MSU Sociology PhD student Lalaki Awudu wins GenCen Fellowship

December 16, 2021

Congratulations to Lalaki Awudu who was awarded a $10,000 Dissertation Research Fellowship sponsored by the Center for Gender in Global Context and the Women’s and Gender Studies! This fellowship will assist Lalaki in completing her degree.

Hikmatu Lalaki Awudu is a second year Ph.D. student in the Sociology Department. Her research focuses on migration, community development and sustainability, and gender in the West African region, specifically Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Togo. She is currently interested in how climate variability, social status and gender influence migration decisions and what this means for community development. She has more than 10 years of research experience in West Africa and has worked with NGOs on monitoring and evaluation projects. She earned a BA in Integrated Development Studies with a major in Economics and Entrepreneurship Development at the University for Development Studies, Ghana and an MPhil in Development Studies at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Ghana. As an MPhil student, she completed her thesis research on rural-urban migration and livelihood strategies in Ghana. She also worked as an intern with the Centre for Gender Research, Advocacy and Documentation at UCC and is passionate about gender issues within Ghana and the West African region.