MSU Soc PhD candidate hired as new Assistant Director of the Center for Gender in a Global Context

April 7, 2024 - Karessa Weir

MSU Sociology PhD candidate Alaina Bur has been selected as the new Assistant Director of Michigan State University’s Center for Gender in Global Context, starting in August.  

Soma Chaudhuri, Co-Director of the GenCen says, "This is an important administrative leadership position that is crucial for the success of GenCen’s global research impact and reputation within the university and beyond. Alaina brings with her extensive international firsthand field experience in Kenya, and expertise on Africa. GenCen is thrilled to welcome Alaina to their leadership team...This was a very competitive search, and Alaina was the unanimous top choice for the position."   

 

The position was announced by Sociology Associate Professor Jennifer Carrera who said:    

 “In recent years, Alaina has expressed to me that her ideal position after completing her PhD would to be work in a capacity to support the success of international research and development projects, particularly those focused on gender and natural resources.  When the opportunity for this position arose, it was clear that there could not have been a more ideal fit.  I'm very proud of what Alaina has accomplished and excited to see what new frontiers await her.”

Bur, who also has a dual major in Environment Science and Policy Program and specializations in Gender, Justice and Environmental Change from the GenCen, will complete her dissertation this summer. Her job includes supporting research on gender and sexuality. She began working full time at the GenCen as assistant to the co-directors Dr. Chaudhuri and Dr. Aminda Smith until she passes her defense. 

 

“I’m very, very happy to be staying at MSU. I’m grateful for the position, but even more so for the outstanding mentorship that prepared me for it.,” Bur said. 

“In the position, I will be helping the center to apply for external grants so that we can grow our center's capacity to provide training for research and outreach skills, as well as institutional capacity building with our global partner organizations, as well as to support GenCen faculty and student research at MSU. At the moment, we are deeply invested in building a "hub" for research, outreach, and training on gender and sexuality in India. We hope to build a similar hub with our partners in Africa in the coming years. I have so much to learn from our co-director and affiliate faculty in the coming years, but I am excited to bring my personal expertise and connections in Africa to the team. " 

 

Bur’s dissertation research focuses on community-based natural resource management in West Pokot County, a rural county in western Kenya.  

“Before I came to MSU, I worked as an intern for a grassroots (non-governmental organization) in that area helping them to evaluate their borehole drilling program. My connection to that NGO and my experience interviewing folks about how they access and manage water is what brought me to sociology, my masters and PhD program, and my dissertation topic. When I started learning from GenCen faculty during my studies about feminist research ethics, standpoint epistemology, and methodology, that framework fit my work so well,” Bur said.  

 

 “I am studying transformative tools like community-based natural resource management and empowerment policies, but it does not follow that I should be the person choosing or implementing those tools. As a white women coming from a relatively privileged background to do research in a very poor, remote region of Kenya, a feminist approach to research provided both the higher standard of accountability to research participants and the practical tools I needed to investigate transformative tools in a way that does not further the neocolonial system that I am trying to critique. So although my research is on environmental policy, feminist epistemology, methodology, and intersectional gender analysis is woven into everything I do.” 

 

“I'm thrilled to be working with the GenCen, which is attempting to support faculty and students doing research on transformative tools and global community partners who bring truly invaluable expertise in implementing and practicing these tools. "