Stanford Report, July 9, 2008

Philanthropy, civil society center awards six fellowships

Six doctoral candidates at Stanford have been awarded fellowships by the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society. The 2008-09 PACS Fellows will receive stipends of $10,430 and participate in a workshop aimed at increasing the scope of research on philanthropy and nonprofit organizations.

Following is a list of the fellows and their areas of research:

Tara Beteille, economics and economics of education, is examining the role of education-related civil society mechanisms in India in addressing teacher accountability in low-income public schools.

Christopher Bryan, social psychology, is focusing on the effects of whether people feel—either through their own personal merit or good fortune—greater empathy for the plight of the poor and charitable giving and, if so, how that empathy may affect their willingness to contribute to charitable organizations serving the poor.

Roy Elis, political science, is assessing how citizens can work through the institutions of civil society to expand access to K-12 public education in developing countries.

Paul Gowder, political science, is examining the extent to which normative theory can serve the values of both deliberation and participation, while recognizing the difficulty of achieving those values together in civil society.

Kaisa Snellman, organizational sociology, is studying the key drivers of U.S. civic life by seeking to understand the relationship between neighborhood civic infrastructure and collective civic action.

Megan Tompkins, education and sociology, is studying how philanthropic foundations mobilize political movements and influence specific public policy change.