Florence Akinyemi spent the summer in Nigeria doing preliminary research for her dissertation. At Lagos State University, she was enrolled in intensive courses and tutoring in Yoruba, one of the many indigenous languages in Nigeria and a major ethnic group at the heart of her research. She is studying the intersection of conflict, religion, and ethnicity in Nigeria, contrasted with the apparent lack of ethno-religious tensions among the Yoruba—her dissertation is titled "The Dog That Does Not Bark?"

Through the DIGSSS summer award, along with a grant from the David L. Boren Awards for International Study, "I was able to add substantive depth and breadth to the initial, yet important, stages of my dissertation and field research," she says.

Published in Winter 2011, Graduate Quarterly