Student Research Grant Award

Ganga Sasidharan, a PhD student in Communications and New Media Programme, won the Student Research Grant Award on 27 July 2009. The year- long grant was conferred by the Lien Centre for Social Innovation.

The Lien Centre for Social Innovation, a partnership between the Lien Foundation and Singapore Management University aims to advance the thinking and capability of the non-profit sector. The centre had called for student research grant applications for 2008-2009 that focused on, among other areas, research that would enhance understanding of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Asia. The centre had invited student research proposals from full-time Honours/Masters/Ph.D. degree students in local universities in Singapore. The grant of S$2000 for full-time PhD students covers direct expenses incurred as part of the research study. Applications were evaluated based on the originality, quality, importance and impact of the study with respect to issues in social innovation as well as the relevance of the study to Singapore or Asia. Ganga was awarded the student research grant for her PhD research project, “Corporate Social Responsibility and Public Relations: Conceptualisation of CSR in India, its effect on Organisational Commitment and the mediating role of Organisation-Public Relationships.” This recognition of the importance and potential impact of her work has been of immense encouragement to Ganga as she travels between India and Singapore to complete the data collection for the study.

Ganga will receive S$ 2000 for her PhD fieldwork.

 

 Fee Waiver Programme Award

Also a PhD student in the Department of Communications and New Media, Carol Soon Wan Ting was given the Fee Waiver Programme Award by the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR).

Organised by the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR), the Internet Research 10.0 – Internet: Critical is the 10th annual conference for students and scholars in any discipline in the field of Internet studies. The conference was held from 7-10 October 2009, in Milwaukee, WI, USA. Last year, the conference organisers launched the inaugural AoIR annual fee waiver program. Opened to all graduate students and faculty members, three applicants would be selected for the conference fee waiver program award based on their proposal of how their participation will contribute to the conference. Carol, with her full paper presentation, panel presentation and doctoral colloquium participation, was selected for this award. The award included free conference attendance, free annual AoIR membership for one year and free admission to the conference banquet celebration.

At that point in time, Carol said that she was encouraged by the recognition of her reseach contribution and looked forward to a fruitful participation at AoIR.