Kellogg Travel Grant recipient, Deland Chan, presents at International Conference
Deland Chan is a DPhil Candidate in Sustainable Urban Development at Kellogg College. Her research investigates the nuanced responses to post-1990s sustainable infrastructure projects. It illustrates the reimagining of sustainability paradigms and community dynamics within San Francisco’s Chinatown.
Supported by the Kellogg College Travel Grant, Deland travelled to New York City last month to present her DPhil research project at the International Conference on Urban Affairs (ICUA) in New York City. Her presentation was titled ‘People, Place, and Organizations: Alternative Framing of Sustainable Infrastructure in San Francisco Chinatown.’
The ICUA conference brings together a diverse cohort of urban-focused researchers, planners, and policy advocates. It is organised by the Urban Affairs Association and the European Network for Housing Research (ENHR) and the European Urban Research Association (EURA). These entities constitute a global and interdisciplinary professional community of urban scholars, researchers, policy analysts, and public service practitioners.
‘Presenting at the conference was a huge privilege, and my attendance was made possible by the support of this excellent grant.’
Deland told us that participating in this conference provided an excellent opportunity to receive feedback from scholars from various disciplines. The attendance of practitioners in the field provided discussions and insights into the broader impact of her work beyond academic scholarship, extending into policy and implementation circles.
Deland was selected to participate in the Speed Mentoring for Graduate Students and Early Career Professionals session at the conference. She explained that these sessions ‘enabled one-on-one exchanges with senior researchers which gave me some unique insight into my future career trajectory. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity this gave me to reconnect with old friends and make new connections. I hope to build upon these relationships to build future collaborations both as an academic and a community-engaged researcher.’
‘I extend my heartfelt appreciation to Kellogg College for their generous support in facilitating my attendance at this conference. I am also grateful to my supervisor, Dr Nihan Akyelken, a Fellow at Kellogg, for her unwavering guidance throughout the process of securing the travel grant and her steadfast mentorship during my DPhil journey.’
If you are a Kellogg student and would like to find out how to apply for a Travel Grant, see our pages here.
Read about how our Travel Grants helped our 2022 cohort