It was 9 a.m. on a Saturday – the last day of the Society for Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE) conference – and Nataliya Nedzhvetskaya was feeling anxious.
Nedzhvetskaya had presented at student-led conferences before, but this would be her first time presenting at a professional conference. It would also be the first time she would meet her project partner in person. Nedzhvetskay and Alexander Hoppe, a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, had been working together via email. That weekend, the newly introduced duo would have 20 minutes to present their research in a room full of experts.
“I was very nervous,” Nedzhvetskaya, a first-year Ph.D. student in UC Berkeley’s Sociology Department, said. But, she noted, the turnout and crowd feedback was great.
“When you come into a Ph.D. program, you’re back to being a student,” said Nedzhvetskaya. Especially in a niche field of study, she added, going to conferences can help students gain confidence in their work and their place in academia.
Nedzhvetskay and Hoppe’s presentation entitled “Geography, real and imagined: Global value chains in branded apparel production” is a study in how brands use a sense of geography to market their products globally. Nedzhvetskaya, who began her research prior to enrolling at UC Berkeley, focused on the American clothing manufacturer Woolrich as her case study.
Woolrich opened a mill in a small Pennsylvania town in 1830. The manufacturer was marketing itself as an American company with small town roots – the town it started in was eventually named “Woolrich” – and continued to promote their geographical roots even after merging with a European company and closing down its mill in Pennsylvania.
“That question – what would happen to this mill? – was what I thought was the perfect entry into all of these issues of geography and authenticity and globalization and what that means in this world,” Nedzhvetskaya said. She explained that her research shows how marketing is evolving as companies reach different global markets. “It asks what geography means and what a connection to a place means and how you convey that to someone who’s unfamiliar.”
Since presenting at SASE, Nedzhvetskaya is considering the feedback she and Hoppe received in order to improve their overall work. They are planning on publishing an article on their research later this year.
Nedzhvetskaya recommends that all graduate students apply and go to as many conferences as they can. Conferences, though, can carry a hefty price tag, especially for students who are already struggling to make the most of their funding. That’s why Nedzhvetskaya also recommends that UC Berkeley students apply for the Graduate Assembly’s (GA) Travel Award.
In order to be eligible for the award, the student must be presenting at a conference outside of the Bay Area.
“The travel grant is merit blind and – what that means is – people submit their application, they tell us what conference they’re going to, the title of their research and when, but other than that, there’s not someone determining whose work’s good enough,” explained Liz Lawler, Graduate Assembly Internal Vice President and fifth-year Ph.D. student studying Vision Science. The $300 Travel Award, which is supported by Peet’s Coffee, can go towards airfare, food, lodging and other travel-related costs and helps take the burden off students and their departments.
“When you’re a graduate student, you’re just trying to make all these little pots of money work out,” Nedzhvetskaya said. When she received the email notifying her of the award, Nedzhvetskaya said that it made her day.
Funding for the GA Travel Awards is provided as part of the Peet’s “Coffee for a Cause” Program. A portion of every coffee purchase made at Cal Dining-Peet’s locations helps support student programs and initiatives, including the graduate travel awards, as well as, student scholarships, campus sustainability programs, a basic needs skills course, and an on-campus farm and gardening program.