Congratulations to Sociology Ph.D. students Umaima Miraj and Laila Omar, winners of the 2022-2023 Daniel G. Hill Prize for Best Graduate Paper in Sociology. Umaima’s paper “For a Revolutionary Feminist World-Systems Analysis The Case of Ghadar” (2022) appeared in the March 2022 issue of Journal of World-Systems Research. Laila’s paper “Foreclosed futures and entangled timelines: conceptualization of the ‘future’ among Syrian newcomer mothers in Canada” (2022) appeared in the January 2022 issue of Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.
Laila is continuing to work on her dissertation, entitled Exploring Times of Uncertainty and Future Projections for Syrian Refugee Mothers and Youths in Canada, which examines how Syrian refugee mothers and teenagers experience time and uncertainty, and conceptualize their futures, after resettlement in Canada. It illuminates broader phenomena related to considerations about time and the future, and how those play a role in shaping refugees’ identity-formation and integration processes in the host country and at different phases of the migration process. Laila’s project relies on diverse methods including qualitative interviews, participant observation, and visual-elicitation techniques.
Meanwhile, Umaima is currently focused on two projects: a forthcoming article on theorizing Marxist Feminism in Pakistan through analyzing the relationship between love, murder, and the body; and a work-in-progress on gendering the transition to capitalism in world-systems analysis to highlight that women have always been integral to the development of capitalist modernity. Next year, Umaima is headed to Pakistan for her archival work which will be focused on women in the Ghadar Party.
Once again, congratulations Umaima and Laila!