Phd Alum Helena Zeweri was featured in an article, posted by Rice's School of Social Sciences, on the challenges faced by Doctoral Students during COVID-19 and how they have overcome those challenges to secure their successful placements. You can find Helena's blurb from the article, as well as a link to the full article, below.
Helena Zeweri was drawn to Rice’s Department of Anthropology because of its accomplished faculty who were performing innovative work and because of its intimate size, which fosters close relationships between students and professors. In January 2020, Zeweri was the last student in the department to defend a dissertation in person before the transition to virtual. She faced uncertainty as she applied for jobs while hiring freezes were looming. In the summer of 2020, she secured a position as a general faculty member in the Global Studies Program at the University of Virginia. This summer, Zeweri starts a tenure track position at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. From a teaching perspective, she hopes to continue to serve as a bridge between academia, advocacy and activism. Academically, Zeweri stated, “I am looking forward to doing some more ethnographic work on a community that I grew up in, that I am a part of and that I do a lot of advocacy for, which is the Afghan American community.”