The GDRA is excited to announce the winner of its second Annual Graduate Student Paper Competition. A main goal of the GDRA is to support gender-based research and to celebrate up-and-coming scholars. The goal in developing the competition was to provide an opportunity for students to become part of a national forum for discussion, information-sharing and networking.  While student submissions could be theoretical arguments, case studies, literature reviews or analyses of research results, the required topic was gendered aspects of hazards and disasters in the United States. Papers were judged on originality, organization and knowledge of the topic by a panel of 5 judges.

We want to take this opportunity to thank all students who shared their work with the committee;  it was an exciting mix of multiple disciplines and topics.  The GDRA also thanks its generous panel of judges.

2011 Recipient:  Jennifer Tobin-Gurley, writing on "Downward Mobility: Displaced Single Mothers in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina."

Abstract: This research draws on in-depth interviews with single mothers displaced from Hurricane Katrina and disaster relief providers in Colorado. A significant effort was made in the state of Colorado to assist evacuees in the recovery process. However, there was a significant disconnect between the resources being offered and the needs of single mothers in this study. This article documents the structural mechanisms that contributed to the downward mobility of single mothers as they attempted to rebuild their lives in Colorado. Specifically, I outline how the processes of self-evacuation, financial loss, government assistance, stigma, employment, and social networks during the long-term recovery period are integral in shaping the lives of displaced single mothers. The overlapping and intersecting experiences of displacement and loss of economic and social security placed these women on a downward trajectory following Hurricane Katrina.

Jennifer Tobin-Gurley is a research assistant at the Center for Disaster and Risk Analysis and a second year Ph.D. student in the Department of Sociology at Colorado State University (CSU). She earned her B.A. in Sociology and Women’s Studies from CSU in 2005 and went on to complete a M.A. in Sociology in 2008. Her master’s thesis research drew on qualitative interviews with local disaster recovery workers and single mothers who were displaced to Colorado after Hurricane Katrina. Her work on the post-disaster resource needs of single mothers was published in the International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters. A paper she wrote on downward mobility among displaced women received first-place in both the 2011 Hazards and Disasters Student Paper Competition and the 2011 U.S. Gender and Disaster Resilience Alliance Paper Competition. In addition to her work on Hurricane Katrina, she is also currently involved in a Global Earthquake Model and GeoHazards International-funded project concerning earthquake risk communication in 10 hazard prone cities around the world.