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Rongqian Ma to Receive Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Scholarship

The Association for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T) is delighted to announce that Rongqian Ma of the University of Pittsburgh is the 2021 recipient of the ASIS&T Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Scholarship Award for her dissertation proposal titled, “Bridging Sight and Insight: Visualization in Action among Digital Humanists.” The award’s purpose is to foster research in information science by encouraging and assisting doctoral students in the field with their dissertation research.

The Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Scholarship was established in 1981 and fosters research in information science by recognizing the year’s most outstanding doctoral dissertation proposal while encouraging and assisting doctoral students in the field with their dissertation research. Candidates are evaluated on the following criteria: Potential significance of research to the field of information science; Validity of methodology and proposed methods of analysis; originality and creativity; clarity and completeness of the proposal; presentation of a convincing plan for completion in a reasonable amount of time; and evidence of a continuing interest in scholarship, such as, a previous publication record.

Ma is a PhD candidate at the Information Culture and Data Stewardship Department at the University of Pittsburgh School of Computing and Information. She holds a master’s degree in library and information science as well as a Master of Arts degree in East Asian Studies from the University of Pittsburgh. Her doctoral research focuses on how visualization contributes to the evolution of digital humanities into a more integrated, cross-disciplinary research field.

Dr. James “Kip” Currier, assistant professor and Ma’s co-advisor, wrote, “Ms. Ma’s research record demonstrates contributions to a variety of research areas to which she is posing and shedding light on novel research questions across a range of disciplines, through diverse research methods. Indeed, her Digital Humanists’ Visualization-focused Dissertation Proposal research that is the subject at hand for this Scholarship Award, keenly advances her interdisciplinary, paradigm-challenging ethos.”

Upon learning of her selection as the 2021  ASIS&T Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Scholarship winner, Ms. Ma said, “I feel deeply honored to receive the ASIS&T Dissertation Proposal Scholarship and grateful to the Jury for their kind comments on my dissertation work. I feel highly encouraged and motivated to continue pursuing this project and contribute to the scholarship on visual scholarly communication applied to humanities research in the digital age. The proposal of my dissertation also benefited greatly from advisors and colleagues at my home institution and the inspiring research experiences I had with the LEADS program at Drexel University, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their generous support as well.”

Ms. Ma will receive her award at the 2021 meeting of the Association for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T) which will be held October 29-November 2 in Salt Lake City, Utah.