URI_Research _Magazine_Momentum_Spring_2020_Melissa-McCarthy

THE MENTOR MENTEE RELATIONSHIP: THE HUMANITIES

Paige Carmichael arrived on campus as an undergraduate engineering student, unsure about her path forward. Then she took an introductory microeconomics course with Assistant Professor Smita Ramnarain. She liked the class so much that she switched majors. “Econ seemed like a better fit for me than engineering,” says Carmichael, a Warwick, RI resident. “Economics has consistently given me a coalescence of theory, practice, history, and social relevance that satisfies what I always desired from an academic program.” Carmichael spent summer 2018 as Ramnarain’s research assistant through a College of Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship. Carmichael progressed to an independent study project in 2019, which, in turn, led to her own research exploring the hypothesis that there are systematic gender differences in college students’ attitudes towards time as an economic resource. Set to graduate in spring 2020, Carmichael says, “I’m gathering the data now. The instrument is a computer survey designed to be administered to working undergraduate students.” Carmichael, who wants to pursue a Ph.D., teach and conduct research, says Ramnarain has played an “The most important goal is to introduce students to the research process so that they may eventually formulate their own questions and hypotheses to explore, and start on the path to economic research.” - Smita Ramnarain

instrumental role in her growth and development. “She’s such a strong role model. I definitely wouldn’t be where I am today without having her as a sounding board, getting advice from her, and helping guide me,” says Carmichael. “In completing my own research, having a mentor who challenges me while also supporting me through the inevitable trials of the research process has allowed me to grow in invaluable ways. Dr. Ramnarain is a remarkable mentor who has been integral to my education.” In addition to general education courses, Ramnarain also teaches electives, including the Economics of Race, Gender and Class, and Economic Growth and Development. Fall 2018, she helped coordinate the Honors Colloquium on Reimagining Gender: Voices, Power and Action with URI Professors Helen Mederer, Kyle Kusz, and Rosaria Pisa. Fall 2019, Ramnarain taught a senior seminar, Poverty, Inequality, and Discrimination. Ramnarain describes her research as using a feminist lens to examine issues in the economic development of countries in the global south, with a focus on South Asia. In particular, she explores post-conflict reconstruction, the feminization of poverty and female headship in post-crises contexts, peacebuilding, microfinance and women’s cooperatives, climate and sustainability, women’s reproductive work, and the gender division of labor. One current research project involves examining the factors behind women’s declining labor force participation in rural India, and the role of women’s unpaid work in rural areas. Ramnarain says good mentoring relationships are grounded in mutual respect and learning, and centered on the mentee’s goals, needs, and interests: “I see the role of a mentor primarily as an advisor and facilitator in the progress of a student toward independent research, including bringing about accountability, pride in their own work, and ownership over it.”

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