and recognition. As I also hope to understand how CHWs adapt in their day-to-day work and feel about their participation in decision making and knowledge production around their programme, therefore Professor xx participatory work with the CHWs is relevant to this inquiry, because it engaged with CHWs themselves in how their work and programs should be understood and measured. Building on this approach, would enable me to explore sustainability of CHW programmes from CHWs' own perspectives, across a cross-country context.
In addition, his on CHWs in country 1, country 2 and country 3 conducted in collaboration with other researchers, showing how ethnographic research can inform positive relationships among CHWs, health institutions, and communities, highly relevant for my proposed work. I want to adopt a similar approach to establish the relevance of ethnographic work to the specific questions I seek to address through my study. Therefore, Professor xx's guidance would offer the methodological fit I am looking for. Subsequently, I have been in touch with Professor xx who has already helped me translate my interest into a more anthropologically grounded research direction. During our conversation on comparative fieldwork with CHWs in India and the United States, he steered me to think carefully about what participant observation can reveal in my proposed study and directed me to strengthen my theoretical and methodological grounding. His mentorship would allow me to build the methodological rigor which is needed to answer the questions I am trying to seek through my doctoral research.
I am also interested in Professor yy's work. Professor yy's work at the intersection of medical anthropology and community-based maternal care generated evidence on how community-based models of care can highlight practices and outcomes that are beyond dominant institutional set-up. Professor yy's expertise would help me explore how CHWs position themselves between communities and formal health systems, particularly how their experiential knowledge is recognized or overlooked within formal institutions and how they navigate competing expectations.
Additionally, I am also eager to learn under Professor zz. Professor zz's work on embodiments, oral narratives, and health would complement my approach of understanding lived experiences of the CHWs. With Professor zz's expertise, I want to focus on how the life experiences of CHWs get physically embodied with them. This would add an important dimension to my research by connecting structural conditions to bodily connections, allowing to strengthen my doctoral research.
